I suspect they'll give him back his Friday late slot because he's not working at 8. Could try 9.30 so doesn't clash with Norton?

Not a great night all round. Horrific for Ninja Warrior and Take Me Out. I know it was New Year's Eve but that's still dreadful. I hope for their sake both see a significant improvement next week. Not bad for Harry Potter considering. Passable for the wrestling considering the slot, it will be interesting to see what it can manage away from New Year's Eve.

Peter Pan aside, BBC One had a solid night even if the fireworks were a bit lower than previous years. I kind of feel Peter Pan was a waste there. Alan Carr looks to have done decently for Channel 4 although I'm sure his New Year shows have been higher than that previously.

BBC2 (8pm-11.20pm):
Match of the Day: 2.03m (12.4%)
Life in Polar Bear Town with Gordon Buchanan: 1.50m (8.4%)
Dragons' Den: Pitches to Riches?: 1.33m (7.8%)

BBC4 (7pm-12.0):
Dawn French Live: 30 Million Minutes: 0.50m (3.0%)
Looking for Mr Bond: 007 at the BBC (R): 0.29m (1.8%)
Film: Show Boat (R): 0.28m (1.5%)

Wow obviously there was a bit of concern. Take it they didnt want Grado then

But he came first in the top rated show on Xmas Day. Perhaps they decided to give him his night in the limelight as a reward when it was recorded early in December.

His recent christmas shows averaged less than 700k. Given the likely expense of his contract, that's appalling.

On another note, I was surprised how poorly Peter Pan goes wrong did. I thought it was dreadful, but then I can't stand slapstick humour, but I thought it would appeal to bbc viewers.

Yeah like The X Factor was a new unheard of format way back in 2004 Seeing as he plagiarised himself with Idol which was similar to Popstars that was similar to Fame Academy These "Singing Talent Shows" are really all knock offs of an Italian singing contest/festival San Remo the precursor to the Eurovision Song Contest way back in 1950s it is still going to this day and was recognised by the Guinness World Records as the longest singing competition show ever recently.

Well it seemed a potentially dangerous move to run NW and TMO on New Years Eve. and so its proved. Arguably the worst night of the year to launch them, suppose its unfortunate NYE fell on the Saturday.

I saw a bit of the wrestling, very hard relaunching a UK brand which hasn't seen main channel exposure for 30 years-with no active connection with that past. Interesting seeing Mark Rocco and Marty Jones though, and I did catch the women which was interesting. I was on the verge of suggesting the addition of mud, but maybe that's the wrong stereotype for the modern era

Other than that solid evening schedule(although from the bit I saw the Peter Pan thing is not my kind of humour) for BBC. Later on though , and even though its drifted down its still a spectacular rating for the fireworks. Brilliant as well for the wrap around concert which has established itself as a true event-as long as they can keep getting acts with decent back catalogues it should continue to be so.

Simon Cowell has been a huge influence on 21st century entertainment, but he doesn't own the genre. Talent shows are still a big part of modern populist LE, the BBC has to reflect that imo.

I watch a lot of BBC One but these new idents - they don't deserve to be called that - are absolutely woeful. For a national broadcaster, the BBC is clearly sapped of all creativity.

Indeed - Staggeringly bad and absurdly pleased with itself, as if being faux-crap was an innovative idea. Worst thing I saw all year without a shadow of a doubt - Got the rating it deserved.

Repeated tonight for some baffling reason.

Even old people don't want to watch old people's wrinkly backsides doddering into a grey sea as they wait for a programme to start. WTF were they thinking, other than "We get billions a year without having to work for it so let's piss some of it away on this tut"?

What the...?

Truly terrible effort.

Yes definitely not for me either. It seems there was some forethought in putting it on NYE.

Any ratings for the phenomenally fortuitously timed Doddy shows on Five?

Also worth noting re World of Sport that wrestling was the only consistant draw on Sky Box Office (before WWE put all the shows on their streaming service), and given ITV are setting up a pay per view channel I would certainly imagine WoS is getting some kind of series regardless.

Yep, over 1m people watching wrestling on a channel that's not shown it for 30 years is quite surprising. It's about 300k more than I expected and over half of what TMO and Ninja got. It seems just a matter of when they commission a week's worth of tapings and how much of it ends up on itv and how much on itv4. In all likelihood it'll return at 4pm on ITV.

Nearly 7m people watching Robbie Williams sing. Not bad for a guy who people have been questioning the appeal of.

Recent polling suggested 78% of people would be in somebody's home for NYE. 10m people suggested they'd be on their own. Curious that the viewing figures are so low.

We stayed in and watched Deadpool. We loved it.

And you can go back to Opportunity Knocks and especially New Faces. That had a nice, nasty and a judge who could swing either way.
Now that's not been copied at all has it

Thanks Ray

Alan Carr got a decent rating? Wait. What? BBC2 had a solid night and Channel 4 an okay one.

When I get over the shock of how bad the new BBC1 idents are I'll.say more. It could take awhile.

What the bloody hell is that?

The Daily Mail can't stand Cowell or the XF, it knows its readers are older and whiter and, rather ironically, more like BBC consumers. The article lacked any substance to it and was just a reproduction of http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/s...awyers-8336339

LiS is new and therefore interesting, last night shows that Ninja isn't that strong a format. Ninja could struggle against it, especially with the YBF hindrance.

Presumably ITV launched Ninja Warrior last night to fit in with their schedule for Saturday Night Takeaway and Britain's Got Talent. Perhaps they would have been better off screening it tonight at 7pm and moving it to Saturday next week.

That seems to be what they've done, but I agree tonight would have been better. Or they could even have started it next week and aired the final episode at 6pm. Would still have done better than last night and probably been a better lead-in for the first Takeaway than YBF.

It'll be interesting to see if it is back to normal next week or if it stays low (it'll be higher than last night but could still be below last year).

Except itv seem to now want to fix shows having a certain start time in people's minds. They wouldn't shift XF from 8pm and they clearly want people to think of Ninja as 7pm on a Saturday.

It's being repeated today and it'll get a decent catch-up audience, it'll probably end up being seen by 4m people instead of 5m people. I wonder how many people on here often watch it but didn't see it last night. I'm one.