Well, on the one hand, let's not get carried away here. On the other that's precisely the problem. It would take somebody extraordinary, probably a relatively unknown quantity, to reach anything like those heights again. Tired old hacks like McGuiness and Walsh, ain't that! So I'm still not buying.

Please refer to earlier posts indicating that Harry Hill will never, ever, not in a million years, no way Jose, do the show again.

My Mother And Other Strangers will definitely be trailed in the juncture between Strictly and Planet Earth (as it's the next programme on) and I wouldn't be surprised if it was trailed just before Strictly as well.

Assuming IAC's share doesn't quite hit 50%, that means more viewers at 9pm not watching IAC than watching it, so certainly enough people likely to be around to give BBC1 4 million.

Oh, well if you're not buying it then let's all shut up.

Let's not forget it's also right in the wheelhouse of the people who are still fuming at ITV over the cancellation of Home Fires and on Remembrance Sunday to boot!

Millionaire should be stripped and near-live. It'd run over around 10 nights as an event show.

DoI may be ready for a revival or it may be old hat. By 2019 XF will be rested but SCD could be sliding meaning DoI would be too dated.

As for Downton, the movie window is closing fast. The American market is cooling for it.

Yes, I mentioned it yesterday because it's in this week's Broadcast. Hill says she's inspired by The Good Wife, and says "Story of the week shows are my absolute obsession at the moment, but it's important that we reinvent them in an exciting way that feels authored and distinctive". And I think it's a good idea, in the long run you would presumably benefit from having a number of dramas that could run for a good chunk of the year. I know you won't replicate what you had in the past with a bigger casual audience but surely not every drama has to be a serial with a beginning and end.


Yes, it counts, because in both cases you're getting a complete story in one programme. It's like how the Beeb used to differentiate between serials - an X-part series with one story running all the way through - and series, which had individual episodes and the potential to be a long runner. In terms of budget and production, Silent Witness and Death In Paradise have plenty in common.


Well, you could record a Christmas Takeaway, but they have done that before, twice, and on neither occasion did it do much. It was on Christmas Eve 2004, albeit opposite Strictly, and then on Boxing Day 2009 they did a special which, although it was during the period that Takeaway was being "rested" and hence referred to as Ant and Dec's Christmas Show, was the exact same format. And certainly, the latter was bloody awful. Most obviously if you don't do it live I think you lose loads of the show's appeal, it was certainly the case in 2009, it was just all the rubbish cross-promotion and crap gags but none of the fun with the stunts and the audience participation.

So it's all very well saying they could do a Christmas Takeaway and it would get X million, but it wouldn't be the same as a normal Takeaway. Dancing On Ice was an enormous show in 2008 but it got nothing on Christmas Day, because it wasn't the same as normal Dancing On Ice.


Well, certainly circa 1995 it was at the height of its success, getting ten million on BBC2. I use to absolutely love it in the early nineties, as you say around 1993 it was a big, big show, but I'd actually stopped watching it before it moved to BBC1 because I'd got bored of it. After that I only bothered when I was interested in the host - like Brucie - before about ten years ago I started watching it again full time. It makes me laugh a bit, but I can't imagine really loving it like I did at the start.

There aren't actually that many new guest hosts on it these days, really - there's a rota of about half a dozen pretty regular guest hosts who all usually do one a series, so you're only really looking at one or two new hosts a year.



Sorry to go back to this, but yes, it's not as easy as saying The Chase does well at 5pm opposite Pointless, ergo at 6pm with a bigger potential audience at no Pointless it'll do better, because the opposition is completely different. At 5pm it's only up against Pointless, at 6pm as you say it's against Eggheads which is a similar format and has its own loyal audience, plus The Simpsons on C4 which gets a million every day, plus as well the news which gets a much bigger audience than Pointless, as Broadcast points out last week it got at least five million viewers every day. So the competition is far more fierce. Also as well you'd have to assume a lot of the audience watch The Chase at 5pm because it fits into their schedule. At 6pm they might be doing other things - not just watching other things, but making the tea or something.


I don't know how much of a habit you could form at 8.30, though. I think you get used to putting things in your schedule in the early evening or the late evening, but in mid-evening I think it's so easy to be distracted or find something else. At the moment people know that they can watch the news and then Emmerdale and then Corrie, and it all follows along nicely. How many people will remember to switch on at 8.30, with no regular lead-in? Also I think 8.30 seems a bit of an imposition on the audience. I think you're happy to watch something at 7.30 finishing at eight and then the rest of the evening for yourself, but having to commit to 8.30 every night seems a bit of a chore. If you see what I mean. You've got so much other stuff to watch and the evening seems more or less over before it's begun.



I've seen loads of trailers for it, and I think this is going to be pretty successful, I think there's a large potential audience who are going to find it very appealing indeed. Looks a pretty likeable series that people are going to find engaging. Won't beat Celebrity, obviously, but will be a good alternative.


Well, Strictly certainly wasn't, Ed danced at 7.35. And if you're not watching it, I don't know how you know those two are performing anyway?


It's perfectly OK to compare stuff from November 2010, though, because the freak weather didn't arrive until early December. Can't remember what the weather was like in November but nobody was snowed in at that point.


That is to assume that it takes as long to make an episode of Pointless as it does The Chase, which may not be the case - there are more contestants on Pointless, the hosts have other commitments, maybe the questions take longer to compile. Could be any reason. It's simply not possible to say they make X episodes of The Chase so they should make X episodes of Pointless because the two programmes are different.

Great series high to end on for Ross, was a really good show last night. It was struggling to get 2m not so long ago, but the new format has really done wonders. I thought this series would be his last but looks like it's back up to it's 2011/12 level.

ITV News also done well.

There's no question that they do not least because they have to get a hundred survey responses for each one before it can be used. Plus each question has to have a multitude of possible answers all of which have to be collated post-survey to see which ones were missed and are therefore Pointless. I'd venture to suggest that there is no other quiz show which takes as much effort and time to prepare as Pointless - it's amazing that they get as many done as they do!

I find it amazing that JR has suddenly risen so high, and ousted Graham Norton as top chat show.

Only 4/5 weeks ago it was going sub 2m. Now its nearing 4m. Why such a big jump?

I suspect it'll be back next year follwing TXF, and I imagine the demos last night were better than even SCD.

I've also noticed, since his ratings have gone up, there is very little negativity about his show on here now. I imagine the same would be for TXF if it was rating closer to SCD.

I think that was the one occasion when TV Burp reached 8 million. But Burp was always a big draw for ITV. They should at least ask Harry back to do 8 episodes a year, like he wanted before they started over commissioning it, which tired Harry out till the point he was sick of it and quit.

I expect a lot if viewers of teatime quizzes are BARB's 'in a room with the TV on' and not taking much notice. Background TV whilst doing teatime activities.

I am watching both SCD and XF not sure what that comment about not watching it meant Steve.

@Steve Williams..

Yes the cold arrived around the 23/11/10 so it is later than now. Somebody who keeps tables of data will be able to say if ratings jumped after that.

They don't target it. They just don't fear it anymore.

X Factor is A Big Thing on this thread, but it's off the radar for a lot of people in the TV industry now.

I think the new and old weekday editions are affected on a gradual basis. There have been more repeats over the last couple of years, to the extent where episodes are being repeated little more than a year after their original screenings. I suspect that's why it's behind Chase more often than not.

2010's 'freak' ratings were also due to the fact that both SCD and X Factor were both amazing series with plenty of controversy especially X Factor. The cold weather also helped and that's why SCD had its highest rated final ever with 14m along with X Factor hitting a massive 17m average.

Is my mother and other strangers a one off series? Or could there be more if successful?

Strictly actually hit 10m in October for the first time in several years in the tape checked ratings on a Saturday. The results show also managed 10m last week.
Well yes and no. Strictly's overnight ratings the last few weeks are down slightly on last year while the coolidated ratings for October this year have been higher. Last year it didn't have a rating over 11m until the edition on November 14th. This year the Saturday shows have ended up over 11m since October 8th.

His Christmas specials don't tend to get special figures on Christmas Day.

Big Show seems to be an uncomfortable mash-up of his chat show, Comedy Roadshow and John Barrowman's Tonight's the Night.

I think its safe to say, if its successful it will get another series whether or not it was meant to. If its not, it won't.

That's a good question. I thought it might be a returning series but it could be a serial. Also it won't do much opposite I'm A Celebrity.

His Christmas Comedy Roadshow got a great rating on Christmas Day 2011 with 8m. That's the best rating he's ever had for one of his shows I think. They've been less successful since then.

Big Show wasn't that big, around 5m in consolidated. If it can keep that then it's doing well.

Very good point. What is so interesting about reading the Australian TV ratings is that there is a real four-way tussle between Seven, Nine, Ten and, to a lesser extent, the publicly-funded ABC-TV.

I wonder why Comedy Roadshow stopped. I enjoyed it. Then again, I enjoyed Live at the Apollo/Appalling (copyright: Steve Williams) when Jack Dee was doing it. Couldn't stick it if you paid me now.