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New Years Eve ratings

I bet ITV wish they hadn't bothered! (January 2008)

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NW
nwtv2003
onetrickpony posted:
I watched some of the Take That concert, its ashame we can't have something like that live in Trafalgur Sq or something similar.


I think it's a shame that ITV1 put in a decent effort this year and yet it was the lowest watched. I was at a party last night and we had the Music channels on until 11.58pm and then flipped onto BBC1 for the bongs, other than that it was music all the way.

At the same party we had access to some European satellite channels, most do what the UK do. On France 2 (and TV5) they had a New Year party in a Studio whilst the rest of the France Televisions empire was showing normal programming. Although we hopped onto the ultra low budget Budapest TV and they played their National anthem and then back to the Studio for some celebrations.

I can safely bet that ITV will probably go back to having the ITV News at 11.55pm on New Years Eve next year.
FA
fanoftv
Well we played drunken games until half 11, put on ITV1 and had a massive drunken sing a long. I didn't notice any of the jokes, but I enjoyed it, and it's nice to see that ITV did put in some sort of effort this year.

And we were all too drunk to notice anything wrong with Monty Python, except one person saying that they were playing the DVD version Confused
WH
Whataday Founding member
I'm sure ITV is more than happy with their effort last night. Not only did it increase their usual New Year ratings by around 50%, they rebroadcast it on ITV2 today which is bound to have pulled in the usual 'Sunday afternoon X Factor' type viewers.
BR
Brekkie
Whataday posted:
I'm sure ITV is more than happy with their effort last night. Not only did it increase their usual New Year ratings by around 50%, they rebroadcast it on ITV2 today which is bound to have pulled in the usual 'Sunday afternoon X Factor' type viewers.



OK they may have doubled viewers on last year - but for the costs involved it wouldn't be anywhere near worth it.
PC
p_c_u_k
Is it not time for the BBC network to give BBC Scotland another chance?

I know why they've avoided this in recent years. BBC Scotland made a hash of it several years ago. This included such classics as Robbie Coltrane missing the countdown, and the year they tried to make it modern and cool and in the end destroyed the entire point of handing the programme to BBC Scotland in the first place.

But having compared the two programmes it seems to me Scotland won.

The biggest error made by those planning programming is that they often see it as twee and old-fashioned. But that's the point. Most people under a certain age are out drinking. Those who aren't will switch it on for the bells and ditch it the minute they pass. Most of the people who will watch it intently are of the older generation. (lesson learned ITV1?)

So if you compare the two programmes, BBC Scotland's was slick - it looked like they'd been doing it for years (funny that). It was high on sentiment. And it had some decent celebrities as well, helped by quite a few half decent Scottish celebrities coming through. (The less said about Marti Pellow being the first foot the better, but at least he's a well known UK name) And finally they seem to have learned how to mix new and old, with all the old traditional fiddle etc music there.

BBC1 network looked like it was devised by London trendsetters for all their posh mates. It had two presenters who looked amateurish, especially whoever that was with Myleene. It had some odd ice dancing that seemed to last an eternity. Random plugging of crap shows at Wembley. And Katie Melua sending everyone to sleep before midnight (incredibly over shots of fireworks from around the world, making the more drunk viewers think they'd missed the bells...) And a crowd who didn't care going up to the bells, with a presenter desperately ad-libbing some rubbish with the crowd.

Alright, it wasn't disastrous. I liked the backing bed though for the countdown... Laughing It was perfectly functional (although I agree with the criticisms over the constantly changing cameras angles for the fireworks). But surely it's being done better up north?
GF
GrampianForever
Well naturally we in Scotland had our own Hogmanay programming - Hogmanay Live from BBC Scotland's new Pacific Quay HQ (with Edinburgh for the bongs/fireworks) and STV from Edinburgh.

We had Hogmanay Live on for the bells - pretty spectacular fireworks stuff from Edinburgh, so glad it went ahead this year, its a shame when the weather gets in the way!

Perhaps biased here, but through the wonders of BBC iPlayer I was able to watch both Hogmanay Live and New Year Live and to be honest, Hogmanay Live shockingly won hands down! New Year Live looked a load of rubbish (what WAS that Auld Lang Syne massacre??). Maybe its because I like a bit of folky Scottish music interspersed with new music (such as Amy Macdonald) and fireworks, but it definately seemed better done.
BR
Brekkie
Do you think we'll ever see another "2000 Today" type programme, perhaps in 2010?


Fair enough the Millennium was a once in several lifetimes event and could never be replicated on a standard New Year, but it's surprising that no-one has ever really opted to dip in to New Year celebrations elsewhere - for example Sydney in the afternoon, or New York in the early morning - even if it's just simulcasting the local New Years programming.


What do they do in the US actually - do they do an alternative show for the West Coast, or just show the Times Square event, either live or on the standard 3-hour delay (so its midnight local time)?
PC
p_c_u_k
[quote="Grampian4ever"]what WAS that Auld Lang Syne massacre??[quote]

Hey, great minds think alike. Laughing

Both versions of Auld Lang Syne nearly had me in tears - the Scottish version because the female vocalist has a beautiful voice, the network one because it was an atrocity.
RS
Roy Slaven
][quote ]
London put on an amazing firework display last night which topped Sydney by a long way, yet the BBC still had a way of ruining it. It reminded me of their Millennium coverage when they missed entirely the centre-piece of the fireworks - the River of Fire [/quote]

Er...what River of Fire ? It didn't exactly happen I seem to recall ! ( and yes, I was there watching) ...we've been trying to live it down ever since!

yes, London was pretty good this year - despite the ropey coverage - mind you, it took a frenchman to design it for us - so thank god for him! Still not quite up to Sydney yet though...(imho) Wink
BR
Brekkie
Roy Slaven posted:


Er...what River of Fire ? It didn't exactly happen I seem to recall ! ( and yes, I was there watching) ...we've been trying to live it down ever since!



It happened - it was just too quick for anyone to see IIRC!
NG
noggin Founding member
p_c_u_k posted:

The biggest error made by those planning programming is that they often see it as twee and old-fashioned. But that's the point. Most people under a certain age are out drinking.


I'm afraid that is a common, but not entirely correct, assumption.

Looking back at 2006 and 2005 :

The 16-24s are not major lumps of the audience - only 7% of the viewing audience for New Year Live were in this bracket. This is the largest part of the audience probably in the pub - but once you get over 25 things become a bit more interesting.

The 25-34, 35-44, 45-54 and 55-64 year olds all watched in roughly similar amounts - each 10 year age group making up between 12 and 16% of the audience.

Sure the over 65s made up 25% of the audience, but that means that 75% of the audience was under 65, and 45% were under the age of 44.

10% of the audience is under 15.

With a show getting over 6 million viewers, and peaking over 9 million, you have to be careful not to target a single demographic. You wouldn't want to alienate 44% of your audience.

The Ice Dancing will have targetted a mass audience created by Dancing on Ice (which Kyran Bracken - who featured in this year's New Year Live - won ISTR) and the ice rink at Somerset House is a nice "Wintry" thing to feature in an otherwise wet and dismal Britain.

Teatro linked in to the Musical Theatre vibe that has done so well for BBC One on Saturday nights (Maria and Joseph)

The other acts were all pretty MOR "don't scare the horses" acts - which would appeal to a wider age range than more "credible" pop/rock acts, but the fact they were only playing single numbers meant they wouldn't alienate viewers who weren't particularly fans, as something else would only be a few mins away.

I agree that Nick Knowles was a poor presenter - arrogant and unprofessional was how he came across. Interviewing is obviously not his strong point, and I was amazed he fluffed the second line of the show...

I think Myleene did her normal trick of being warm, comfortable to watch, whilst much more on top of things, and a bit slicker - in a good way - than her co-presenter and came across much better. She does have a tendency to bland-niceness - I think she needs a bit more "attitude" if I'm honest.

Gethin was an obvious choice since he did so well on Strictly and has bags of live TV experience from Blue Peter. He did pretty well (don't think he had autocue unlike Nick and Myleene)

I didn't really miss Natasha though - Myleene and Gethin would be a good choice for next year.

The show had a much better "New Year" feel than previous years - with the constant "Happy New Year" recorded wishes making it feel a bit more than just a random pop act selection.

I think the key advantage the network probably has over the BBC Scotland show is doing it as an OB rather than a studio? (I assume Hogmanay live was from Pacific Quay and not an OB?)
PC
p_c_u_k
Interesting breakdown there, and a very good case that possibly puts a different perspective on things.

However (speaking as a 25-45) in Scotland at least, while the programme probably does scare off anyone under the age of 20, it's generally one that can be left on in the background while any house party continues. And that's surely the case in most places with new year shows.

The event was relatively contemporary and had the likes of Amy Macdonald performing. Would it really have scared the English audience any more than that hideous version of Auld Lang Syne, or the amateurish commentary over the fireworks?

(That's not a loaded question by the way, because the answer may be yes)

Hogmanay Live, incidentally, is from the Pacific Quay studio, but crosses to the bells in Edinburgh and the resulting fireworks display. But as the advantage of the OB was the inane 'ask people their new year resolutions to fill time', I don't think we missed much.

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