Zac, I thought you would say, until dear Edward is returned unto his rightful place as the centrepiece of the Labour Party, maybe it's next leader? He is getting so many votes now.

Hah If only

So both SCD and XF lost their 'novelty' acts tonight.

Wonder if Martin on IAC is next?

I don't think he'll be gone for a few days yet. I hope he doesn't anyway

Thank you! Personally I feel that Strictly should be on Christmas Eve or even after the Queen's Speech to try something different. And CTM should be a 60 min slot.

Meanwhile TXF has a good line-up of guest performers next week for the first time this series. Lady Gaga and Zara Larsson. The guests this year have been dreadful so far so this is an improvement.

Isn't an All Stars series something you try when a show is failing? I don't think SCD needs it really.

I'm sorry. Is this some kind of joke?

For Christmas Day I would go for something like this:

3.00- Queen's Speech
3.10- Strictly Come Dancing (older skewing so would go well with the Queen imo)
4.10- BBC News
4.30- Doctor Who (does crap in overnights anyway, so why not give later slot to Frozen, which has the potential to do really well)
5.30- Frozen
7.00- Bake Off
8.00- EastEnders (everyone knows it needs 2 30 min episodes)
8.30- Call The Midwife
9.30- EastEnders
10.00- Mrs Brown's Boys

Cutting Strictly and CTM by 15 mins each is really needed to free up some space, plus CTM is heavy viewing, and the extra length can be a bit too much imo.

Putting the Syco Productions in sycophancy!

ITV have paid for three more years so should be allowed some say in where X Factor goes. I doubt X Factor, Strictly or advertisers want big clashes.

No joke. You are rude. I have observed multiple occasions (lost count) with various posters. Indeed I would say it is your default.

Looks like my memory wasn't working well, as I notice that regarding IAC, they did exactly the same eviction format last year with the first eviction on the Friday and then a gap before the second eviction on Sunday. They didn't need a double eviction later in the week though as Lady C of course walked of her own accord

Also the final was the Sunday last year as well, I'd thought it was the Saturday but that must have been in 2014.

Every final since 2013 (and including the very first series final) has been on a Sunday, last Saturday one was in 2012. Better ratings on a Sunday.

How do we think the final will rate? Over 10m maybe?

Based on the programmes that have been placed in the schedule, and to spice things up slightly, I would go with this for Christmas Day

BBC1
15:00 The Queen
15:10 Strictly Come Dancing
16:10 Frozen
17:50 BBC News
18:00 Doctor Who
19:00 Bake Off
20:00 Call the Midwife
21:00 EastEnders
22:00 Mrs Brown's Boys
22:40 Tracey Ullman Show
23:10 BBC News

ITV
15:00 The Queen
15:10 The Lion King
16:50 ITV News
17:00 Paul O'Grady Dogs at Christmas
18:00 Emmerdale
19:00 Blankety Blank
20:00 Coronation Street
21:00 Maigret
23:00 ITV News

Basically pushing back Frozen and doing something else straight after The Queen, to make up for the seeming lack of a 'Stick Man' style animated film.

Sunday finals always rate the best as more viewers around. I reckon the final next Sunday will be over 10m.

Going back to the old days, they've had finals on Friday nights. I can't see them changing anything now though as the scheduling (bar the Saturday episodes) is pretty much spot on.

And a very Merry Christmas to you too!

Likewise!


The BBC have Revolting Rhymes which is animated. SCD at 3.10 is a tad early. I think Frozen can still smash the 3.10 slot given its weird popularity.

Frozen, Revolting Rhymes then Who is a solid start. I'd definitely split EastEnders again as well but they probably won't.

I would like this this:

BBC1
15:00 The Queen
15:10 Film: Frozen
16:50 Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes
17:20 Doctor Who
18:20 BBC News
18:30 EastEnders
19:00 The Great British Bake Off
20:00 Call the Midwife
21:10 EastEnders
21:45 Mrs Brown's Boys
22:20 Tracey Ullman Show
23:00 BBC News

ITV
15:00 The Queen
15:10 Film: The Lion King
16:50 ITV News
17:00 Emmerdale
18:00 Paul O'Grady's Dogs
19:00 Blankety Blank
20:00 Coronation Street
21:00 Maigret
23:00 ITV News

I think this week IAC av. around 8m each day, and the final will just top 10m (I hope).

We should get an update on the provisionals tommorrow shouldn't we?

I don't think EE is strong enough to be split anymore. In previous years (pre2014) EE used to be a centrepiece on Christmas Day, now like last year, it became a lump in the way of a more sucessful BBC's schedule.

I like that. Hadn't thought of Strictly in the early slot but I think it could work well after The Queen. Frozen could do even better a bit later too. It's a nice mix of shows and whilst I'm still not keen on CTM on Christmas Day the BBC seem intent on showing it there so that's probably that.

Like the ITV schedule too. Love of Dogs has worked well at teatime before and bringing it over solves the issue of the schedule feeling a show short. Whilst I'm sure it'd do fine on Boxing Day too, that day doesn't really need it. It means they can avoid genre clashes too. With The Lion King and Blankety Blank in there it's quite a nice lineup and offers a decent alternative to the BBC, even if Maigret will be much weaker than Downton Abbey.

I'm morbidly curious to find out what ITV are showing on the nights outside of the big 3. We should find out tomorrow but they had some right old dross last year and the year before. Looking at the ITV Press Centre and their Christmas trailer it looks like we can expect (amongst other things):

Midsomer Murders
Paul O'Grady's Favourite Fairytales
Ninja Warrior UK
Pompeii with Michael Buerk
The Big Quiz: Coronation Street vs Emmerdale

I was surprised to see Ninja Warrior in the trailer. I've not heard anything about a Christmas special so I suspect it might be the start of the new series. Not sure where that'll go. New Year's Eve is a Saturday but I can't see them bothering with decent new content there. Possibly New Year's Day then going into Saturdays from week 2? Midsomer is the start of the new series according to the press centre. I'd have thought Wednesday 28th was most likely as it could just run through January as normal but the press centre has it down for the week of 17th-23rd, in which case Sunday 18th seems most likely. That wouldn't be great though as they'd air one episode then it'd be off again the following week. O'Grady and Buerk will presumably find themselves somewhere on the 27th, 28th and 29th. I think The Big Quiz will then go on the 30th.

Its split episodes do fantastically well on New Years Day.

Actually, I think it would be better for the show to return to the old format. A decent cliffhanger to get people talking like the old days, and a higher figure for the second 30 minute episode. Also doesn't clog up the later part of the schedule and a 30 minute episode is more likely to pull in a casual audience ("let's see it all kick off on EastEnders, only half hour").

With Downton gone I think there's no reason not to put back the 2 episodes. Editorially it's better, it's better for the schedule as a whole and it's better for viewers, whether they watch it or not IMO. Maigret is no Downton - there is no risk of viewers picking ITV en masse after Corrie. Get the comedies on faster at this time, with a shorter EE ep at 9ish.

The BBC missed a trick by throwing away their comedy revivals over the Summer. Whilst the execution might not have been great, the audience wouldn't necessarily have known this in advance and putting on an iconic brand such as "Porridge" or "Are You Being Served" in the heart of Christmas Day prime-time would have been a potential centre-piece for the day and likely resulted in a big audience.

I agree, it seemed a little odd to make all those revivals and then toss them out over the Summer with little in the way of promotion. They could at least have held one of them back. It does feel like they were wasted, as the ratings were a bit mediocre for such big brands and they definitely lack comedy for Christmas Day.

In that case I think it's nailed on to be Frozen at 3:10 and Revolting Rhymes afterwards.

If this is the case then either Bake Off is a dummy curve ball that won't actually appear on Christmas Day, or one of the other regulars (Strictly, Doctor, Midwife) will have to come off, as there isn't room for all four.

Regarding ITV, I expect we will be due an Alright on the Night on one of the middle days. Most of those days will be thin on the ground and cause no end of knashing of teeth round these parts though, particularly when the big soap quiz with Stephen Mulhern gets placed!

I also said that they should put SCD after the Queen, just a few posts before you haha!