[eyeTV]

Have ITV (and C4) now gone back to normal idents?

[jlmiller]

Nope - ITV1 are still using Christmas idents for now (except for introducing the news).

[Hybrid]

ITV usually go back to normal idents in early January.

[JMT1985]

ITV haven't worried about that before and could easily have tweaked things to accommodate it - the 1% Club could have been pushed an hour later and Barry Humphries bumped to another night.

They tried something different, it didn't work - but at least they tried.

Far better ITV schedule than they had say in 1993 and indeed many of the 00s.

It is just a plain fact, viewers don't see ITV as their home to Christmas television

[tellyblues]

The 1% Club clashing with Eastenders for just 15 minutes rather than fully head on and there being very little crossover audience for 1% and Call The Midwife is probably what swayed the decision.

[Score]

And ultimately The 1% Club rated considerably better than either of the soaps, so deserved the slot.

8.30pm would have been too late for The Masked Singer as well (which also beat both soaps) and both soaps did quite a bit better on Boxing Day than Christmas Day, so I don’t see the issue really. The soaps don’t have the appeal to a casual audience any more and I can see why they were reduced down. I hope they don’t go back to an hour next year.

If they were to, they could have started an hour earlier, with Sing 2 pushed back to 3.10pm (or removed entirely seeing as it rated quite badly).

[Brekkie]

Personally I think they could have got away with The Masked Singer head to head with Call the Midwife (a bit late but good complementary scheduling) and 1% Club against EastEnders with the soaps before hand - or alternatively The Masked Singer at 6 .15pm, then the soaps from 7.45-9.45pm, but that would have more of a crossover audience with Call the Midwife. I suspect though in the officials Corrie and Emmerdale may still top EastEnders.

Vera might have been better for Christmas night itself (the regular series clashes with Call the Midwife anyway, so that shouldn't be seen as a problem) and The Masked Singer airing on Christmas Eve instead.

In reality though it's probably not worth overanalysing because as much as people complain about the BBC showing the same shows year after year the evidence is they'll top the ratings regardless anyway.

[Score]

Vera did decently on Boxing Day so I think that was probably the right shout.

I think ITV got it about right this year. The main change to make next year is that 3.10-6.30pm block which didn’t work at all. Get a stronger film in at 3.10pm (Home Alone 2 if they still have it) and a Deal or No Deal special at 5.30pm and I think that’s about as good as they’ll get. Ultimately the BBC will win the day regardless but that feels like a pretty solid offering.

The soaps really don’t need to be an hour each on Christmas Day, they just repel people. No doubt they’ll timeshift very well (I expect they’ll overtake Masked Singer and maybe even 1% Club) which again I just think serves as proof that audiences don’t want them on the day itself and they’re better used elsewhere. I’d say drop them from Christmas Day entirely but that might be seen as too much of a snub, so 30 minutes each is a decent compromise.

[Brekkie]

Even if late afternoon didn't work at least it wasn't just Tipping Point and The Chase specials as I think we've had in recent years - though arguably the only reason The Chase was missing was because they didn't have any news Christmas episodes.

There is a strong argument for ITV to just schedule to suit them rather than to counter the BBC but perhaps not having any junctions line up wasn't a wise decision - it wasn't really possible to hop from one to the other throughout the night, though I suspect most people just record what they want and timeshifted it themselves anyway. And the one show that started midway through another rated highest anyway, which kind of kills my argument.

[JMT1985]

I know from my research, that ITV always want to be seen to be caring about Christmas Day, when in reality they don't. And so, their schedule reflects that.

ITV this year did reasonably well but I do feel with no big soap plot lines for Emmerdale and Corrie, that was the achilles heel for their schedule. If Emmerdale and Corrie had a big event on Christmas Day, that would prove decent competition to BBC One, however Emmerdale and Corrie this Christmas night people have said just felt like a regular episode.