George, do you have any news about when ITV's current commissions for Emmerdale and Corrie run out? I'm not phrasing this very well, but I mean, at the moment, the deal is for Emmerdale to fill three hours per week, and Corrie, two-and-a-half.

I remember when Emmerdale was upped to 2.5 hours from 1.5 (several years ago), it was reported it was a two-year order.
Last edited by Pizzatheaction : 21-03-2008 at 13:17

Arent ITV just in the process of changing the producers of both shows at the moment?

I think that since they are in house productions they could change the number of episodes quite easily, subject to any specific terms that may be in the actors contracts.

Yes, I seem to remember something about new producers for Emmerdale and Corrie.

I think I read about the two-year term for 2.5 hours of Emmerdale in 1999, so I suppose things are more straightforward within ITV now, and they probably have the increased flexibility you describe above.

I remember repeat fees being an issue with The Bill when they first repeated it on ITV3, but I dont think they have any specific contracts on the number of hours, although presumably they would have to scale up or down the cast & crew based on the number of episodes. Itsnot as if they spend much time rehearsing though is it?

Thanks, George.

I suppose we're all going to have to wait until Tuesday for any ratings?

I would have thought so.

Good Friday- 21st March 2008 Overnights

BBC1
16.00- High School Musical 2: 2.6m (16.7%)
17.45- BBC News and Weather: 4.6m (23.3%)
18.00- The Weakest Link: 3.6m (17.8%)
19.00- The One Show: 4.4m (20.2%)
19.30- Inside Out: 3.4m (14.5%)
20.00- EastEnders: 10.0m (41.6%)
20.30- A Question of Sport: 3.7m (14.7%)
21.00- The Passion: 3.7m (15.9%)
22.00- BBC News; Regional News: 4.6m (21.7%)
22.15- Friday Night With Jonathan Ross: 3.6m (17.8%)
23.15- National Lottery EuroMillions Draw: 2.1m (16.8%)

BBC2
16.00- Eggheads: 2.1m (10.6%)
20.30- Gardeners' World: 2.1m ( 8.5%)
21.00- Torchwood: 2.1m ( 8.9%)

ITV1
17.00- Goldenballs: 2.5m (13.0%)
18.30- London Tonight: 4.5m (21.9%)
18.45- ITV Evening News: 5.2m (24.9%)
19.00- Emmerdale: 7.4m (33.8%)
19.30- Coronation Street: 10.3m (43.9%)
20.00- Death by Lorry: The London Programme: 3.5m (14.4%)
20.30- Coronation Street: 9.6m (38.5%)
21.00- Moving Wallpaper: 2.3m ( 9.8%)
21.30- Echo Beach: 2.0m (9%)
22.00- Al Murray's Happy Hour: 2.1m (11.0%)

Channel 4
16.15- Deal or No Deal: 2.7m (18.3%)
17.00- The Paul O'Grady Show: 2.4m (13.7%)
21.00- Dirty Sexy Money: 2.7 (11.7%)

Five
21.00- NCIS: 2.2m ( 9.6%)

Good ratings for both last night.

What is the big deal about High School Musical? It's a phenomenon in America but gets middling ratings over here, and yet BBC1 plug it like it's an event. Quite low for Good Friday though apart from the soaps, but hardly surprising as the channels don't seem to be making any effort for the holidays anymore.

I think it helped ITV that there bulletin was on at roughly its usual time and leading into Emmerdale. The ITV Evening News is probably ITN's best bulletin along with Channel 4 News. I don't think News At Ten is in the same league.

Hasn't it been shown about 100 times already on the Disney Channel?

I see that Golden Balls has sneaked ahead of Paul O'Grady as well.

I think HSC did quite well in the ratings on BBC, HSC2 looks like it did quite badly...

I have 3 of Thursday ratings as well, but no more:

Eastenders (19:30) BBC1: 8.8m (42%)
Holby Blue (20:00) BBC1: 5.2m (24%)
House (21:00) Ch5: 1.9m (8%)

Golden Balls last night was on from 5:30-6:30, Paul O'Grady was on from 5:00-6:00. rzt, you've written the wrong start time for Golden Balls.

Sorry, you're right. Can't edit it now, though.

I suppose High School Musical's figure is an improvement on CBBC's figures.

Nice to see Jasper Carrott and Paul O'Grady doing well at teatime. I like them both.

I think BBC One should have shown Weakest Link before the news, rather than after it.

The Passion did a bit better than I expected. I thought it would slip to around 2m by last night. That said, it's very disappointing that BBC One and ITV1 could only muster a combined share of around 25% between 9 and 10pm.

If anything will drive the uptake of digital TV it'll be the terrestrial broadcasters failing to put on decent shows. People will start wishing they had more channels to watch and that's when ITV & BBC will lose the viewers.

They wernt airing at the same times so unfair comparison and POG has a hgigher share.

i thought Eastenders would do a bit better... because of the grave thing..

and dirty sexy money didnt do as well as i expected!

High school musical still got double what it did when it was on disney for the first time.. and HSM1 was ut on at xmas last time...

I think if kids knew HSM2 was on BBC1 they might have watched it. Especially those without The Disney Channel.

The BBC seem to have something against advertising imports or films.

C4 (inc+1)

8pm-A Cook's Tour Of Spain-1.6 million
9pm-Cutting Edge: Shannon Matthews: A Family Story-2.1 million
10pm-Cutting Edge: Sex Change Soldier-1.7 million
11pm-Skins-0.7 million

I expect the Shannon Matthews doc would have got more if it wasn't as short notice. Skins is holding up well in its new slot after Ch4 have moved it to 11pm, to make way for My Name Is Earl, which should have started this week.

Regarding the Friday ratings everything is pretty much as expected. ITV will have to think very carefully about where to slot Moving Wallpaper: Series 2 and how Echo Beach will be formatted. Also why do ITV keep comissioning Al Murray to stay on in the Friday 10pm slot, when he's pulling in very poor ratings. The current series should have finished 2 weeks ago. Do they have nothing else to show in the Friday 10pm slot?

Disappointing. What was it's competition, and why is i so low?


I think Al Murray last night was pretty good. Could we have a demographics rating, e.g. how many people in the 40s were watching that programme at 10pm last night?

Less people were watching tv compared to usual. The 42% share is good; slighly higher than what it gets. But there were just under 21 million watching tv then, instead of the usual 22.5-23 million watching. Must've been because of the bank holiday weekend coming up.

I'm not complaining that ITV aren't pulling it because I actually saw it last night and laughed out loud a couple of times...the only reason ITV must be keeping it going is because it's getting good reviews or as you suggest, it is pulling the demographic which ITV are looking for.

Hardly gets middling ratings here - it was well over a million of Disney Channel, which is almost unheard of for a kids channel in the UK. Got 2.6m on BBC1, which isn't great for them, but is still quite high for what is essentially a TV movie in the afternoon.