The ratings are just rubbish for everything at the moment. I know EE clashed with Emmerdale last night, but a few years ago it would have never been dreamed of that EE and Waking The Dead would score the same rating. My, how times have changed!

Monday: BBC News at Ten: 5.4m (29%)
Dunno what ITV News at Ten got on Monday.

Disappointing. Well, lets guess. BBC was 0.3 higher on Monday, so I'd say ITV was about 0.4 higher because the Duke had good figures. 2.7/8m?

not really take in account the clash from emmerdale and the hot weather aswell.
Bet the 10pm on bbc3 did well.

Another emmerdale and eastenders clash thursday due to no emmerdale tonight

Interesting about the percentage of viewers though, for those arguing that the later it gets, the bigger the share of viewers. EastEnders, in the 7.30 slot, claimed a greater percentage share than Waking the Dead at 9, despite them claiming the same number of viewers.

News at Ten will get awful ratings tonight with the football overrunning after Rangers' defeat... I reckon about 1.5m and a new record low.

Did the football overrun? I thought it was all wrapped up before 10

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't News at Ten measured from 10.00pm-10.30pm meaning that because it overrun, they will actually count the football for News at Ten meaning it could actually have a boost?

I don't think so.

Media Guardian usually have figures, average and peaks, for overrunning football, so they must adjust it.

Ratings are pretty dire just now aren't they?

Not at thing over 6.1m anywhere. When was the last time that happened?

Last summer?

Forecasts for the football?

Considering Rangers reputation and boring defensive tactics through this campaign I'll guess at 5.5, possibly lower when the Apprentice started

Major Scheduling Changes For The Week: Mon 26th May- Sun 1st June *schedule subject to change
BBC1
Match of the Day live will be shown on Wednesday; a match between England and USA.
Apprentice: As a result, the Apprentice has been moved to Tuesday at 21.00.

ITV1
Britain's Got Talent schedule:
Bank Holiday Monday: 21.00-22.30
Tuesday: 20.30-22.00
Wednesday: 20.30-22.00
Thursday: 20.30-22.00
Friday: 21.00-22.30

The Bill: No episodes shown that week.
Coronation Street: All episodes normal apart from Wednesday, where there will be a 1 hour episode: 19.30-20.30, which leads into BGT.
Millionaire: Cut to half an hour on Tuesday; shown from 8.00-8.30.
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Ratings-wise the Monday, Thursday and Friday BGT shows should do very well due to there being no major competition. Tuesday will be very interesting because of the Apprentice. ITV have been very clever on Wednesday by having a 1 hour Corrie, so people don't turn over to watch Motd. I think Corrie and BGT will quite easily beat Motd- it's only a friendly against the USA!

Should be a good week all round for ITV- they should win every single day share-wise I think. I just wish next week's Apprentice was shown on Tuesday because I know a lot of people will miss it because of the Champions League final.

I think BGT will probably beat Apprentice during that week though I'm not sure if it can achieve the same ratings that it did last year when it stripped daily across two weeks.

Is there a reason why the semis and final of BGT is stripped across a week or two? Is due to Simon Cowell commitment to American Idol/X Factor or Piers commitment to AGT.

Yes. Cowell finishes American Idol just a week earlier. It would be difficult to do weekly live shows because of X Factor auditions. Also Piers Morgan will need to be in America in a few weeks due to America's Got Talent. Having all the live episodes in a week is the only real option.
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The Uefa Cup Final did well last night:

UEFA Cup Final: Rangers v Zenit St Petersburg (Wed) - 5.7m (27%) *35% of Men watching tv.

Based on this, the Champions League final should do very well next week.

Thanks for that, slightly off-topic it seems that Simon Cowell like keeping his X Factor judges employed throughout the year as Sharon Osborne appears on American's Got Talent and Dannii Minogue appears on Austalia's Got Talent.

UEFA Cup did well but I expect CL will do at least 10-11m due to an all English Final.

I said previously that I think the final will do very well; but looking back at last year's final ratings, I now have my doubts. This is what the ratings were last year:


Considering the Apprentice is doing about 1m better this year compared to last year, wouldn't it dent this year's final even more? If about 22m people watch next Wednesday between 19.00-22.00 (a reasonable number) and it gets a 45% share (10% higher than last year), it would still not top 10m viewers- get about 9.9m.

So, I don't really know how the final will do. I remember people before last year's final thihnking it would average above 9m but only got 7.7m- I think that's partly because of the 45 minute build up whcih does not rate well. Maybe this year's final won't rate as high as people expect?

Who was playing last year as it's bound to have an effect on how well a match does? And keep in mind that previous matches prior to next week's final have done extremely well.

when do the ratings come in??

Last year it was Liverpool V AC Milan. Liverpool (maybe apart from Man Utd) brings in the biggest audiences for matches.

The matches leading up to last year's final rated extremely well also. The semi final between Liverpool and Chelsea last year got 8.9m (39.3%). This year's all-english semi final brought 8.1m. So, I think it's unlikely the final will average above 11m which a lot of people expect- I hope I'm proven wrong though.


Maybe around noon.

Ahh! Thats the closest I've been in ages! I might even be spot on when the officials are out!

Seeing as there are ticket troubles with the final this year i would think the tv audience will be high. However ITV are sharing the final rights with Sky who will probably take a few million away from ITV as people would prefer the HD quality and commentary

Wednesday 14th May Overnights
BBC1
20.00- Child of Our Time: 3.3m (16%)
21.00- The Apprentice: 6.7m (28.4%)
* started with 5.9m (28.3%) in first 15 mins and ended with 7.6m (25.5%) in final 15 mins.
* above 2007 channel slot average: 5.0m (21.8%). Above 2008 channel slot average: 5.5m (22.7%)

BBC2
20.00- Superfish: 1.6m (8%)
21.00- Dan Cruickshank's Adventures in Architecture: 1.3m (6%)
22.00- The Apprentice- You’re Fired: 3.0m (15%)

ITV1
19.30- UEFA Cup Final: Rangers v Zenit St Petersburg: 5.9m (27.8%)
*peak: 6.9m at 21.00; attracted 35% of Men watching TV.
Just after 22.00- ITV News at Ten: 2.0m (10%)

Channel 4
18.00- The Simpsons: 1.7m (includes C4+1)
18.30- Hollyoaks: 1.6m (includes C4+1)
20.00- Property Ladder: 2.0m (10%) + 50,000 (C4+1)
21.00- Half Ton Dad: 2.7m (12%) share + 222,000 (C4+1)
22.00- Desperate Housewives: 1.8m (10.5%) + 100,000 (C4+1)

Five
20.00- Megastructures: 1.2m (6%)
21.00- Amityville Horror: The True Story: 913,000 (4.8%)
22.00- The Girl in the Box: 1.7m (9.4%).

All hours shares for Wednesday 14 May 2008: BBC1 – 21.4%, ITV1 – 20.8%, C4 – 9% (C4+1 – 0.5%), BBC2 – 7.8%, Five – 5.7%, multichannel – 34.8%.

Peaktime (6pm to 10.30pm) shares: ITV1 – 25.2%, BBC1 – 23.1%, C4 – 9.3% (C4+1 – 0.4%), BBC2 – 8.4%, Five – 4.9%, multichannel – 28.8%.

What did Corrie get, sorry?

The Apprentice still won the time slot despite stronger competition from ITV1 in the form of the UEFA Cup, will be interesting whether The Champion League can beat the Apprentice next week or not.