Michael Parkinson

I've always enjoyed Parkinson and regretted his departure to ITV. I notice that ratings for the present series seem to be dipping as low as 3.6m even with guests like Will Smith. Do you think ITV will continue to invest in him? I'd hate to see the demise of the show but I just don't understand why he's not pulling in the viewers (even though he is beating Match of the Day) and whether his new channel will remain committed to him long term.

I find it hard to belive that ITV are promoting him as King of chat, yet the ratings are far from "King"!

We all knew this was going to happen in the end, he should have stayed on BBC1 and went with the flow.

Paul O'Grady would bring in more viewers than him, wasted at 5pm.

They are.... they're 'king small!

That is his problem, other chat shows have come in that are far more modern and entertaining than Parky.... and they have realised that Saturday Night is no longer *the* night.

I also note that Jonathan Ross get a larger audience share then Parky does (of course we are talking different days and timeslots)

I agree, though I still sit down and watch parky for some reason, it's simply a chat show, he walks on and then introduces the guest, he doesn't spend 5 minutes on weekly news, he gets straight into it, and as long as the guests are good I will continue to watch.

I'm glad that Julie Walters eventually appeared on the show (even though she was billed as being on the first of this series), as her stories had me howling with laughter, and then with Will Smith dancing with Parky, it was great telly!

If its beating Match of the Day then its obviously because there isn't many people watching terrestrial tv at that time on a Saturday night thesedays. 3.6m is probably quite decent at that time. If Parkinson was shown Monday at 9pm and it got that figure then then there would be a problem

But doesn't Parkinson usually average out at 5 Million IIRC? I don't know if there was something else more popular last week (as I was out last Saturday, so I didn't see any TV) as that could affect it.

As Andrew said, as long as it beats Match Of The Day, and the audience share is somewhere between 20-25% then ITV are happy. But for after 10pm on a Saturday, 3 million is still good, as The Premiership got that usually, but remember The Premiership cost ITV £80 million, but if they stick a film on for far less or a Chat show, ITV are probably pleased.