The Apprentice rated a little lower than I would have expected but it's timeshifting well this series so will most likely end up rating similar to how last year's episodes were doing in the officials.
Poirot did fine filling in the 2hour slot last night but like MiRABomer Murders, it's better suited to Sunday nights where it would get a higher rating. Murder on the Orient Express is going to be shown later this year - I wonder if that's going to air on Wednesday, Sunday or Christmas Day Saturday?
Million Pound Drop is doing very well for C4, especially the last two episodes. It's not a massive mega-hit but certainly a big improvement on how most programmes on Channel 4have been rating recently. It'll be interesting to see if they bring this back as a daily format like right now or a weekly show, as they're having a couple of episodes airing weekly later this series.
No one is saying Corrie is bigger than the entire channel but it is hardly in the best interests of a company to harm one of its biggest assets. As Roscoe explained, you only have to look at the Thursday episodes and see that they've been underperforming compared to how the episodes in the old slot did and most programmes at 9pm aren't making best use of the lead-in and getting 3-4m.
All that would happen by moving Corrie to Tuesdays is boost the Tuesday primetime share overall, but it would harm Corrie itself which could have a negative knock-on effect on other episodes due to people giving up on the show due to all the scheduling changes, decrease ITV's primetime shares on Monday, Thursday & Friday, while also giving the BBC opportunities to try some sitcoms in good slots such as 7.30pm on Fridays.
It's pretty clear ITV knows that Tuesday is their worst day and have written it off, hence why all the cheap documentaries and factual entertainment programmes are airing there, getting low ratings but aren't loss-making. Anything remotely expensive or half-decent tenRAB to get shown on another day. Ways in which they could increase their Tuesday ratings would be to commission drama specifically for Tuesday and big live entertainment formats but 1) that would be more expensive and loss-making (especially in the drama case) and 2) dramas and live entertainment shows tend to be given better slots which suit them more (Sunday/Monday for drama and weekend for live shows). So they're basically left with 'factual entertainment' programming to dump on Tuesdays.
If they get the formula right, factual programming can get decent ratings such as WDYTYA on BBC1 and programmes on C4 and C5 do well for their channels. They just have to find the right show really and not be too obsessed with doing celebrity-focussed programmes (that's not a criticism of 71 Degrees North which is quite good but there seems to be a view at ITV that having someone like Amanda Holden or Claire Sweeney hosting a show will bring in viewers when really it's the content and format of the show which is the most important thing).
