Big Brother goes out with a whimper
Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack ended its low profile run on E4 with 644,000 viewers last night, January 28, eclipsed by Ross Kemp's increasingly popular series about British military operations in Afghanistan on Sky One.
The long-running reality show, shunted from Channel 4 to E4 after last year's racism row, captured a 3.1% share of viewing in multichannel homes between 8.30pm and 10.10pm, bringing the series to a subdued close, according to unofficial overnights.
By comparison, the final of Celebrity Big Brother scored 5.8 million viewers for Channel 4 in January 2007.
Last night's Celebrity Hijack live final - won by John Loughton, a 20-year-old politician from Edinburgh - also saw presenter Dermot O'Leary's last appearance on the show.
Celebrity Hijack brought E4 1.69 million viewers, the channel's highest audience to date for a homegrown programme, on its debut on January 3.
The show and its spin-offs, including Big Brother's Little Brother and Big Brother's Big Mouth, have dominated the E4 schedule over the past four weeks, but without the normal blanket tabloid coverage the reality show has had nothing like its usual impact.
Channel 4 decided to rest the format on its main channel after a race row erupted on the last series. The alleged bullying of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty and ensuing media uproar prompted Channel 4 to drop the show from its usual pole position in the channel's winter schedule.
Over on Sky One last night, Ross Kemp in Afghanistan continued to pull in viewers. The show won the 9pm hour with 1.1 million viewers and a 5.6% share of multichannel viewing.
The series, which sees the former EastEnders hardman travel to Helmand province to film military operations against the Taliban, debuted on Sky One with 941,000 viewers and a 4.6% share on Monday January 21.
Other good multichannel performers last night included feature film repeat Look Who's Talking on BBC3, which drew 622,000 viewers and a 3% multichannel share between 8.30pm and 10pm.
Tuesday 29 January 2008
Monday 14 January 2008
Who will win the news war?
Stephen Armstrong
Monday January 14, 2008
The Guardian
Tonight Sir Trevor McDonald storms out of retirement to bring back News at Ten on ITV, promising to "take the fight" to the BBC's Ten O'Clock News, much as Muhammad Ali predicted Larry Holmes would be "mine in nine" ahead of his 1980 comeback.
Both programmes offer Minority Report-style hi-tech graphics, giant video walls, glass-festooned studios, and weighty presenters. Sir Trevor is joined by Julie Etchingham from Sky News, while the Beeb offers Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce. The latter pair would clearly win in a real scrap, but otherwise there's little to choose between them.
News at Ten has only been away since 2004, so brand recognition is still strong. ITV is also promising to schedule one-hour dramas before the news (except on Fridays), to avoid frustrating movie bisection. The commercial broadcaster generally wins the 9pm ratings war, so should inherit a larger crowd.
Conversely, when the channels go head to head with World Cup games, royal deaths and global catastrophes, it's Auntie that the nation runs to. And yet last year a Guardian/ICM survey showed 60% of us trusted the BBC less after the phone-in scandals.
Adam Turner, broadcast director at media buying agency PHD, suspects the BBC will win on points - at least initially. "ITV messed up their news brand by moving it around so much, while the BBC still has great news heritage," he argues. "Having said that, we're not far off the time when everyone will have digital TV, offering 24-hour news channels, so this is more of a status battle between the broadcasters than a genuine public service."
Of course, the news audience is traditionally upmarket, demanding and engaged with the world. The Guardian readership, in other words. So really, the question is: which one are you going to watch?
This article is important because it is looking at two very important and well established media insitutions. ITV will be going into competition with BBC news, bbc have always had news at 10 itv introducing news at 10 again, with ITV you have many buyers trying to buy it and low viewer ratings. so it will be important to see which news at 10 audiences will watch.
Stephen Armstrong
Monday January 14, 2008
The Guardian
Tonight Sir Trevor McDonald storms out of retirement to bring back News at Ten on ITV, promising to "take the fight" to the BBC's Ten O'Clock News, much as Muhammad Ali predicted Larry Holmes would be "mine in nine" ahead of his 1980 comeback.
Both programmes offer Minority Report-style hi-tech graphics, giant video walls, glass-festooned studios, and weighty presenters. Sir Trevor is joined by Julie Etchingham from Sky News, while the Beeb offers Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce. The latter pair would clearly win in a real scrap, but otherwise there's little to choose between them.
News at Ten has only been away since 2004, so brand recognition is still strong. ITV is also promising to schedule one-hour dramas before the news (except on Fridays), to avoid frustrating movie bisection. The commercial broadcaster generally wins the 9pm ratings war, so should inherit a larger crowd.
Conversely, when the channels go head to head with World Cup games, royal deaths and global catastrophes, it's Auntie that the nation runs to. And yet last year a Guardian/ICM survey showed 60% of us trusted the BBC less after the phone-in scandals.
Adam Turner, broadcast director at media buying agency PHD, suspects the BBC will win on points - at least initially. "ITV messed up their news brand by moving it around so much, while the BBC still has great news heritage," he argues. "Having said that, we're not far off the time when everyone will have digital TV, offering 24-hour news channels, so this is more of a status battle between the broadcasters than a genuine public service."
Of course, the news audience is traditionally upmarket, demanding and engaged with the world. The Guardian readership, in other words. So really, the question is: which one are you going to watch?
This article is important because it is looking at two very important and well established media insitutions. ITV will be going into competition with BBC news, bbc have always had news at 10 itv introducing news at 10 again, with ITV you have many buyers trying to buy it and low viewer ratings. so it will be important to see which news at 10 audiences will watch.
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