With 12 contestants, it will be around 1h45m-2h long, I would think. So, the results will probably start around 9.45-10.00.

It could always go:
17.00- England match
19.15- XF
21.00- Harry Hill
21.30- XF R

Very tight schedule, though. So, probably would be better to just have the slightly longer England match broadcast (until 19.30), and a 2 hour X Factor.

Very late for The X Factor Results too. Why are England kicking off at 17.15??? I thought Saturday home international matches usually kicked off at 3pm?

I'd guess The X Factor first show would only be 90 minutes long. There'll probably only be 12 contestants, so it can fit into a 90 minute slot:

17.00 England v Kazakhstan
19.30 The X Factor
21.00 Harry Hill's TV Burp
21.30 The X Factor Results

I'm not much of a Strictly fan as it is, but surely even the most diehard fan was sick of the amount of padding in that show? I caught some of it and a lot of it was an utterly pointless attempt to drag it out for an hour. Ridiculous.

This is England, we do things a little different.

I think the Ryder Cup is going to dent a lot of ratings tonight.

That schedule would be very tight indeed and considering most of that is live it could easily all get behind.

Also all of this is on the assumption TV Burp is going to be the filler that week.

I can only see Harry Hill being the only possible filler as other shows like Family Fortunes run for 45 minutes or more.

Considering it starts filming the Thursday before, and apparently Harry himself has confirmed that its back on the 11th, then it's a fair assumption.

I don't see where else it would go, unless it went straight after the footy and they just had one big long X Factor show.

But Harry might lose viewers whereas XF is more likely to capitalise on whatever ratings England bring in.

The chances are ITV will slaughter the BBC on October 11th.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008...ing.thexfactor - Article on SCD vs X Factor ratings battle.

Yeah Harry would be much better inbetween. Interesting move if ITV are doing this here though as Harry Hill has never gone as late as this before, but he really should be in the middle of primetime anyway rather than at 6pm.

If that schedule is true then that is my TV heaven and I shall be sat watching ITV1 all night

If they put the 1st episode in the middle of the X Factor, people who haven't seen it before will watch, which may then result in more viewers tuning in when it moves back to the 6pm slot the week after

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007...ings.bendowell

The first X Factor show last year was 2 hours long, and that was squeezed by the RWC Final.

He has been that late before but not on a Saturday night, so it wouldn't be the first time but most people have become more accustomed to his early evening slot so it would be odd - especially since it would only be a one-off.

I agree though - it would be an incredibly strong schedule.


Good point. He has already been growing his audience but going in between X Factor would do wonders I think.


Yeah it could be an unstoppable schedule that night.

Had company tonight and SCD was on in the background, but it ws quite funny the lengths they were going to drag the show out. It took them 45 minutes to get to anything of note and even then we had to have the guy who was eliminated performing once for the judges and then once at the end! The Bette Middler segment was fairly dragged out, I didn't hear what was happening, but they seemed to have clips of the last time she met Brucie?! (a new feature, perhaps?)

If they are going to make it an hour then they could at least have the decency to make it live. Then they could do as Robbie suggests and have them dance off early on, then dance again for the public vote. At least it would spread out the "action" among the filler.

American Idol tried this hour long format and everyone hated it. The judges were bored, the producers were forced to stretch it out and the fans got bored. And that was even with 18 minutes of adverts to fill some time.

The 5 minute breakdown would be interesting if we get it. SCD is such a huge show that it will command a huge audience anyway, but I'm not sure that it will have built consistently like a show usually would. No doubt it will shoot up for the end, though.

Dare I say, it's more ITV bashing, ratings chasing behaviour from BBC1 that has no public service benefit.

Maybe ITV will go for...

4.30 England v Kazakhstan
7.30 Harry Hill's TV Burp
8.00 The X Factor
>

Just rolling the two X Factor's together.

Splitting X Factor from the football might help them keep some of the football audience a little longer, before they loose them all at 8pm.

Erm, all the footie fans would go as soon as Harry Hill started - the effect would be noticed. With TXF, straight after with a break for HHTB in the middle, it wouldn't be noticed (I guess).

I'd have thought X Factor would have a better chance of holding on to them than Harry.

So presumably in these fantasy schedules Family Fortunes & YBF will be bumped for a week?

Have BBC1 got a clue what they're doing with SCD and Merlin?

September 27th
6.00 Merlin
6.45 Strictly Come Dancing

October 4th
6.05 Strictly Come Dancing
7.20 Merlin

They're getting as bad as ITV1 with Heartbeat and co. Why the chop and change? There'll probably be another one on the 11th as they try and move Merlin about so it's not hit hard by the football. SCD should do ok against it to be fair.

ITV haven't announced their schedule for the 4th yet. Probably trying to work out what to do with X Factor.

I guess so.

Unless Harry Hill is moving to Sundays?

Anyone know?

October 4th is unconfirmed - thats the BBC holding schedule - all will change in due course, depending on what ITV and The X Factor do.

Look at what the provisional schedules for Saturday 27th were:

BBC-1
6.00 SCD
7.20 Merlin
8.05 National Lottery Who Dares Wins
8.55 Casualty
9.45 BBC News

ITV-1
6.05 You've Been Framed
7.05 The X Factor
8.35 All Star Family Fortunes
9.20 The X Factor
10.20 8 Mile

According to Media Guardian they just don't want Merlin up against X Factor every week, which is fair enough.

The 4th is just a preliminary schedule though and they always chop and change through the week, so it will probably look nothing like that when its finalised later this week.

It's still early days- Come Wednesday, the Oct 4th schedule will probably be very different.

Ah ok thanks. Guess there will be big changes from then to now then. BBC probably planned SCD to be on from around 6 o'clock every Saturday, but now want to move Merlin around. TBH though, I can't see it doing any better in the earlier time slot. Actually, I think it'll lose viewers.

The week of the football they'd be better scheduling SCD early, probably a 6pm (or earlier) start against the football.

Scheduling Merlin against the footie would be a big mistake, they probably both have a majority young male audience. I can forsee Merlin starting shortly after the final whistle is due.

ITV doesn't need prolonged post match analysis as the audience lose interest after the final whistle.

Whatever anyone may say about the BBC and PSB, the fact remains that shows are produced competitively and that the vast majority of slots throughout the range of BBC channels are there to gain as many viewers as possible.
Anything remotely PSB usually shunted against Coronation Street or almost apologetically broadcast as a Panorama special.

At the end of the day the public know the BBC gets 3.6 billion pounds a year and that is far too much to just provide niche broadcasting or to "give way" to commercial channels. The "alternative" has got to be popular. Personally, bearing in mind the income it gets, I expect the BBC to be competitive pretty much everywhere and if that bashes ITV then so be it. Its the satellite revolution that has done for ITV far more than BBC anyway.