Well Paul told a bareface lie in public then.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-told-age.html

If you want the kind of viewing figures that he put up then you need him. It was always Harry Hill's TV Burp. I can't see many going for a pale imitation fronted by 'whoyou?'.

Shouldn't be at all surprised!

I still have nightmares about Lulu and Terry Alderton's National Lottery show, "Red Alert", at the tail end of the 1990s.

BBC1 have really put pressure on The X Factor this series. They seem to have targeted it, in it's very weak state. The remaining Saturday shows will face Michael McIntyre's Big Show whilst the result shows will continue to face Planet Earth II. And if my calculations are right, the last episode of PEII will face the first hour of TXF final. That's certainly going to stop it for reaching the 8.4m it achieved last year and could keep it below 7m.

Polly Hill wants to bring in some 'story of the week' dramas suggesting a return to procedurals rather than all of these serial dramas. Dramas where you can miss episodes and not worry about it.

I'd love for TV burp to come back, it was a rare ITV show that I watched regularly.

Big fan of Pointless Celebrities but that rating is annoying because it was a bleeping repeat last night. () Also a fan of Tipping Point: Lucky Stars. Disappointing to see it drop below 3m after last week but Ann Widdecombe was on last night so that might have put a few viewers off (ahem!)

Good figure for Festival Of Remembrance. Last year's edition had 5.61m according to the BARB website. Not sure what sort of time shift a programme like this would get but it's definitely going to finish above 2014 which had 5.22m.

I always like seeing Strictly with a 10 before the decimal point in its overnights. Healthy figure there for JR. And the rugby highlights out-rating the motor racing highlights. I'm guessing England's first win over South Africa in 10 years at have added a few viewers.

I hope I'm wrong but I suspect the iguanas were the golden moment of the PE2 series. Tonight should see over 9m but after that it might slip a bit. It's a series link show for me. XF Final will need momentum over the next month. Last night was the start it had to have. Can it get back to 7m?

My predictions are:

IAC - 9.7m
PE2 - 9.5m
XF - 6.2m (hurt by IAC on the VOSDAL)
Strangers - 4.7m
Magician -2.9m.


BBC excluding soaps - Friday 4m, Saturday 10m, Sunday 10m... 24m
Itv excluding its soaps - Friday 6m, Saturday, 6m, Sunday 10m... 22m

Which suggests viewers didn't care if its a rpt or not. The regular editions aren't affected.

Me thinks you are underpredicting.

In what universe is a BBC drama likely to launch with under 3m with a 10m lead in, and on a Sunday? If anything the drama on BBC1, will pull away some of the casual viewers that might have switched onto IAC.

According to those on this thread, its been trailed heavily. And in between the junction last week of SCD and PEII, its aimed at demographic.

For the BBC's primetime quiz the number of repeats is a joke. The Chase can run new episodes all year round, why not Pointless? I see they've started a new series of 55 eps and lo and behold it's back to repeats in 2 weeks time.

Which turns me to the whole BBC daytime schedule: because they're so fixed on keeping one show in a timeslot, 3 days a week is repeats and 2 are new for HUTH, Bargain Hunt, ETTC and Flog It. If you get the same viewers for all the episodes, why even bother with new ones? I bet barely any of the viewers notice anyway. You get days like Wednesday when the majority of the schedule minus news and Doctors is repeats. I think that's unacceptable.

Pointless then has a different system of whole weeks of repeats. Extremely annoying. Try something new there for a change.

If Burp came back with a new presenter or guest presenters, who do we think would do a good job? Harry's a difficult act to follow.

Rhod Gilbert could be quite good. Or Rob Brydon. Or Griff Rhys Jones.

Or if you'd prefer somebody non-Welsh, perhaps David Mitchell or Greg Davies.

Or if you want a female presenter how about Sandi Toksvig. Or perhaps....... No, that's me exhausted my quota of women I'd trust with this format.


Of course, many of these are busy working on other equally worthy TV projects so might not have the time needed to do full justice to Burp.

I really hope IAC does really well tonight...

Not because I'm and ITV fan or I'm anti Strictly. Just because I really like the show.

And now I wait for the usual arguments that's it's and old clapped out show, despite Strictly being a similar age.

I'm not sure BBC1 are doing much different on Saturdays against X Factor. They were stronger with Merlin there and really miss that fantasy Show post Strictly
I miss Merlin. That was a great alternative. I have my doubts that Big Show will do much better in overnights than the lottery quizzes. Sunday they've tried The Paradise there and X Factor wiped the floor with it, The Paradise would probably stand a better chance against X Factor now.

To say nothing of the fact that they're pretty much all BBC stalwarts and 'serious' comedians (you know what I mean!) so hardly obvious candidates for an early evening light entertainment slot. You're gonna have to do a lot better than that to convince me it would be worth a shot!

Russell Howard could be in with a shot.

By 2019 we are maybe going to see the return of...

Burp
Dancing on Ice
Downton Abbey
Millionaire.

Also at least two of the actors have been on the promotional trail.

This time last year Sundays at 9pm on BBC1 were occupied by the natural history series The Hunt. The episode on against the launch of IAC (episode 3) had a consolidated audience of a respectable 4.87m. Its lowest audience was 4.54m for the final episode which was about conservation (so a bit preachy-preachy probably and thus not so appealing) and up against the last hour of the X Factor final. The episode the week before got 4.86m up against the final of IAC although presumably IAC went on until 10.30, so The Hunt would have finished before the IAC Queen Of The Jungle (as it was last year) was revealed.


Tut!

GR Jones does plenty on itv and I think of Mitchell and Davies as being Channel Foury. They aren't ITV though, nor Brydon. I'm sure they would for the right offer.

The long running shows are generally the best performers in the ratings now. I'm A Celebrity will do well. Hardly anybody is talking about My Mother And Other Strangers on BBC1 tonight opposite IAC.

I fear for Humans most of all.

TV Burp worked because of what Harry Hill brought to it, in terms of surrealism, along with the writers like David Quantick. You'd have a job replicating that inventiveness. It's easier to copy the Clive James style that he did with Clive James On Television. Chris Tarrant was adequate with Tarrant On TV but he was no Clive James.

We're not talking about a weedy game show or dating show here, you know. We're talking about one of the finest comedies British television has produced this century (and on ITV as well.) I'll bet there's a few comedians who look at TV Burp and think "I wish I'd done that".

But if you're looking for "ITV" and "early evening light entertainment" try Paddy McGuiness or Bradley Walsh.

But with some BBC Sunday dramas, ike the above, you don't need people talkimg about it for BBC1 to get a strong rating. Very few talk about AR and yet than et 5m+.

The audience it will appeal to are not on social media. I am confident it will get 4.5m.

Humans I think will got sub 1m exc+1.

I would loe to see THREE 10m+ shows tonight.

After Atlantis struggled there, rightly or wrongly, I doubt that there'll be any hurry to try another fantasy in that slot, if at all, unfortunately.

No point bringing back Millionaire. Last time it was on, it was Tuesday 8pm fodder barely over 3m.

Dancing On Ice - no point looking backwards. but if they did bring it back, keep away Schofield.

DA should be left for a film - or at least a possible spin-off.

Now TV Burp. Yes. With many programmes I watch now, I often think Harry Hill would have a field day with this.