EastEnders getting almost 7 million in overnight average audience against Emmerdale is excellent for them. I can't believe Emmerdale dipped to 4.4 million in the last 15 minutes! I think ITV1 might begin to reconsider the wisdom behind the soap clashes if EastEnders starts beating regularly by about 1-1.5 million; last night it was ahead by 1.6 million viewers on average, and in the last 15 minutes almost 3 million viewers ahead. The EastEnders repeat did excellently for BBC THREE as well with almost 2 million viewers.

There's also an episode Sunday 25th - http://uk-tv-guide.com/list/ITV1%20London/25+May+2008

Can't see why though. It's on Friday 23rd and Monday 26th as normal, so it seems like they may be losing two episodes one week during Euro 2008.

That means that, from Sunday 25th to Friday 30th, there will be:

3 and 1/2 hours of Corrie instead of normal 2 and 1/2 hours.

In relation to DH on Channel 4 I think the ratings were a bit low this week, it normally does hit the 2 mil mark but you have to take the E4 ratings into account to and the repeats which probably gives it an overall audience of over 3 mil.

The treatment of american imports is an issue, The Sopranos and the scheduling behind that was ridiculous especially as it was one of the best dramas ever. Another example as already mentioned is Brothers & Sisters, 11 pm on E4, it should be on More4 at 10pm as it is more suited to that channel, although apparently it will be shown on the main channel at a later date, but probably at midnight!

One surprise American hit for them right now is The Big Bang Theory, its audience keeps growing, and its a fantastic sitcom, I can see that coming back next year.

Really good for EastEnders. I switched to ITV1 for a few seconds just before EE began last night, and the announcer was saying it was "time for tonight's second visit to Emmerdale'". Presumably Emmerdale was shown as two separate episodes, so hopefully BARB will report the figures separately when the officials come out. That way we'll see what the figures are like in a proper head-to-head i.e both soaps starting and finishing at the same time.

To my knowledge it's only happened three previous times this decade:

Two 7.00-7.30 clashes in 2004: EE won both despite the disadvantage of an earlier than usual start time.
One 7.00-8.00 clash in 2005: Emmerdale won with EE disadvantaged by an earlier than usual start time.

And now, despite a 30-minute lead in from itself, Emmerdale has lost out in a 7.30-8.00pm clash.

EastEnders, has over the last several months, and in particular over the last couple of months, held up much better against Emmerdale's hour-long episodes too. EE often, perhaps even usually, winning.

ITV's throwaway scheduling of Emmerdale makes me think they might just be using the soap as a short-term weapon in increasingly forlorn attempts to damage EastEnders, because they might not see Emmerdale as having, and might not even want it to have, a long-term future.

Perhaps the endgame is a few more years of Emmerdale, eventually to be replaced by a One Show-style magazine programme?

There's a big difference in way Corrie and Emmerdale are treated by ITV. Sometimes I get the impression they look upon Corrie as the crown jewels, whereas they increasingly look upon Emmerdale as cheap piece of costume jewellery.

Also last night, The Invisibles and Midnight Man fared a little better than I expected. I also think the time has come for the BBC to accept the inevitable and announce Holby Blue is to be put out to pasture at the end of it's current run.

Interesting, though, that despite Holby Blue dying on its backside in primetime, and Out of the Blue ( bit of a blue theme developing here!) suffering the same fate in daytime, and despite over two hours of low figures from CBBC, BBC One has still come out on top in all day shares yesterday!

Brilliant to see it picking up. It didn't have the big start or promotion of Skins, but it's really good, IMO. Totally puerile, but funny with it and the characters are more believable than Skins (although William is a bit out there).

I was concerned that the sub-400k ratings wouldn't be enough to get it a second series, but the rising figures are great news. Hopefully E4 pick it up again.

They need to find a second original and exclusive half hour comedy to air after it, though.

extremely unliklely from a commercial perspective. The One Show delivers an audience advertisers dont want or can get in abundance already.

Emmerdale is & always has been the warm up act for ITVs evening schedule. The point of the hour long show is to increase audience retention versus what it would otherwise be with another show in that slot. Its only competing with what another show would deliver in that slot (an additional 10-15% share on average most weeks). On that basis it will be around for the forseeable future.

If its not going on Sunday nights, it has to go somewhere. The reason for moving off Sundays is to deliver a younger audience to advertisers on Sunday which is still work in progress, but commercially it makes sense.

I can't believe ITV are persisting in slaughtering their own show in this attempt to dent EastEnders - I know I wouldn't be happy if I were in charge of Emmerdale. Why don't they just switch back to 5 episodes a week? They'll have to do something if it keeps hitting those record lows.

Not good figures for either BBC or ITV at 9pm, and that rating for Holby Blue is spectacularly bad. How many more weeks of that punishment to go?

I've stopped watching emmerdale for Neighbours over on FIVER, which is on the same time as emmerdale.

I don't want to be insulted by itv and be part of their games.

So its Neighbours @7pm for me!

Because Emmerdale at a record low still gets higher figures than anything else that would air at 7.30

There's far too much discussion of record lows being taken as the average figure. Very tabloid. Last night's Emmerdale was different because it wasn't made as an hour, it was actually 2 seperate episodes due to one being missed on Wednesday, therefore not a normal situation at all

They could aim it at a different audience to The One Show, though. They could include, for want of a better word, lots of "blokey" content, and plenty of content aimed at ages 16-35 or 16-45. It could still be inoffensive enough not to alienate too much of the soap audience waiting for Corrie. They could even keep Emmerdale going in a new slot at 5.30pm, where despite its problems, it would blow everything else in that slot out of the water with 3m+ viewers. After all, it started as a daytime soap, and even in a very bad patch in the late 1980s (or was it the very early 1990s? ) it played as near as damnit to daytime with a 6.30pm slot on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Just my thoughts, anyway.


But surely, the answer to the retention argument is to find something else that will perform well on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7.30-8.00pm. Then, hey presto... increased retention without damaging Emmerdale.


True, but surely they aren't committed to three hours of Emmerdale per week forevermore. They could just order two-and-a-half hours per week instead.
Agreed.

Really? You should have said!

Is there an audience for that (thats willing to watch ITV that is?)

Why does everyone love The One Show so much? It is hardly the most ground breaking show of the decade

People only have it on in the background waiting for proper programmes to start later, I can't recall anyone 'in real life' ever mentioning watching it or talking about a feature that was on it

I can think of one particular ITV shareholder who will have been cracking open the champagne today at that news...!

Awful ratings though, almost down to "ITV-flop" levels. Why is it doing so much worse than series 1?

You say that but some of my family/relations leave the telly on ITV all day yet only ever seem to watch enraptured Coro St or the talent shows.

Because last year it was on a Tuesday night, displacing Holby City to Thursdays.

Why on earth they didn't do the same this year is beyond me. The only thing I can think of is they didn't want to risk one of their flagship shows against The Bill, but it coped OK last year - much better than Holby Blue's doing.

I think it's just because they BBC hae put it up against The Bill. If you ask viewers to choose between a newcomer and a trusted established brand, nine times out of ten they will go with the trusted brand.

I hope they give HB a third series and a fairer slot as it really has improved greatly this year.

But I think the beeb saw how well Waterloo Road did and thought Holby Blue could do the same.

Holby Blue/Waterloo Road should be on after Holby City in my opinion. Then BBC ONE would encase the audience for two hours. I guarantee that Holby Blue would be hitting at least 3.5-4 million viewers if it followed Holby City in the 9.00pm slot.

Why not run a 3 hour block of Casualty, Holby City and the Holby Blue. That would be creative scheduling.

Now there's a schedule to be reckoned with! Sunday perhaps? Give Heartbeat a run for it's money?

No wonder you're an ITV fan; truely the home of creative scheduling!

Friday 16th May Overnights
BBC1
20.00- EastEnders: 7.8m (37.0%)
21.00- Have I Got News For You: 5.4m (24.1%)
21.30- My Family: 5.0m

ITV1
19.00- Emmerdale: 6.7m (36.1%)
19.30- Coronation Street: 8.7m (43.6%)
20.30- Coronation Street: 8.3m (37.5%)
21.00- Benidorm: 5.7m (25.7%)
21.30- An Audience Without Jeremy Beadle: 3.3m

Great ratings for Benidorm!

IMO this will make ITV renew some of the less successful first time round shows (RR, EB, Fixer?)

Series Average - 5.64 Million (24.8%)

I wonder how My Family did. It's current series average is:

Series Average - 5.62 Million (25.8%)

So close between the two of them !