OMG! Emmerdale the 9th best rated programme of the day??

Crumbs never noticed that 10th if you include the Regional News, which you probably cant - although it was slightly longer than usual to include Children in Need highlights. Shows what a stong night it was though - 9/10 programmes over 6m is fantastic - ano doubt Antiques Roadshow will be added to that list when the official ratings are in.

Saturday
For the period from 3.15pm to 4.30pm when darts was on both channels:
BBC - 1.3 million
ITV - 850,000

Averages for the whole programmes:
BBC average - 1.2 million (1-4.30)
ITV average - 1.1 million (3.15-5.05)

Sunday
All I could find is: ITV4 ratings are 500% higher for the first session than they were on Saturday, and ITV1 comfortably beats BBC2 throughout the afternoon, with 2m viewers at the peak of the head to head.

Cranford did extremely well! It was very good, so I'm glad!

Some Sunday teatime ratings which haven't been mentioned yet:

BBC1
5.25 Songs of Praise 3.8m 19.1%

BBC2
5.30 Secret Wilderness: Japan 1.7m 8.7%
6.10 Nature of Britain 2.1m 9.2%

ITV1
4.15 Darts 1m 5.8%
6.00 The Unforgettable… Diana Dors 2.6m 12.2%

CHANNEL 4
5.30 Scrapheap Challenge 2m 9.6%
6.30 Not Forgotten 1.1m 4.2%

Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: BBC1 – 24.9%, ITV1 – 24.8%, BBC2 – 12.8%, Five – 7.6%, C4 – 5.1%, multichannel – 24.9%.
BBC1 just beating ITV1 - pretty impressive when you're up against Emmerdale, Corrie, Heartbeat and i'm a Celeb.

Oh my, look how close those shares were. 0.1% in it.

The BBC seems to have bucked its ideas up on Sunday, TopGear, Cranford, Strictly, Antique Rd Show all doing very well up against a night when the likes of Heartbeat, I'm a celeb, Corrie traditionally dominate. Seems as if Strcitly may not be needed on a Sunday its doing well enough as it is.

Also was the Queen doc originally planned for Sunday or was that just speculation?

Top Gear?

Is it on BBC1 on your tv?

Edited it now, TBH It should be its outperforming BBC 1 in its slot I would consider Antiques Rd show a more BBC 2 type show anyway.

Just because it's outperforming BBC1 it should be moved? What nonsense. It's been on BBC2 for years. Why should they be allowed to snatch it once it starts performing well?

Well, that happened to the Apprentice afterall. I wouldn't be surprised if the next or the series after that of Top Gear is shown on bbc1.

That's what i read - originally it was meant to be 6 1 hour parts at 8pm on Sunday. They were also due to have 3 editions of Casualty 1907 in that slot. And Fairy Tales was due to be on Mondays at 9, but thats now been shifted til the New Year for the Queen doc.

I would be. Didn't the BBC2 controller rule it out recently? And I imagine he'd fight tooth and nail to keep it on BBC2. I can accept it with the The Apprentice which was still fairly new when it moved, but Top Gear has been running for years and years, and since 2002 in its current format.

If it was moved it would just be pure desperation and a lack of originality on BBC1's part.

Why not? If it enhances its ratings (in which it will) and doesent comprimise the shows quality, I see no problem with moving it to BBC 1 it worked well with The Apprentice, how you came to the conclusion that its nonsense is nonsense in itself, isnt it pure common sense? you put your best foot foward? well anyway thats my hypothesis and as far as I can see TopGear has built a solid and consistent audience so would probably do very very well.

Moving it to BBC 1 isnt going to harm the show.

I just don't see the point of it. BBC1 doesn't need Top Gear. It's BBC2's show. Why move it just to give their Sunday 8pm slot a bit of a boost? BBC1 shouldn't be as ratings obsessed as it is.

But will harm BBC2 though, which is why I find it increasingly obvious how BBC1 is so desperate for ratings recently. All it needs is very good programming, like Cranford, showed, not big shows from its sister show, which don't particularily suit a mainstream audience. I've noticed this ever since HIGNFY moved to BBC1, and then when Gimme Gimme Gimme (why the hell) moved too. Let's not forget Ab Fab as well. None of them should have left BBC2. I don't like it when the Beeb is now using BBC2 to grow its new shows, before moving them.

It does seem that the BBC are going after big ratings more and more now but from my perspective if a show is given a platform to get bigger ratings then I see no problem in it but yes the BBC seem ver conscienious of ratings when it doesent need to be.

It doesn't make any sense what so ever. BBC doesn't rely on advertising for funding, like ITV or Channel 4, but relies of the public's money, so it doesn't matter if it gets beaten by BBC (though I think the whole of point of beating ITV is so it doesn't make any profit).

Clarkson said he would quit if it was transferred to BBC1

Another rating i forgot to mention:

FIVE 5.00: Matilda 3.3 million 16.2% - Five's second most popular programme of 2007, behind an episode of CSI. The two big channels should take note of that as an example of the sort of thing people want on Sunday teatimes. At the same time ITV was struggling along on 1m with the Darts.

I think it may have been on the agenda earlier this year with BBC1 struggling to fill the 8pm slot and TG getting 7-8m in its first series since Hammond's accident. But putting Antiques Roadshow there (even if it is a pure accident) has been a masterstroke, giving BBC1/2 a combined 12-13m audience for an hour - unheard of in modern times. If TG moved to BBC1 at 8pm and kept its 7m viewers, nothing on BBC2 at the same time could pull in 6m viewers, so the Beeb would lose out.

And as for a combined 12m+ audience being rare, the BBC managed it TWICE last night in two consecutive slots, 8pm and 9pm. It's like going back in time 10 years.

And Ronant really must be a time traveller with his spot on Cranford prediction!

I nearly fell off my chair when I heard it had got 8m, that's incredible for a period drama of a little known (to me anyway!) literary work. And especially when ITV1 was getting 7.2m and BBC2 4m at the same time. As GeorgeS says, a 27.5m combined audience is incredible - bet even Christmas Night won't see a combined peak that high.

Why do you say that? I watched Heartbeat and then turned over for Cranford thus avoiding at all costs IACGMOOH!

The high viewing figures all round might be something to do with the appalling weather on Sunday!

He did indeed! Infact I remember James May saying (on radio4) he would be first out the door! So I don't think we'll see Top Gear on BBC1 in the near future

Oh of course, that's right. Good.

Who needs BBC1 eh?

Ratings for Top Gear (2007)

8.13m - (29/01/07)
7.20m - (04/02/07)
6.18m - (11/02/07)
7.51m - (18/02/07)
7.58m - (25/02/07)
8.12m - (04/03/07)

4.72m - (25/07/07) POLAR SPECIAL

6.27m - (07/10/07)
5.53m - (14/10/07)
6.73m - (28/10/07)
6.84m - (04/11/07)
7.40m - (11/11/07)*
6.91m - (18/11/07)*

* overnights