Sad to say that the DOI Christmas Show was a bit of ratings flop for ITV with just 5.2 milion well and truly beaten by Eastenders and especially Wallace and Gromit which pulled in over 14 million people.

Wonder if ITV will do another Christmas special or maybe they should move it to another day where the competition is not so tough.

The ratings thread in the TV forum has all the figures (very interesting indeed!)

I think it was just bad schedualing. We recorded EE and W&G n watched DOI

The problem is, unlike SCD Christmas show which pulled in the viewers of the "just finished" SCD competition, the Dancing on Ice competition is at the beginning of the year, so hasn't built up a new fan base yet.

I think you'll find, reading posts from people who know about ratings, that DOI did quite well and certainly better than expected. BBC always hammers ITV at Xmas, yet DOI managed to certainly make a dent in Eastenders ratings.
I'm not disappointed anyway.

I forgot it was on. Wasn't advertised that much.

But managed to watch it today on ITV2+1.

I did that as well. I watched Doctor who on BBC (wished i hadn't and watched emmerdale instead, but oh well) recorded Emmy. Then switched over to ITV for corrie and DOI and recorded EE and W&G and will probably watch later today.

It was actually quite a decent rating for Dancing on Ice, up against the BBC's 2 big hitters. Last year, Harry Hill only got 3m or so in the same slot. It'll definitely be coming back next year based on those ratings. Whether it'll be on Xmas Day or on a Sunday remains to be seen.

I recorded the programme myself and caught up this morning. Thoroughly enjoyed it, actually thought it was better than the Strictly special .

The DOI Christmas special was seriously dragged out and there was too little skating and too much build up and stuff. But losing by 9 Million viewers is slightly embarrassing Although it was still ITV's second most watched show.

I dont think it made a dent. I think EastEnders was just back to its normal ratings having went up last year due to the storyline.

EastEnders ratings were higher than they were in 2005 and 2006.

I don't think it means anything. ITV1 is generally down on Christmas Day because BBC1 is the channel of choice. Corrie was their top show and it didn't even break 8 million. So in that respect I think DOI's figures are actually very good.

I wouldn't say 'embarrassing' either. The last series was at the start of the year - it's not like it ended a few days ago like Strictly.

It's not great but when the series hasn't even started yet then it's not too bad, plus people are still eating dinner around that time and probably record it (so you can at least fast forward through all the breaks!).

It was bad timing, I love DOI, but I watched Eastenders because that was un-missable for me.

It's true, ITV put up more of a fight than they usually do on christmas day, BBC has Doctor Who, EE double bill and usually a sackful of specials, but I'd love to see a big battle next year!

Everyone watches BBC1 because all the big shows on ITV like Emmerdale, Corrie and DOI is on at other times on ITV2. All these shows played this morning for example and they will play again over the weekend.

I completely disagree, I thought it was a great show, and extremely well produced.

As a fan of both shows, it was certainly better than the SCD Chsritmas Special.

I think it did very well getting that number and that itv will be very pleased, they usually get hammered on xmas day and with it they held there own for once. Everyone watches either movies or soaps at that time of the night. I think it got very good numbers.
Plus i think most people recorded it. and I wonder what ratings it got today on itv2!
I'm also a fan of both and thought it was better than SCD special also DOI gets far higher average viewing figures than strictly normally, but strictly has only just ended and DOI hasnt graced the screens since way back early in the year.
Was itvs second highest rated show xmas day and it hasnt been on the telly since march and i saw little advertising, so id be pretty happy with that and think itv will be also.

That's good to hear.

Hopefully we'll get another show next Xmas.

same with BBC then
Eastenders is reapted on BBC3 plus sunday reapt on BBC1
its just enders has more ratings in its reapts then corrie/emmerdale

Dr who is also reapted a few times on BBC3
and the royle family will no doubt have a BBC1 reapt

Plus you can rely on BBC iplayer wheres you can't with the ITV1 one

With regards to the ratings, i read somewhere that these homes that have the special BARB rating boxes where the family have to select which channel they are watching etc. One house is equal to something like 5000 homes or something? I did ask this before on DS about how can it be accurate and people kept telling me alsorts and not much of it really made sense as surely its all just averages etc?

I may have read wrong or false info, so if i am wrong about one box equal to 5000 homes please correct me. But if that is the case, or something similar, imagine if all those homes with the boxes were watching BBC, and every other home without a box was watching ITV, yes BBC would get all the ratings wouldn't they? (i know that would never actually happen, but its an example) or does it not work like that.

Could someone try to explain it in a way even a child could understand

Briefly: There are 5100 homes with BARB boxes. They represent all the millions of households in the UK.

It sounds dodgy, but statistically speaking it is very accurate. Apparently only 1 out of 20 ratings reported are incorrect by more than 3%.. (hope you get what i mean)!

Dancing on Ice did well last night. 5.2m might not sound much, but up against 2 of the biggest shows of the night it's a decent effort.

Its like any poll. You pick people of different classes, jobs, sexes and ages to match the whole population and if you pick enough of them the randomness evens out. If the first ten were all watching EE , the next 6 may balance that by watching DOI. The trick is picking the right people and enough of them.National opinion polls in the UK tend to be only 1000 people - some US ones are even smaller for 300 million people so BARB on 5000 boxes would be a big sample.

The real mystery is rajar radio ratings where you seriously wonder how they have enough people to tell you that a small station has 100,000 people who turn in once a week.......

I agree

and it was clear from the start who was going to be the 'star' of the ice dancing celebs so I switched off, I had enough of that favoritisim the last time DOI was on

Thanks both of you, makes more sense than what people were saying last time i asked

I didn't watch it and I am a huge DOI fan, It just was on at the wrong time right in the middle of dinner and entertaining family.

I think they missed a trick here and could have had a much better programme than a Torville v Dean contest.
There are obviously a few very good skaters from the celebs now so why not have paired the best male celeb skaters up with the best female and have a competiton that way, but not on Christmas day when the BBC had everything sown up with their line up.