Tuesday, December 26, 2006

What's on the box?


Hmm, what to make of the Christmas telly this year.


It's a safe bet it wasn't much cop. It also appears obvious that the main channels appear to have given up the ghost when it comes to pulling big audiences.


The Vicar of Dibley was the most-watched programme on Christmas Day. 11 million viewers.


Ok, so many people now have more channels to go at then they ever thought possible - but that doesn't mean we no longer appreciate quality.


The Vicar of Dibley - it's the last one, we've been assured - is good as far as it goes, but 11 million viewers to top the TV charts is hardly a great effort.


Here's a radical thought for Michael Grade at ITV and the new monitoring board at Beeb. Don't give up. Have another go. Make a real push for new, quality-driven programme next Christmas.


Audiences can still be huge, you just have to make more of an effort. I found myself watching repeats of Friends on E4. That wasn't a snub to the stuff on the main channels, but an act of desperation at what was on the BBC.


And that's desperation even before I'd factored in the countless episodes of Eastenders shown during Christmas Day. Eastenders, by the way, pulled in 10.8million viewers. I hope that figure is for the best-watched episode and not a total one for all them - otherwise that would roughly break down to three people for every single screening.

No comments: