One would assume that the UK would be like us in terms of the fact that DVDs and premium channels have pretty made the thought of watching a movie on terrestrial TV, with commercial interruptions (except on the BBC channels) and editing for content if airing before the 9 p.m. "watershed" for adult programming mighty unappetizing. Well, last night Channel 5, riding on the coattails of "Angels and Demons" opening Friday worldwide, aired the terrestrial UK premiere of the first "DaVinci Code" movie--with the first hour of the "Certificate 12A" (or PG-13 here in the U.S.) film airing before the watershed and doing pretty damn well for UK terrestrial TV's ratings doormat, pulling a 16 share for the entire run, beating token competition on BBC2 and Channel 4 (including the "Secret Millionaire" reality show, the Americanization of which was a bomb on Fox this season), keeping pace with ITV's lineup of the hospital drama "Heartbeat" and a documentary on the Islands of Britain, and pretty close to the leading BBC1's surprise ratings monster "Countryfile" and old-school detective drama "Inspector George Gently":
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/may/11/tv-ratings-da-vinci-code All in all, in viewers only two million back from the 2001 World Cup qualifier soccer match that remains C5's all-time highest-rated program. Also this weekend, in the "WTF?" department we have a revival of one of the most-mocked British TV shows of all time being a ratings monster on still-big-deal Saturday night, about the only night ITV can draw a sizeable audience. "All-Star Mr. & Mrs.," the revival of an unremarkable daytime game show (and a straightforward Q-and-A, not a "Newlywed Game"-type format) from the 70s mostly noted for its obsequious host Derek Batey and atrocious production values (due to being produced by tiny ITV licensee Border Television, serving a small area of the England-Scotland border region--some wags claimed that they shot the show in Border's lobby, bringing in one camera from the studio and busing in an audience from an old-age home). Now with slicker production (I assume at ITV's South Bank London headquarters where LWT was based), hosts Philip Scofield and Fern Britton of the net's "GMA"/Regis and Kelly hybrid "This Morning" and D-list celeb contestants, it is handily beating the third season of BBC1's big- budget "Robin Hood" at 6:15 p.m. on its own and not on the coattails of ITV's hot shot "Britain's Got Talent," which airs at 8:15 p.m. (with the dino drama "Primeval" at 7:15 p.m. the ratings beneficiary of both shows): http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/may/11/all-star-mr-and-mrs-robin-hood-tv-ratings Meanwhile, the Beeb must be dazed and confused that something so cheapjack can beat its big scripted show on Saturday night, especially since "Robin" has a 15-minute head start on "Mr. & Mrs." at 6 p.m. (and depressing the numbers for John Barrowman's variety show "Tonight's the Night" following "Robin Hood"--the lottery drawing extravaganza following "Tonight" at 8 p.m., of which the current game show format is "1 vs. 100," has to pretty much wave the white flag at the "BGT" juggernaut). And I wonder if Granada America, the U.S. branch of ITV, will be pitching "All-Star Mr. & Mrs." to U.S. networks. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TV or Not TV .... Smart (TV) People on Ice! 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
