Isn't the Apprentice a copy of something though? There's very little originality anywhere any more.

Some interesting comments from Michael Grade about the 5pm weekday slot:

ITV1 has been looking for a replacement programme for the afternoon slot at 5 o’clock since Paul O’Grady left almost 18 months ago.
This shoulder peak slot is a prime piece of television that our
productions division should have been focusing on to fill.
I’m pleased to tell you that we are now at last piloting new
shows for 5 pm. For example in the coming weeks we are piloting a 5pm entertainment show with Anthony Cotton from Coronation St. We also have two or three quizzes and some narrative ideas in advanced development for this slot. Better late than never.

The Apprentice is a format devised by Mark Burnett and first aired on NBC in the US.

Oh Lord please no

I'm intrested to see how the repeat run of Brothers and Sisters did for Channel 4. Would have thought that the movie on ITV1 would do better than it did - don't movies at that time usually get quite high ratings?

So hardly a copy. More of a different version.

Its a licenced format. But is anything on TV original? Most things are re-workings of old ideas.

Well i guess they are thinking on the logic if enough people liked him to vote him Best Actor then these people will watch his show On saying that although i watch Corrie i'm not sure i would bother putting this on.

I'm just surprised he even gets the time - i would have thought filming Corrie was a full time job

9:00- Brothers and Sisters: 800,000 (4%)
10:00- Brothers and Sisters: 700,000 (4%)

Thanks
I'm slightly disappointed that the ratings are so low for this. I thought it would be a hit for Channel 4. Hopefully it's ratings will grow as the series goes on.

My Family did great to say it was a repeat

What is The Apprentice a reworking of?

Pop Idol?

TV shows were never original. They are always a reworking of something.

Same as novels........ Wizard Of Oz- The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe....... Harry Potter etc etc.

Interesting that Parkinson suddenly added a million viewers from last week despite it being an incredibly poor showing from ITV all night.

Wasn't it on the earliest it has been in a while?

I think you're right. It was 10pm last night - earlier than usual.

Usually it's about 10.25pm & it dosen't perform as well.

It's like ITV just shove it to the bottom of the pile and don't care.

Maybe this is an insentive for them to put it on earlier next series? Or even change the day to Friday?

Parkinson wants it shown on Saturday nights with a start time after 10pm. Why do you think he left the BBC? For those with short memories it was because they wanted to move it to make way for MOTD.

It's a shame about Jekyll - that dropped over 1 million viewers on last week. Hopefully it will rebound next week. I still think it's in a bizarrely-chosen slot though. Sunday or at some point in the week, any day, would be better.

I agree completely

18 months research and work and what does it lead to .... The Anthony Cotton Show

ItV obviously think he's really popular, maybe its to rival the John Barrowman channel ie the BBC

What sort of ratings was it getting on the BBC out of interest?

his last ever BBC1 show 10.07pm on 8 May 2004 got 5.2m. Before that he was getting about 4.2m weekly.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...io/3660681.stm

anyone have the top ten saturday shows by share not viewer number?

As for B&S, unfortunately for Channel 4 these US imports rarely recover from a poor launch, and whenever the channel tries to revive it, it just won't work:

Will & Grace (boosted with Big Brother)
My Name Is Earl (boosted with Celebrity/Big Brother)
Scrubs (boosted with Big Brother)

And this is just a few of many! They can't get over 2 million without the presence of Big Brother, and now that its ratings are at a verge towards 3 million, C4's share wil go down big time.