Wow-thanks Neil

It seems those final 15 minutes significantly pulled up XF's audience, and without Merlin XF could have topped 10m average.

Anything for Hole In The Wall?

Thanks - that's huge!

Must have been Merlin viewers switching over to ITV1.

Fantastic Ratings last night for TV.

Allthough the X Factor beat Strictly Come Dancing SCD had a better launch rating than last years!

Great ratings for merlin too.

A great transformation for ITV, with a schedule about three weeks ago which was unable to get above 4 million viewers in primetime, and now a schedule in primetime which hasn't fallen below 4 million in primetime.

BBC1 held up incredibly well, with Merlin looking like a hit for them, and incentive for ITV, Channel 4, Five and Sky One to launch shows like this. It's a family show, and it still appeals to quite a wide audience, despite only Primeval and Doctor Who in production at the moment.

They will always have their ratings banker Casualty, which was moved to a later slot. It's great having it in the middle of primetime so it can give other shows such as the Lottery and films good boosts. Look how the X Factor is boosting other ITV shows - as Saturday is becoming one of those days where you need a hit to spur all the others on.

And it just shows what a brilliant state BBC1 is. ITV's biggest hit The X Factor, which was able to maintain all of its audience, will be delighted. But Merlin, against one of the biggest ratings pulling shows on TV, brought in over 6 and a half million viewers, and over a 30% share which is excellent. That only leaves 30% for BBC2, Channel 4, Five and the multichannel world to play with.

What an interesting set of ratings!

I'm shocked at how well Merlin did. With a good bit of promotion this week I think it could do even better not up against TXF. It does say alot that the show can launch alongside what's being hailed the biggest show on television at the minute and still get very commendable figures.

Although Strictly is well up on last years, it's really in no position to fight with TXF at 6.10. Tonights 8pm show should do well.

Having watched YBF yesterday I think it's one of the most underrated programs on television.

Great to see SCD pulling up to 9.6m on its debut once the sun finally set on the last glorious day of the summer. Shame about the weather (in ratings terms!), I think SCD did very well to get 6m at the start when the weather was so nice early evening. But starting it at 6.10 was clearly a mistake, perhaps the Beeb are learning their lesson though by swapping SCD and Merlin round next week.

And considering how dull it was, Merlin did fantastic to get nigh on 7m - and peaking at the end, not the beginning.

Looking forward to the head to head next week between SCD and XF. Might be a different mood amongst the XF cheerleaders on here next Sunday...

Anyone know how the sticking fat celebrities through holes show perfomed?

Merlin launched a lot lower than Robin Hood, so I would expect the same tradjectory ratings wise. Under 5m by the end of the run, unless the BBC move it out of the line of fire.

The early start no doubt dragged Strictly's average rating down.

I can't see Merlin doing any better at 6pm next week tbh considering SCD was only getting 6.5m at that time, although the weather will probably be much worse next week.

So that's DOI, BGT, XF and now SCD with better launch shows and the first 3 with better averages so far. I agree with Digital Sid about the ratings fall not necessarily down to multichannel, but the quality of some shows and the content of them. DOI, BGT, XF and SCD are all feel good shows which provide light entertainment and its great to see them all have their strongest year in a year when everything else is decreasing.

Fat celebrities. There was only 1 fat celebrity and that was a hairy biker.

Well Robin Hood launched against Ant & Deaths Saturday Night Takeaway, which only got 7.33 million in the final ratings. So Merlin had alot stronger competition and will probably have a large timeshift.

Merlin did well.. but it could of 8m if it wasnt agains the X Factor.. They should of launched it last week off the back of Strictly special but not agains the X factor! I really dont feel that the lead in would matter that much!

What's all this talk of the weather rapidly deteriorating this week about? Has it been on the news?

I think with Casualty the ratings are pretty similar towhat they were this time last year - just hovering below the 6 million mark. I'm sure, as with the 2007-8 series, the ratings will pick up as time goes on and the nights draw in. I think the BBC realise that now they're doing 48 episodes a year of Casualty, it's become less of a "must-see" show.

Friday 20th September 2008

8:00
FOX Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? 5.93m
ABC America’s Funniest Home Videos (R) (8p-10p) 5.45m
CBS Ghost Whisperer (R ) 5.32m
CW Friday Night Smackdown! (8p-10p) 4.39m
NBC America’s Toughest Jobs 3.34m

9:00
CBS Numb3rs (R) 6.10m
FOX Don’t Forget the Lyrics 5.31m
NBC Dateline (9p-11p) 5.25m

10:00
CBS Numb3rs (R) 6.29m
ABC 20/20 5.74m

Fridays and Saturdays are very low rated nights in the US, it never used to be like that though did it?

Good nights for both ITV and BBC. I'd imagine BBC1 are satisfied whereas ITV will be breathing a huge sigh of relief.

SCD did well, albeit a bit less than I thought it would get. X Factor did surprisingly well, yet Merlin still got off to a strong start. It just shows that scheduling alternatives is not just good in terms of public service broadcasting, but also if they want to get ratings.

All 3 did well given their constraints. SCD might have had a slightly early start time but it still drew a good audience and the peak isn't so far above the average that it suggests the show was inappropriately scheduled. Merlin and XF would obviously have got a bit more were they not against each other but both performed well and XF peaks above 10m for another week.

Merlin could struggle when it loses its SCD inheritance next week. SCD ought to benefit because in the new slot it doesn't have much competition and gets a head start on it all. Family Fortunes drops to less than 4m when it runs before X Factor, IIRC and if viewers have stuck with SCD for an hour, it's not as though they are going to switch to X Factor and miss the last 20 minutes. X Factor would be dropping anyway because it goes to boot camp next week which doesn't tend to be as popular as the live shows or auditions.

Merlin surpassed my expectations by about 1m. And then there's the repeat later on which I shall be watching, should pull in an extra couple of million at least.

I wonder if the BBC are now regretting pushing back Merlin in the schedules from next week onwards?

Steady on. I'd be inclined to call it a...partial clash, rather than a full on 'head to head' considering SCD will be on for an hour beforehand, and TXF will be on for a further 70 minutes after Strictly wraps up.

But hey, give me an X...

I thought SCD would average about a million more than it did but at least it peaked above 9m.

Merlin did well. But I think it's a missed opportunity by the BBC. They really could have got figures of 7m+ if they scheduled it well. What usually happens with shows like Merlin, is the audience settles down to about 80% of its series 1 premiere. So, I expect Merlin to settle down to between 5.0-5.5m, which is fine. But it had the potential to get 6m+ figures like Doctor Who, Robin Hood and Primeval.

The BBC, in my opinion, should have gone all out to get the highest figure possible for Merlin. If they had put it on at 6.30-7.15, it probably would have got a million more. And then settled down to around the 6m mark for the remainder of the series.

I think the BB should have made Merlin the focal point of last night's schedule. I know some people may say that Strictly was rightly put as the focal point last night- but I don't think it really mattered whether Strictly got 7/8/9m last night, because its figures are going to rise anyways as the series continues.

While the BBC will probably be happy with Merlin's figures, I think ITV will be as well. Merlin could have potentially caused more damage to ITV's shows, so it was smart of ITV to put the X Factor up against it and minimise its threat.

Couldn't have put it better myself. With all of the publicity Merlin wouldn't have gotten 7 million at 6.10pm and Strictly would have done better against The X Factor. BBC1 would have done better on Saturday with a couple of tweaks to their schedule.

If the BBC changed their schedule, ITV would just change theirs again.

It has to stop somewhere - clearly ITV wanted to avoid a SCD clash or they wouldn't have scheduled X Factor to start right after it.

ITV is generally the last of the major broadcasters to finalise their schedule.

True, and FIVE is usually the first terrestrial to finalise theirs. Though this is understandable for ITV to be able to compete with BBC1.

Yes, ITV would have changed their schedule. But if the Beeb put Merlin on at 6.30pm, I doubt ITV would have put The X Factor on at that time because it's too early for XF.

BBC1 could have gone: 6.00-6.30: Hole in the Wall, 6.30-7.15: Merlin, 7.15-8.30: Strictly, 8.30-9.20: NL, 9.20-10.10: Casualty, 10.10-10.30: BBC News

ITV1 would then have probably put the X Factor on at 8.30-9.30, or start a bit earlier (with a partial clash with SCD).

Merlin would have got higher figures then I reckon.

Yes, they wouldn't have put it on at that time because ITV didn't purposefully put TXF on at 7.30pm to clash with Merlin. It was just circumstantial.