9pm shows on terrestrial didnt do well at all.

Wonder how News at Ten did. And I wonder how it does next Thursday with added competition from Graham Norton.

Ratings for the 9pm slot for all the terrestrial channels were lower than usual even for Graham Norton and House which I thought would benefit from weak competiton from BBC One, ITV1 and Channel 4.

They have all been noted already

Sorry - late night last night. Still nothing on the soaps yet?

Last nights Holby Blue was miles better than any previous episode and if it sets that standard from now on it is a shame that it is losing viewers.

It is total madness that the BBC schedules their only police station series directly against the long established slot for ITVs police station series.

It hardly takes a genius to figure out that this is going to cause conflict with viewers very likely to watch both.

What qualifications do you need to become a scheduler? One GCSE and an equal number IQ?

There really do seem to be some incredibly strange decisions being made these days by people paid to presumably make sensible ones.

It does seem strange that Graham Norton and House didn't benefit from poor showings from the other terrestrials. People obviously thought that there was nothing very good on last night so went out for the whole night, as ratings seem very poor in the 9pm slot aswell-The Bill down quite considerably compared to previous weeks.

ITV have had an awful time in the 9pm slot this week with nothing even approaching 4m-the highest being Cops with Camera on 3.5m-what does that say?

Also interstingly on one of ITV's worst weeks in a while FIVE has managed to beat BBC2 and CH4 on average in the 9pm slot so far, something which it rarely does (if ever!). It does occasionaly beat one or the other, but never both channels.

The BBC treated Holby Blue with kid gloves last time around. Rightly, the BBC wanted to test HB a bit more this time around (albeit still in a very good slot), and see if it's worth a third series.

They've got their answer.

Testing a series in a tough slot is one thing and expecting viewers of a series that is very, very similar to jump ship after 20 years is more like pushing it off a cliff blindfold.

They could have pitted it against something like Rock Rivals, very different audiences.

It just makes no sense to put near identical shows on at the same time as they are not going to do anything but split the audience.

If ITV created a new show, Doctor Why, they would never put it on head to head with Doctor Who, would they?

Although given their scheduling prowess of late, maybe they would.

But that is effectively what pitting Holby Blue against The Bill amounts to.

This series of Holby Blue has actually been a vast improvement and had it stayed as poor as series 1 I would have agreed that it was a dead duck. But it is a shame that as it is upping its game viewers are forced away from it by crazy scheduling.

Yes, the audience is split, but it could have been split in favour of HB. The reality of the situation is that it's been split in favour of The Bill, because that's what more of the audience wants to watch.

I'm not a The Bill fanatic. On the occasions I've been subjected to an episode, I've always found it to be tedious and pedestrian.

I'm not criticising 'Holby Blue' either: I've never even watched it.

I'm also sympathetic that you fear one of your favourite shows may get scrapped because of poor ratings. It's happened to shows I've liked, for the same reason.

Unless there's a dramatic improvement in HB's ratings over the rest of the series, it's likely to be scrapped. The only thing that could save it, if ratings don't rise, is stubborn pride, where a TV show gets recommissioned just to prove a point, a la Moving Wallpaper.

http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/opinio...e_ratings.html

Beat the Star - interesting that it is filmed in Germany in front of an audience of ex pats. Its a big hit in Germany but lasts an incredible 220 minutes. ITVs version is only 75 minutes.

I know that Star Academy in France was 3 hours long per episode though 220 minutes for a show does seem quite excessive.

But I think Moving Wallpaper is a good programme, in need of a new slot, just achieving low figures, a la Benidorm.

The Bill is a great series, which will be re-lived in the summer hopefully. It's a great show at the moment, hopefully it can win back viewers soon.

Friday 19th April Overnights
BBC1
19.00- The One Show: 4.3m (23.3%)
20.00- EastEnders: 8.6m (41%)
21.00- Have I Got News For You: 5.9m (27%)
21.30- My Family: 5.8m (26%)
22.00- BBC Ten O’clock News: 4.9m (25.9%)
22.35- Friday Night With Jonathan Ross: 3.8m (27.2%)

ITV1
19.00- Emmerdale: 7.0m (36.5%)
19.30- Coronation Street: 9.5m (46%)
20.30- Coronation Street: 8.9m (38.2%)
21.00- Benidorm: 5.6m (25%)
21.30- Teenage Kicks: 2.5m (11.2%)
22.00- Lethal Weapon: 1.8m (10.3%)

my family - good ratings, thrashed teenage kicks (we knew that would happen anyway) it wasent a good episode as it happens so well done.

Poor rating for EastEnders last night, almost a million behind Coronation Street

Oh because thats the real issue here, why is My Family and HIGNFY beating Benidorm? both shows are well past their prime. So much for everybody flocking back to them this week.

Benidorm is continuing to hold up really well ITV are mad if they drop this after series 2.

:yawn: Same post every few weeks...

Sigh - as any regular poster should know, the soaps are very equal, if we take all showings into account.

BBC3 repeat (0.6m last night) + Sunday Omnibus yet to come

Few more overnights from last night
The Apprentice: Motor Mouths (BBC Two): 1.7m (7.8%)
Dirty Sexy Money (Channel 4): 1.0m (4.4%)
Navy NCIS (Five): 2.2m (10.2%)
Doctor Who (BBC3): 431,000 (2%)
EastEnders (BBC3): 550,000

DSM seems to be really struggling! I watched the first ep, thought it was OK, but haven't returned to it since.

40+ percentage share is always good, though.

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Good figures for HIGNFY, My Family and Benidorm, but the later slot for MF has really knocked the stuffing out of Teenage Kicks.

Benidorm looks a real hit for ITV. It has come out strong after two good shows up against it, My Family and Have I Got News For You.

Teenage Kicks is doing exactly what Benidorm did in the first series. It should get a second series and be broadcast at 8:30pm on a Friday while Coronation Street would re-instate its Sunday ep.

I would drop Coronation Street's second episode on Monday and Friday and re-instate the Sunday, which means all episodes of Corrie is at 7:30pm. Viewers will prefer that.

The Bill should be cut back to half an hour episodes, would be more digestible for a long running series IMO.

They've got the right idea about keeping weekends soap free so maybe another idea would be to have 8pm-9pm weekdays a soap block, with Emmerdale at 8pm and Corrie at 9pm- giving the 9pm slot a consistent boost. Its kept on at the same time each day. It would cause two clashes between Emmerdale and Eastenders but in a world of multichannel TV and VOD they can easily be watched at a later date.

Most people I know avoid the current clash by watching Eastenders at 10pm.