BBC2's periodic series of week-long specials looking at flora and fauna in the British countryside live have been successful enough (and licensed by Discovery Communications for their U.S. channels) that the Beeb decided to move the concept to top-rated BBC1 and to Kenya to view live the activities of animals on the Masai Mara wildlife reserve. "Big Cats Live" premiered last night in the early evening Sunday slot which for years was devoted exclusively to religious programming on the One and ITV--and got its clock cleaned by ITV's biggest gun, Simon Cowell's reality comp "The X Factor" with an awesome 43 share to "Big Cats' puny 19:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/06/tvratings.television "X Factor" is also beating its main reality comp competitor "Strictly Come Dancing (With the Stars)" on the One consistently--while still in the workshop phase of its competition (the format is so similar to "Idol" there'd be lawsuits if not for the fact that Cowell's partner is "Idol" co-owner FremantleMedia). Live eliminations start next week--and "Dancing" started twice-weekly telecasts last year after handling its eliminations three hours after the Saturday telecast in a 15-minute time slot before the 10 p.m. news for the first few years of its run. Since the Beeb is non-commercial, the reasoning here for the Sunday results show seems to be not more ad revenue, but just buggering up ITV's ratings (which didn't work this year with "X Factor"). --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Like TV only smarter. You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
