Goodness! A lot has happened on here tonight.

I think the simplest thing (and to keep viewers in the routine of when the soaps are currently on), is to leave everything as it is, except moving the 8pm Emmerdale to Sunday at 7pm and then the 6th Corrie can land directly after it at 7.30pm. However, it'll face a huge problem in Q4 with the Strictly results show to compete with - and if the 6th Corrie does land here, it needs to be imbedded much before the Autumn to let it settle in as facing Strictly for 12-weeks will be extremely tough.

I do agree about the Corrie doubles though. They've felt stale for a long time in terms of the "cliff-hangers". I don't mind the Monday double, but the Friday one needs to go. I think introducing a sixth Corrie is a silly move anyway, especially in it's current state. I wonder if they'll put the extra Corrie on a Tuesday at 8pm?! Personally, I don't want it on another day, but if I had to choose, I'd choose Sunday.

I didn't realise Donald Trump was a member on Digital Spy?

Anyway, we have veered even further off topic now, let's leave it there.

Er... probably because he's not.


You're the only one taking things "off topic" by trying to police the thread. I brought up something as an idea and multiple other posters have had their say and presented good points. We might not all agree but at least we're having a constructive discussion. What have you brought to the table?


Very good point regarding Sundays and the soaps needing to be bedded in way before the Autumn.

This is why my idea kept the soaps away from Sundays, as the 6th Corrie isn't scheduled to arrive until Q4 I believe.

It's a hard situation to crack, but I don't think the current scheduling is optimal for anyone, and with yet another Corrie arriving (whether we like it or not) it's time for a ground-up rethink of the schedule itself.

I'm still inclined to think the idea I posted is good (at least in terms of where the soaps go, less the Regional News/Chase/Evening News part) because it promotes fairness between the BBC and ITV in so far as it forces ITV to continue putting 30-minute factual against EastEnders and forces the BBC to do the same back to ITV against Coronation Street. All whilst having one episode per night of the soap at the same time every night, and ditching the doubles.

I changed it from that 7-8 on Sunday to the earlier start to free up more time on Sundays and tackle Countryfile at 6:30. Put a gameshow at 7:30 and you've added some balance. These quizzes could be 30, 45 or 60 minutes long depending on what follows.

Sundays used to start at 7:15 and people knew that. SCD starts at random times and still draws. The evening drama could start anytime after 8.

The BBC schedule builds from early evening onwards. I imagine most viewers don't bother checking the other channels, and just turn on BBC1.

Except the last 5 minutes of Strictly rockets suggesting people are turning it on. This year itv seem to have decided that everything needs to start on the hour or half hour when they could easily have delayed XF 10 minutes and Ross would have been fine too.

I do like that XF are sometimes starting with an act like Siater Sledge. They absorb the clash and it starts the show rather like Ant and Dec Takeaway with a party vibe.

I've just stuck XF on after a couple of episodes of The Crown. Now if that was on Sunday at 9pm it'd be 8m+.

I notice it was the last in the series, which makes sense. I'm sure in previous years they've kept it running during I'm a Celeb, which seemed like it had been overcomissioned as it aired really late.


I agree entirely to all those points.

Also the general public won't change their well established routines based on the whims of the TV schedulers, unless they were forced to. The main teatime news has never aired as late as 7pm during any era on BBC1/ITV.

When the BBC moved the news from 9 to 10, viewers were forced to go with it as no other news was available at 9. When ITV moved the news from 10 to 11, the BBC offered up a handy new replacement 10 slot, and the rest is history.

Which is why it makes sense to be on at 7-8 every night. I'd rather than not be on Sundays but it probably would.

I have no clue when all of the Em and Corrie episodes air. I know they used to be Tues and Thurs at 7 and Monday and Wednesday at 7:30 (then Friday). EE used to follow Em and it was simple.

One of the Chasers on the show, Mark Labbett, has said in interviews that he believes the success of the show has much to do with it's 5pm timeslot, saying "you can't go wrong with a teatime quiz".

The issue with The Chase being at 6pm is that it would then have to compete with Eggheads, which in format is a very similar show to The Chase- teams of contestants taking on quiz brains one by one and then uniting as a team against the brain/s at the end of the show to try to win money by beating them.

Having The Chase in the 5pm slot against Pointless works because not everyone likes Pointless, and so there's still a lot of viewers for The Chase. Pointless and The Chase are very different shows. But Eggheads and The Chase are quite similar, and I would suggest that fans of Eggheads are also likely to be fans of The Chase, so I think it would hurt The Chase's viewing figures significantly.

ITV have tried with new quizshows to find an eventual successor to The Chase, but recent attempts (Take On The Twisters, Benchmark, Alphabetical and Bradley Walsh's new show, the name of which escapes me) have all largely failed.

The only recent new game show on the commercial channels which I've seen which showed a lot of promise was The Question Jury, but that was on Channel 4. With some tweaking, there are the elements of a very interesting show there which is very cheap to make and fascinating to watch. Would it be out of the question (no pun intended) for ITV to buy the rights to The Question Jury from Channel 4?

I think the key to success in the game show market is for continuity. People recurring characters on Quiz Shows. Whether that be a returning champion (as on Countdown, Jeopardy etc), a very charismatic and memorable host who can carry a show on their own (as on Millionaire, The Weakest Link etc), returning contestants (Deal Or No Deal, 15 to 1 etc) or recurring quiz brains (The Chase, Eggheads etc).

There are exceptions to the rule- Alphabetical and Cleverdicks both used the "returning champion" idea, but their formats were too weak to make the show interesting enough to viewers.


By "certain members" I think you mean "anyone who disagrees with you.

Trying to tell people that you are "very positive on this thread" is like Hillary Clinton saying "I'm not corrupt". People can see for themselves what you say and what you are like.

Your contributions seem to comprise simply of endless criticisms and complaints about the views of other members, snide and ill-mannered 'comebacks', and an occasional pointlessly speculative comment about possible soap ratings in the distant future.

I think the conversation you're talking about actually referred me questioning your ability to have a reasoned discussion with a poster without resorting to ill-conceived snobbishness and condescension in your posts, and how you tried to tell me your view was more important than mine because you had a non-existent degree in politics. Still, don't let facts get in your way when there are more snide comments and soap speculations to be made!

First time I've been in this thread for ages and one of the first post's I read is someone being compared to Donald Trump, some things never change!

Sadly I don't have time to keep up with the sheer amount of posts on here anymore but good to see the general good nature has remained.

I'd expect both X Factor and SCD up from last week with no bonfire night and better slots for both this week.

LMAO at you talking about 'ill-conceived snobbishness and condescension in your posts' when you you are clearly doing just that.

The argument was me taking issue with someone who basically called all Big Brother watchers chavs (I've seen some similar posts from him) and I took issue with his snobbery and talking about viewers of said programme like they were inferior. He wouldn't listen to a thing I said and it got heated but those posts have been deleted (his and yours as well) so I can't look back.

As for your comment about my posts, that says it all. What exactly is wrong with predicting soap ratings on a ratings thread? Why is it 'Pointless'?

Only a handful of users have ever taken issue with my posts. If I see something on this thread I feel is unfair, I speak up.

I don't want to discuss this any further with you on here, if you do then PM me.

Not 100% sure, but I think it was around 2007?

Waves !! Me too!

I think. SCD will hold steady and XF will go to another series low.

( viewers would switch off for various reasons including Simon being rude and telling his fellow judge to - Shut up).

I think both Strictly and X Factor will have great figures.

The GBBO saga rumbles on, the BBC should stand firm

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/217423...on-air-sooner/

Ok, Donald.

Back to ratings again and I think SCD will maintain the 4 million gap over TXF, 10m to TXF's 6m.

I enjoy the scheduling idea posts from James J but maybe since people don't like it a seperate scheduling ideas thread should be created?.

Why do you keep watching it, when you clearly don't like it?

I can only assume its 'research' as the infamous Samuel used to say when he disliked an ITV programme.

I think the BBC are right. I would keep the clause in the contract and uphold it, otherwise what is the point of it in the first place?

I cannot wait for IAC tonight. I'm interested to see whether the big ratings and audience drawn to the TV tonight will thus boost IAC, or the audience for Planet Earth are completely different and do not watch much TV at all.

Last year IAC returned with 9.8m (44.1%).

I hope you enjoy IAC! I know several people who are genuinely excited about its return. It isn't my cup of tea, but hey! At least you know it's almost Christmas and, more importantly, lots of people get a lot of enjoyment from it.

I predict an opening of 10.13m.

10m average for Strictly last night
6m for XF (inc +1)

I predict a similar rating. 10m+ for both IAC and Strictly and about 6.8-7m for X Factor.

The X Factor 6.03 (28.5%) Inc +1