BB was actually 3.5 and Earl was 1.6 if you're rounding them to 1dp.

My Name Is Earl seems to have been boosted by Big Brother as it was only managing 1.2/1.3 before. I would suggest Big Bang Theory airs excusively to E4 next series as it performs excellently on E4.

BB seems to be continuing with it's steady ratings and beating ITV1 in its slot.

The Day After Tomorrow has been shown numerous times on FILM4 but still manages to bring in great ratongs every time!

What is the future of Film 4? I heard that Channel 4 were considering axing it?

I'd say C4 will be happy with BB its getting a consistent audience, and IMO it's been the best opening week since BB5. So I think there's a chance it may grow to over 4million, if it keeps the entertainment up, and they don't wreck it with pointless twists.

ITV1 (from ITV Media)

Brothers And Sisters In Love - 2.7m (12%)
Euro 2008: Croatia v Germany - 3.3m (25%)

Thursday Night Multichannel Ratings -

BBC FOUR -
The Long Walk To Finchley ~ 981,000 viewers; 5% audience share


ITV2 -
Katie and Peter: The Next Chapter ~ 526,000 viewers



BBC THREE -
Blood, Sweat and T-shirts ~ 126,000 viewers


E4 -
Scrubs ~ 250,000 viewers

Very good for BBC FOUR. And good figures for ITV2 too.

I think it could potentially be a good channel, but the problem is that they seem to air the same films over and over again.

Regarding last nights multichannels that's an excellent performance for BBC4 and where ITV2 may have had a good audience for K&P, it is considerably down on the 1 million it got for the previous series.

I was under the impression it was a repeat, and it did have very strong competition from BBC FOUR.

I'm pretty sure it was a new episode and I know it had strong competition from BBC4, but I woud have thought both shows would appeal to different audiences.

Really good to see BBC Four pulling almost a million. They've had a good year so far with a number of big programmes pushing those kind of figures. Its always nice to see quality programmes get their rewards.

It was a new episode. However, ITV2 randomly interrupted this series for a weeks - I'm not sure why - and I think that has led to a shedding of some of the audience. I do remember at one stage though that Katie and Peter: The Next Chapter consistently got 900,000-1 million viewers for the channel and was one of the most-watched multichannel programmes. I suppose that was even more impressive a couple of years ago.

I think this is because they couldn't keep up with the filming as I don't think K&P can make that many shows to keep airing one every week.

ITV1 was really hit. Only 12% at nmine oc'clok. Last time I saw something like that was when Rock Rivals and Echo Beach were on!

Reckon neither channel can wait until the football's over. Their filler programmes seem to be being hit hard.

Great ratings for The Long Walk to Finchley as it was excellent. BBC Four does come up with some gems especially in drama and documentaries and its themed seasons/weekends have always proved popular. However, I think they should do more comedy which they haven't done since Lead Balloon and The Thick of It and maybe a British drama series.

It looks like Fiver and Five US are also doing well especially Fiver which has bring in audiences for programmes other than Home and Away and Neighbours but I think they would benefit if they had more new content especially Five US which seems to only have repeats and films.

The problem why some of the new stuff isn't getting good ratings on FIVER is because as there's so many repeats the new stuff just gets clogged up in the middle of it.

9pm-Hidden Lives-123,000 (0.6%)

Pretty reasonable for them and in line with the all hours share. Usually on a normal day FIVER's all hours beat BBC4's.

At least they haven't got 11 more weeks of that

I seem to remember that Piers Morgan fronted show getting around 2.8 million a couple of weeks ago.

The interesting question is whether the realively poor ratings for both main channels this week is due to the blanket football coverage - whose ratings have generally been poor - or is it just that the main channels are showing all sorts of rubbish.

It does seem to me that BBC1/ITV1 really have ruined their big hitters ( ie soaps ) for the football while filling the rest of the schedule with repeats and any filler programme they could find.

So did they overestimate the interest in the football (especially the early stages) ?

To be honest the Fiver schedule is a lot stronger than the Five US which have too many repeats and films. Fiver has a lot more new shows coming up like Living Lohan, Intervention, Madventures and The Fashionitas Diaries. I would think Five will trying to get more US imports for both channels especially 90210 which would a hit on Fiver if they manage to acquire it.

Film4 quite good but I agree it does repeat a bit too much but it limited to the films that Channel 4 have with the output deals from 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Pathe.

Oh, the Britain's Best People or whatever it was called? I'm going to blame scheduling for that. You don't put that kind of show on a Friday night. The Soap Awards work well on Wednesday, don't know why they didn't put it there.

I'm sure, even if they've run out of Echo Beach, they've got another bad drama up their sleeves. They seem to be having that kind of year

I think its less to do with being worried about the competition from the football ratings-wise - and more to do with avoiding interrupting series. Because the football makes the schedules somewhat unpredictable, it makes far more sense to show one-off programmes, rather than a series of drama which might suffer a couple of interruptions to its run. For instance, if they were running a big hitting drama like Waking the Dead on Mondays and Tuesdays at 9 - the series would be totally splintered by the football matches. Instead, they're pretty much forced to show their one-off programmes, usually documentaries or current affairs which dont perform so well.

ETA: I should add that I don't entirely agree with your assesment of the football. Tonight, for instance, I expect the BBC to be looking at some 6 million + for Holland vs France between 7.30 and 10 - possibly with a peak of between 7 and 8 million. ITV wouldn't want to be launching a new drama or comedy or whatever into the face of that. Generally, the football makes the environment much more unpredictable in terms of both scheduling and ratings, and both broadcasters feel better off avoiding risking their big shows in this period.

I think BBC ONE seems quite bankrupt at the moment. They must be saving all their new comedy and drama for the Autumn. I think the channel should look at comissioning a new family drama series (But not a Heartbeatesque rip-off) or a series of thirty-dramas or at least a few new interesting documentaries.

Well I dont think the football has done that well - only the game you mentioned has had a half decent rating although I agree tonights should do better and of course when they get to the knockout stages ratings should improve.

I take your general point about not running series etc while the football is on but this of course was their choice. Either side could have shown just the big games on the main channel and used their other channels for the minor games and then run any series etc without too much interuption and given the audience an alternative. I did note the game on BBC2 the other night got about the same rating as games on BBC1 - so I think that could have worked.

Still I suppose its only a couple of weeks so neither side will be too adversly affected overall.

BBC1's live Euro 2008 coverage of Austria's 1-1 draw with Poland averaged 4.6 million viewers and a 21% share between 7.30pm and 10pm. Live match coverage attracted 4.7 million viewers over two hours from 7.45pm.

Not sure why your saying that just about BBC1 with ITV filling their peaktime with repeats of Taggart/Midsommer/Frost I think both sides are generally poor.

BTW just seen that TV Times are previewing summer programmes and as far as BBC1 goes it seems new series of New Tricks/Who Do You Think You Are/Celebrity Masterchef/ George Gently are on there way. Must admit I am a bit suprised that New Tricks especially is not been held back until autumn.

I think New Tricks could still potentially get 8-9 million viewers which would be excellent. It will probably end up averaging about 6-7 million, however, because the channel has unwisely repeated it a lot recently.

I liked George Gently when I saw it and it did quite well in the ratings I remember - I think that would be quite for them on Sunday nights.

What I am most surprised about is Who Do You Think You Are? running at this time of year. It will still win its slot I think but like New Tricks, it usually returns later in the year. Perhaps BBC ONE is going to launch new series like Bonekickers and Survivors in the autumn when audiences are bigger anyway and think that they can tempt people in for the summer with established programmes? Its actually quite a good idea because during June-August people are used to there being nothing on sometimes. Repeats, films and generally poor programming. So something getting a solid 6 million plus would be good. Hmmm we shall see...