It seems strange that LiA keeps going down when the people who watch it on this forum love it so much. Still, if its fans love it that much, it should have great DVD sales - would that be enough to make it profitable for ITV?

ITV1
7pm Emmerdale 6.4m (34%)
7.30pm Coronation Street 8.2m (40%)
8pm The Bill 4.48m (19.9%)
9pm Lost In Austen 2.9m (12%)
10.35pm Numbers 0.92m (8%)

BBC1
7pm The One Show 3.8m (21%)
7.30pm Inside Out 3.1m (15%)
8pm Sky Cops 3.84m (17.5%)
8.30pm Trawlermen 3.85m (16.8%)
9pm Who Do You Think You Are? 6.43m (27.4%)
10.45pm Medium 1.64m (14.8%)

BBC2
7pm Paralympics 1.4m (7%)
8pm The Restaurant 1.85m (8.2%)
9pm Dawn... Gets Naked 1.49m (6.3%)

Channel 4
7pm Channel 4 News 800,000 (4%)

All hours shares for Wednesday 17 September 2008:
BBC1 – 21.2%, ITV1 – 18.3%, C4 – 9.3% (C4+1 – 0.9%), BBC2 – 7.8%, Five – 5.3%, multichannel – 37.3%.

Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares:
ITV1 – 20.2%, BBC1 – 22.9%, C4 – 10.2% (C4+1 – 0.9%), BBC2 – 7.8%, Five – 4.9%, multichannel – 33%.

Good Night for Channel 4 with CDWM pulling in 3m and The Family doing well at 9pm as well as pulling decent ratings for repeats at 11pm and on Channel 4+1. The real test is whether it can retain those viewers with Supernanny as a lead in next week.

Five had an okay night with Axe Men doing decent business against strong competition, I reckon it may increase its ratings when the new episode airs on Friday. These series like Ice Road Truckers and Axe Men have perfromed really well and Five have picked up another series called Black Gold which could do well. I'm surprised that Five hasn't talked to Orginal Productions and commission a UK series in the vein of IRT and Axe Men.

I've corrected it for you.

I'm not at all convinced by the idea Simon Cowell can veto any X-Factor scheduling he doesn't approve of. I can't see any way in the world one of Britain's two biggest TV channels would hand that kind of power to anyone involved with any TV show.

If Simon could make scheduling decisions, would he really allow his pet project to be bounced around the schedules with a different start time (or day!) nearly every week since it began? I think not.

If ITV wanted to move the results show to Sundays, they would, and they'd record it because they don't have money to burn.

The reason they probably won't move it on a permanent basis is most likely because they'd have to schedule a film at 9.00/9.30, which is far too early because of the low ratings ITV1's Saturday night films nearly always seem to attract.

Does that peaktime share look right? Looking at the figures I think ITV should be ahead.

They did crap from 9 to 10:30pm by some margin, so I think the Beeb would be ahead.

I expect the news hour rated well.

BBC will be well ahead in the unreported slots (i.e. the news bulletins from 6pm - 7pm and 10pm - 10.30pm)

Desperate Housewives 1.7m Is that normal thesedays?

I think it's a case of appealing to families. If people see that it's starting before 8pm, they'll tune in, but after 8pm, the very young kids will be in bed (especcially as it's a 90 minute show). It's like pricing something at 99p instead of £1.

As for Sunday's show, Radio Times and ITV's Week 40 highlights has it down as 60 minutes at 7pm, I think it's just a typo on the PI.

When does Brit high start? and what time is it going to be? i don't think it'll do well.

Wednesday 17th September 2008

8:00
NBC America’s Got Talent (8-10pm) 11.192m
FOX Bones 9.710m
CBS New Advs of Old Christine x2 (R) 4.622m
CW America’s Next Top Model 4.238m
ABC Wife Swap (R) 3.848m

9:00
NBC America’s Got Talent (8-10pm) 12.903m
CBS Criminal Minds (R) 8.628m
FOX Til Death 5.132m
ABC 20/20 (9-11pm) (R) 4.179m
CW 90210 (R) 1.989m

9:30
FOX Do Not Disturb 4.130m

10:00
CBS CSI:NY (R) 7.956m
NBC Law & Order:CI (R) 7.073m
ABC 20/20 (9-11p) (R) 4.702m

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008...ndfootballteam

Good news for ITV. The remaining three away qualifiers are on:

Wednesday October 15th, 2008: vs. Belarus
Saturday June 6th, 2009: vs. Kazakhstan
Saturday October 10th, 2009 vs. Ukraine

I think it might be worth "bumping" News at Ten to occupy the football highlights. Maybe have (if possible):

19:00: Emmerdale
19:30: Corrie
20:00: The Bill
21:00: Drama (whatever it is)
22:00: Football
23:00: The Late News

IMO the football will get more than NaT on any given day.

i think a high number of people have ownloaded it this year as C4 are so far behind..


Very good for the CW at 8!

The highlights rights usually stipulate that they cant start before 10.30pm

BBC1 have changed their schedules tonight at the last minute, Motorway Cops aired at 8pm instead of 9pm, and an unscheduled documentary about bullying in the army is airing at 9pm.

I wonder why BBC1 have put this on tonight, and altered their schedule because of it? Also, I was certain that Motorway Cops would beat Ann Widdecombe, but I'm not sure about this army show, and they may have handed victory to Ann Widdecombe on a plate.

There was a BBC investigation about bullying in the army reported on the News at One today, so I'm guessing that's why they've done it.

Fair enough, then, I suppose. What affect do you think this will have on the ratings?

So regarding Christmas Day, how could Fincham make a more creative ITV1 schedule without spending lots (when it's not beneficial due to lack of ads)? I've come up with a PLAN.

BBC One is likely to go something like:

6.40pm EastEnders
7.10pm Doctor Who: The Next Doctor
8.25pm Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special
9.25pm EastEnders
10.00pm The Royale Family Christmas Special
10.50pm Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special
11.20pm BBC News; Weather

Which is pretty expected. So instead of doing the usual Emmerdale vs Doctor Who, Corrie vs Strictly scenario, how about they wheel out a few cheap shows for Christmas specials like Harry Hill, You've Been Framed and Creature Comforts, and mix up the soaps a bit. Also, ITV have commissioned a pre-recorded Christmas special of For One Night Only, which they could put on Christmas Day as it's not exactly a ratings buster at the moment, is it?

6.00pm ITV News; Weather
6.10pm You've Been Framed Christmas Special
6.50pm Harry Hill's Christmas TV Burp
7.10pm Coronation Street
7.40pm Creature Comforts at Christmas
7.50pm Emmerdale
8.50pm Coronation Street
9.25pm For One Night Only Christmas Special

Quite a strong, varied schedule, making a change from the usual 3 programmes for the whole night. It wouldn't cost much more, but could pull in some punters and even though the first Corrie might not do brilliantly against DW, it would dent it and the second one would pull more.

What does everyone else think ITV could do for Christmas Day?

TV Burp aired on Christmas Day last year and got really low ratings as I recall.

ITV going to lots of effort to beat BBC1 on Christmas Day is like BBC1 airing an expensive new drama opposite the Britain's Got Talent final, it isn't really worth it

You just end up with some good quality programmes getting half the ratings they would on any other day

Another point, isn't BBC1 airing a SCD Christmas special a bit boring and tired now, the special usually isn't very special and ends up with the schedule being an exact copy of last years

They're never going to win. But they can put a little bit more effort in to dent the BBC a little.

And a Christmas Special of You've Been Framed is not going to cost very much whatsoever, same goes for Harry Hill and Creature Comforts. As I've already said, with For One Night Only flopping they may as well put the Christmas Special on Christmas Day and put programming more likely to perform in the run up to Christmas.

Maybe, but do they really want a proven flop (FONO) in the schedule? Then again, I see what you're saying, Doc Martin only got 5.4m two years ago.

Maybe this could work:

3.10 Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban
5.35 ITV News
5.45 Creature Comforts at Christmas
6.00 Emmerdale
6.30 The Wish List
7.30 Harry Hill's TV Burp
8.00 Emmerdale
8.30 Coronation Street
9.30 Dancing On Ice

Harry Potter would hook viewers from early on, a mistake made last year when a Queen's speech documentary got just 1.5m, 2 years ago, the first HP movie got 5m in that slot for ITV, despite it being about the fourth showing.

Emmerdale would keep viewers, and splitting it in two, along with the other timings would really stuff up BBC1's schedule.

It's not so much that ITV handed him it, he has gained that power himself by being creator, producer and presenter of two of their biggest shows and some of the few things they have to boast about. In the Media Guardian 100 (industry voted power league), Cowell placed higher than Peter Fincham.

E4 will be pleased to see Fonejacker at 553,000 (inc +1). Rick and Steve got a big boost from +1 with its combined total standing at 248,000 which still isn't great considering the promotion but it's just another (most likely very cheap) US import.

Simon is hugely powerful. As C14E pointed out, he finished ahead of ITV's director of television in the Media Guardian Top 100, and the panel commented on the fact that he could dictate anything he liked to the network.

Look at it this way - he is behind two of the biggest and most profitable shows on ITV. A unique position. He's regarded as the channel's most important star name, made clear by the fact that they handed him a golden handcuffs deal said to be worth £20 million. Not only is he important behind the scenes but he is major on-screen talent - and there's no denying Simon can pull in the punters.

They wouldn't dare risk upsetting him.

I don't buy your argument at all. ITV are well aware that without the soaps on Sunday nights they need something to anchor the schedule. DOI did the business in the winter and they would have been counting on The X Factor for the autumn. But I do believe Simon vetoed the decision.

I think the point about them moving his show around is less significant than something like the results show going out pre-recorded which would have a much more major impact on the show and everyone working on it.