Girls, girls, girls!

Don't derail an interesting thread.

Yeah, I was wondering that myself. The average would have certainly been higher had the verdict been left to the end.

I think it's fair to say that they messed that one up big time. Not only not having the verdict at the end but the whole episode did not seem like a dramatic conclusion to a major storyline. Disappointing.

Hey, wow .. a lil while ago since I came into this thread!

Anyway re the life on mars thing .. I never watched the first series and everyone went on about how good it is .. but i've watched i think Three whole episodes of this show .. The swinging one, The Racial one and last nights .. and i think they were fantastic! I'll defo be watching next weeks episode to find out the truth about the sam thing .. and i recken ratings will be close to 7m for the final.

Well weirdly, according to Broadcast, the episode peaked at 8.50 - well after the verdict had been read out

That is quite bizarre. I expect then that many people thought the verdict would be at the end, so tuned in at 8.50 hoping they'd catch it.

WEEK ENDING: 25 March 2007
Weekly Viewing Share

BBC 1 (incl. Brkfast News) 21.0
BBC 2 8.4
ITV (incl. GMTV) 19.8
CHANNEL 4/S4C 8.9
five 5.5
Other Viewing 36.4

The share figures for w/e 25/03/2007 are quite interesting. This is probably the closest it has been in quite a while. Its mainly due to less sport on BBC1 at the weekend and some lower audiences on weeknights especially Sunday. Multichannel seems to have benefitted the most.

Good ratings for Eastenders and Life on Mars - Two of My Favourite Programmes. Hopfully Next Week's Action With Dot finding a baby will up the ratings and now that Corrie's going to become dull once again it might help.

Out of interest, what where the shares between "other" and the main channels 10 or 15 years ago?

I'd hardly call Dot finding a baby 'action'.

The earliest I can find is from WEEK ENDING: 04 January 1998:

BBC1 (incl. Brkfast News) 33.6%
BBC2 10.8%
ITV (incl. GMTV) 30.2%
CHANNEL 4/S4C 10.0%
five 3.4%
Other Viewing 12.0%

Interesting split of multichannel for 9pm Monday:

Channel Programme Audience Share (%)
Living America's Next Top Model 503,000 2.81
More 4 Relocation, Relocation 430,000 2.4
ITV2 The Bourne Identity (film) 407,000 2.67
BBC3 Baby Faced Body Builders 389,000 2.17
ITV3 Numb3rs 300,000 1.67
Film 4 O Brother Where Art Thou? 230,000 1.44
E4 The Brady Bunch Movie 223,000 1.32
E4 +1 Friends 216,000 1.2
FTN Most Haunted 203,000 1.13
BBC4 Wainright: the Man Who Loved the Lakes 201,000 1.12
ITV4 Falklands 25: a Soldier's Story 200,000 1.12
Five US Not Another Teen Movie 182,000 0.56
Hallmark Law and Order 154,000 0.86
UKTV Drama Dalziel and Pascoe 152,000 0.92
UKTV Gold Only Fools and Horses 149,000 0.84
Sci Fi Channel Medium 131,000 0.73
Sky Two The Dresden Files 105,000 0.59
Sky Three Mark Williams' Big Bangs 100,000 0.56%
UKTV Gold + 1 Open All Hours 74,000 0.41
Discovery Channel American Chopper 76,000 0.42
ITV2+1 Weather from Hell 70,000 0.39
UKTV Style DIY SOS 68,000 0.38
UKTV History Sex, Love and War 61,000 0.34
Paramount Two and a Half Men 58,000 0.32
Sky One Corkscrewed 53,000 0.29

I think ITV1's conscious attempt at better programming, The Jane Austen Season and Mobile, coupled with the strange scheduling at BBC ONE, i.e. Play It Again and Castaway on Sunday and the lack of strong drama on Mondays - have narrowed the gap. ITV1 are catching BBC ONE up in terms of programming and ratings.

This summer will be interesting. Will ITV1's audience share hold up better this year. They have dumped the obvious turkey: Love Island. I have a feeling that Marco Pierre White will do well on Hell's Kitchen. The guy has got charisma.

I think the BBC could be left out in the cold a bit - they obviously still have good and popular programming but ITV seem to be making a conscious push this year.

It's certainly a more diverse schedule than last year. Plenty of drama, comedy and entertainment shows. It should serve them well.

Hm, probably a little misleading that, as that will include back end of Christmas week and New Year viewing, thus boosting BBC1. My recollection is that ITV was consistently ahead of BBC1 by a few % points back then. It was around 2001-2 i think that BBC1 pulled ahead, or ITV fell behind, whichever way you look at it.

Oh you are right. Later weeks do indeed show that ITV was consistently ahead.

Wednesday night prediction:

The Apprentice 4.9m
Shitty Lights 5.6m
Grand Designs 3.6m
BBC News (10pm) 6m (Iran hostages)

And, as I'm away now until Tuesday...

Some Easter Weekend Predictions:

Adjusted downwards due to holiday weekend and prospect of warm, sunny weather (I hope!)...

My Family (BBC1, Fri) 5.5m
Film: Starsky & Hutch (BBC1, Fri) 3.5m
Emma (rpt) (ITV1, Fri) 4.4m

Boat Race (ITV1, Sat) 4m; actual race 5m
Grease is the Word (ITV1, Sat) 5.4m
Doctor Who (BBC1) 6.5m
Any Dream Will Do (BBC1) 5.2m
Gameshow Marathon 4.8m

George Gently (?) (BBC1 Sunday) 3.3m
Murder in the Outback (ITV1 Sunday) 6.7m

New Tricks (BBC1, Monday) 5.3m
Diamond Geezer (ITV1, Monday) 7m

Really? I thought it might be the other way round. Why anybody would pick a dull, bland, predictable drama over The Apprentice is beyond me.

Because there are lots of dull, bland, predictable people out there - and they generally watch ITV . Look at the ratings for The Royal, Heartbeat, Touch of Frost, Blue Murder, etc. I can't see The Apprentice holding 5m viewers against Robson Green and the other chap, but I would be happy to be proved very wrong!

I usually agree with most of your ratings guesses - but i think you're way off the mark with some of them. 3.3m for George Gently??! That ticks all the right boxes for a big Sunday night hit - light detective story set in the 60s and a great cast, 6m min, possibly a lot more i think. My Easter predictions:

My Family (BBC1, Fri) 6.5m
Film: Starsky & Hutch (BBC1, Fri) 5.9m
Emma (rpt) (ITV1, Fri) 3.9m

Boat Race (ITV1, Sat) 4.1m; actual race 6.5m
Grease is the Word (ITV1, Sat) 4.5m
Doctor Who (BBC1) 7.6m
Any Dream Will Do (BBC1) 6.2m
Gameshow Marathon 6.9m

George Gently (BBC1 Sunday) 7.2m
Murder in the Outback (ITV1 Sunday) 3.9m

New Tricks (BBC1, Monday) 6.5m
Diamond Geezer (ITV1, Monday) 6.1m

Monday is a tough one - two big rating shows (the last series of New Tricks averaged 8m while the first Diamond Geezer was near 10m) which appeal to a similar audience.
Last edited by ronant : 05-04-2007 at 10:20

You're good at this..
The Apprentice 4.5m
Shitty Lights 5.5m
Grand Designs 3.5m
I still think you're wrong with some of the Easter predictions though

Decent Ratings last night - The Apprentice didn't do too badly against City Lights allthough I think it's funny it didn't deserve to beat the apprentice.

I would agree with most of those except I think Starsky & Hutch (awful film, compared to the tv series) & Gameshow Marathon (Vernon Kay NO!!) will be lower. Also I would expect it to be closer on Sunday night but would give the edge to George Gently by maybe 1m ?

I know but like RobbieSykes said a lot of people like bland tv. The Apprentice's ratings will grow, just like they have in the previous 2 series.