It’s a kind of a ritual, I suppose, that began here on Off The Telly back in 2006. Each January, come the publication of the previous year’s ratings, we assembled a new top 50, noting who was up, who was down and how many of our predictions from 12 months ago failed to come true. Which, invariably, was almost all of them.

And so it proves, perhaps fittingly, one last time. My forecast for the TV big-hitters of 2009 turned out to be almost completely wrong: “Doctor Who will be in there, probably when David Tennant regenerates (assuming he does it before 1st January 2010). A soap might be there. If Andy Murray gets to the Wimbledon final, that might squeeze in. Otherwise: talent shows. Especially if Brucie decides to quit Strictly Come Dancing.”

I was right about the talent shows. Here’s the list, with the 2009 entries in bold:

1) Only Fools and Horses (25 December 2001) – 21.4m
2) Euro 2004: Portugal v England (BBC1, 24 June 2004) – 20.7m
3) EastEnders (5 April 2001) – 20.1m
4) Coronation Street (24 February 2003) – 19.4m
5) Coronation Street (3 January 2000) – 19.0m
6) Britain’s Got Talent (ITV1, 30 May 2009) – 18.3m
7) Euro 2004: France v England (ITV1, 21 June 2004) – 17.8m
8) EastEnders (29 September 2003) – 16.7m
9) EastEnders (5 March 2001) – 16.6m
10) Only Fools and Horses (25 December 2002) – 16.3m
10) EastEnders (2 January 2001) – 16.3m
10) Coronation Street (16 February 2004) – 16.3m
10) The X Factor (13 December 2009) – 16.3m
14) Coronation Street (1 January 2001) – 16.2m
15) Coronation Street (3 January 2001) – 16.1m
15) Who Wants to be a Millionaire?: Tonight Special (21 April 2003) – 16.1m
15) Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death (25 December 2008) – 16.1m
18) EastEnders (25 December 2002) – 16m
19) Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (19 January 2000) – 15.8m
20) Coronation Street (13 January 2003) – 15.6m
21) Only Fools and Horses (25 December 2003) – 15.5m
21) Coronation Street (11 March 2001) – 15.5m
23) Michael Jackson Tonight Special (3 February 2003) – 15.3m
24) Heartbeat (6 February 2000) – 15.2m
24) EastEnders (28 December 2000) – 15.2m
26) I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! (9 February 2004) – 15m
27) Euro 2000 Portugal v England (ITV1, 12 June 2000) – 14.9m
28) Coronation Street (5 January 2001) – 14.8m
28) EastEnders (5 January 2004) – 14.8m
30) A Touch of Frost (14 January 2001) – 14.7m
31) Euro 2000 England v Romania (BBC1, 20 June 2000) – 14.6m
32) World Cup 2006: Sweden v England (ITV1, 20 June 2006) – 14.4m
33) Coronation Street (21 February 2005) – 14.4m
33) EastEnders (25 December 2007) – 14.4m
35) EastEnders (18 February 2005) – 14.3m
36) World Cup Match of the Day Live (BBC1, 25 June 2006) – 14.25m
37) The X Factor: Results (13 December 2008) – 14.06m
38) Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (1 May 2000) – 13.9m
38) Britain’s Got Talent Final: Result (31 May 2008) – 13.9m
40) Heartbeat (21 January 2001) – 13.8m
41) Inspector Morse (15 November 2000) – 13.6m
42) Emmerdale (22 March 2000) – 13.3m
43) Pop Idol (9 February 2002) – 13.3m
43) Doctor Who (25 December 2007) – 13.3m
45) Rugby World Cup Final (20 October 2007, ITV1) – 13.1m
45) Coronation Street (15 January 2007) – 13.1m
45) The Vicar of Dibley (1 January 2007) – 13.1m
45) Doctor Who (25 December 2008) – 13.1m
49) A Touch of Frost (22 February 2004) – 13m
49) Coronation Street (18 January 2008) – 13m

Just two new entries, four down on last year. The shows that got knocked off the list were the 2008 Strictly Come Dancing final, the last ever episode of One Foot In The Grave and an edition of Heartbeat from 12 January 2003 (these last two were tied in 50th place).

The third most-watched programme of 2009 was the Doctor Who Christmas special, which attracted 12.04m viewers: not quite enough to make it a top 50 festive hat-trick for Russell T Davies.

This final chart means 2001 takes first place for the most number of programmes (10) followed by 2000 (nine), then 2003 tied with 2004 (six each), 2007 and 2008 (five apiece), 2002 (three) and finally 2005, 2006 and 2009 (two).

Not a bad decade, all told, in terms of nation-uniting, mass-appealing television. A memorable 10 years to have both watched and written about.

Only Fools and Horses ends up the most viewed programme of the 1990s and 2000s (but not the 1980s; that honour goes to Live and Let Die). It somehow seems unlikely the forthcoming “prequel” will make it three in a row for John Sullivan.

Lastly, here’s the full top 20 for 2009. All the talent shows appear once, represented by their respective results programmes. The presence of numbers 10 and 19 might have something to do with falling on the day when Britain was “snowed in”. Note also, at number six, “flop show” Strictly Come Dancing.

1) Britain’s Got Talent (30/05/09, ITV1) 18.29m
2) The X Factor (13/12/09, ITV1) 16.28m
3) Doctor Who (25/12/09, BBC1) 12.04m
4) The Royle Family (25/12/09, BBC1) 11.92m
5) EastEnders (25/12/09, BBC1) 11.67m
6) Strictly Come Dancing (19/12/09, BBC1) 11.54m
7) Coronation Street (02/02/09, ITV1) 11.46m
8) Dancing On Ice (22/03/09, ITV1) 11.31m
9) I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here (21/11/09, ITV1) 10.86m
10) I Dreamed A Dream: The Susan Boyle Story (13/12/09, ITV1) 10.79m
11) Children In Need (20/11/09, BBC1) 10.31m
12) Doc Martin (08/11/09, ITV1) 10.28m
13) Gavin and Stacey (25/12/09, BBC1) 10.18m
14) The Gruffalo (25/12/09, BBC1) 10.08m
15) Jonathan Creek (01/01/09, BBC1) 9.91m
16) Comic Relief (13/03/09, BBC1) 9.84m
17) The Apprentice (03/06/09, BBC1) 9.76m
18) The Royal Variety Performance (16/12/09, ITV1) 9.56m
19) Whitechapel (02/02/09, ITV1) 9.26m
20) Kilimanjaro: The Big Red Nose Climb (12/03/09, BBC1) 9.20m

And that’s your lot.

Well, thanks for your interest. At the moment, the website has been put on some sort of ‘danger list’ by its webhosts, due to a CPU usage issue I just plain don’t understand. With the Sword of Damacles having over its head (we’ve been told we’ve got seven days to sort the problem, otherwise it’ll be erased) I’ve switched off various features in the hope of finding the offending PHP-hungry plugin.

And that’s why, for example, there’s no sub-navigation for our feature pages right now. I’ll add further comments to this post should there by any further updates. But if we don’t make it out of the next week alive, well, Merry Christmas, and thanks everyone for the last 10 years of writing about the telly!

“This is the latest ridiculous decision by the BBC – proof that something is going wrong at the broadcaster”. Is it someone swearing again, or BBC Worldwide getting too involved in commercial activities? Of course not – it’s about Strictly vs X Factor.

What a pointless dicussion this has become, but Hunt isn’t the only one who’s been lured in to commenting on it (although he’s definitely the one who should be most ashamed of himself, as you’d think he had more important things to discuss). Here comes national speaker of common sense and, it appears, Controller of ITV Simon Cowell, who under the not-at-all-melodramatic headline ‘The BBC has let Britain down’ writes in The Sun to say, “I’m happy to chair a meeting with someone from the BBC and someone from ITV and I genuinely think we can solve this within twenty minutes.” Thank God Simon’s here to sort things out. And for shame, here’s Declan Donnelly, who you’d hope would have the wit and perspective not to treat some scheduling issue as the end of the BBC, making an almighty leap of logic by suggesting, “This whole  business is sickening… the BBC are supposed to be a public service broadcaster and I don’t see much of the public service going on at the moment, which is a real shame.” That’s exactly what it is, Dec. Because Strictly has replaced Panorama and all news bulletins and… oh, hang on. No it hasn’t.

What a shame Dec has fallen for some shameless ITV spinning. It looks like the BBC is being blamed for all of this, when nobody’s pointed out that in previous weeks, The X Factor has begun at 7pm. This week, it was abruptly moved to 8pm, where the clash with Strictly has therefore become more pronounced. This is, of course, the same ITV that’s so concerned about what’s best for the viewer that it spent much of the last two years scheduling Emmerdale up against EastEnders every single week.

The Beeb have rightly pointed out that the two shows have actually gone up against each other on forty previous occasions. Sadly, because they didn’t do it last year, ITV have now been able to get away with muder because they don’t think anyone’s boring and pedantic enough to remember this, let alone go through old listings and point this out. But there’s nobody more boring and pedantic than me, so let’s take a look at some Saturday nights from 2005…

Saturday 22nd October – Strictly 6.15pm, The X Factor 6.15pm

Saturday 29th October – Strictly 6.35pm, The X Factor 6.15pm

Saturday 5th November – Strictly 6.35pm, The X Factor 6.15pm

Saturday 11th November – Strictly 6.20pm, The X Factor 6.50pm

Then we can also look at 2006…

Saturday 14th October – Strictly 5.50pm, The X Factor 5.50pm

Saturday 21st october – Strictly 5.45pm, The X Factor 5.45pm

Saturday 28th October – Strictly 5.40pm, The X Factor 5.45pm

Saturday 4th November – Strictly 5.45pm, The X Factor 5.45pm

And just to really hammer the point home, in 2007…

Saturday 6th October – Strictly 6.15pm, The X Factor 6.45pm

Saturday 20th October – Strictly 5.45pm, The X Factor 5.45pm

Saturday 27th October – Strictly 5.45pm, The X Factor 5.45pm

Now I don’t recall a grandstanding publicity-hungry MP feeling moved to comment on any of those occasions, possibly because ITV weren’t quite so desperate for ratings and publicity and feeding the papers a load of rubbish about the Beeb.

Regardless, the general point is that Strictly remains by far the better programme than The X Factor. For all the idea that Strictly‘s audience is elderly and boring compared to the hip young gunslingers watching ITV, Strictly is way more daring and innovative in terms of musical choices – they danced to the Kings of Leon on Friday night, after The Gossip and The Killers have been on the soundtrack in previous series, while The X Factor won’t feature anything that’s not on heavy rotation on Smooth FM. And in Brucie, we’ve got the most compelling and anarchic presenter on telly – whether it’s egging on the audience in an impromptu Vera Lynn singalong or repeating jokes (and letting the running order go to pot) until they get the laugh he feels they deserve, you can’t take your eyes off him. He really doesn’t give a toss. And, of course, he’s been in this business long enough to know that this type of scheduling war is not a new thing – what about when his Big Night went up against the Generation Game in 1978?

Funnily enough, The X Factor managed to beat Strictly in the ratings, after all ITV’s bleating, so what’s the betting we’ll see these arguments about “serving the public” quietly fade away over the next few weeks, and Cowell stop being quite so concerned about his mum, who apparently loves both?

Regardless of all the arguments, though, one thing is for certain – Jeremy Hunt is a complete idiot who has got far too much time on his hands and had been taken in by some complete guff from the ITV press office. Do some bloody work, man!

This lesser level of the beautiful game used to be my preferred viewing due to the team I follow, but a recent (surprise) elevation to the top flight meant that my interest in what fans of Morecambe and Walsall call ‘proper’ football waned instantly, as their results no longer affected my mood or hopes. So, as if to apply some punitive self-flagellation for ditching the game’s grass roots, I tuned in.

The issue the BBC always has, when it comes to any coverage of sport, is that the action on the pitch, the bread and butter, is never quite going to be enough for them. Sky did a fine job when it came to non-Premiership football – they put out the Football League Review every Sunday evening which showed every goal, red card and spicy incident with a hasty voiceover and nothing more. ITV, with the dependable Matt Smith at the helm, went a step further by doing one documentary feature in the midst of all the goalmouth action. Neither required a studio set, neither were live, neither felt as if the viewer was missing out through being so.

The BBC, however, are doing their coverage live, as if to prove that their commitment to the lower leagues is equal to that of the Premier League, on which Match Of The Day has cosily focussed in a live and livid manner for many years now.

Live coverage means, however, that dreaded BBC word – interactivity. I’m not certain just how many of the millions of fans from Carlisle to Torquay, Hartlepool to Gillingham, are going to be especially bothered about sending a text saying “Brian (sic) Gunn was always the wrong man, get Strackan (sic) in now” when all they ultimately require is the goals they observed at their game earlier in the day, especially as reduced coverage on satellite sports news services means that it represents the first time many will get a second look at the very dubious penalty decision or controversial red card which transformed their team’s match. But presenter Manish Bhasin, a likeable host but with absolutely no gravitas whatsoever, was charged with flogging the interactivity card as much as possible, while a rolling dot matrix trundled away above his head, reminding the tipsy or sleepy audience of the text number and email address (an email address which, being footballleague@bbc.co.uk, will be misspelled by almost everyone thanks to the presence of three ‘l’s in a row).

The texts and emails, for what they were worth, were read out by Jacqui Oatley, the skilled BBC staffer whose previous status as Match Of The Day‘s first ever female commentator brought out the execrable chauvinism in the older, almost unemployable managers of today such as Dave Bassett. They’ve glammed her up for the cameras (one assumes she is still doing matches on Five Live during the afternoon though?) and made her read out the inarticulate snippets of correspondence that sound and impact no better than when similar nonsense goes to 606 on the radio. It’s as obvious an example of televisual turd-polishing as you could possibly muster. She’s also hindered massively by having no mic attached to her outfit, but instead one of those hideous ear-to-mouth gismos that, when in line with bright studio lighting, casts an oval-shaped shadow that makes her look like she has an unsightly wart on her bottom lip. Why she must wear this while Bhasin and his cohort Steve Claridge don’t is anyone’s guess.

The programme has to be careful not to concentrate on the ‘big’ clubs too much – it was notable that Bhasin introduced the first action of the day by rattling on about Newcastle United’s varying troubles, prior to announcing the commentator’s name at St James’ Park. Cue the action. However, for those of us with an interest that was no more than idle, we genuinely had no idea who Newcastle were actually playing until the first goal went in and the consequent scoreline graphic appeared on screen. This is because neither Bhasin, nor his autocue writer, nor the commentator, nor the in-vision person, had chosen to tell us, demonstrating an appalling but predictable focus on the ‘big’ club that too many media outlets are guilty of at the highest echelon of the game. Unlike the highlights on its elder sibling immediately before, even the featured games had no tiny scoreline in the top of the screen for latecomers to digest. Fans of Reading, for ’twas they, must have been mightily annoyed (although given that they lost 3-0, may even have been unusually grateful for the oversight).

The best thing by a mile about The Football League Show is Claridge, the great wanderer of English football who made more than 1,000 appearances for 20+ clubs, scoring goals with his socks rolled down everywhere, while laying bets at half time and brawling with his more idiosyncratic managers. Claridge, as Five Live listeners will know, provides a refreshing earthiness and fearlessness to his punditry, unafraid to criticise heavily in sharp contrast to most pundits resorting to inconclusive, uncommitted soundbites, while also proffering credit where it is due. He has clearly learned that his unique brand of stop-start punditry, which works so well on the radio as it humanises him, simply won’t wash when he is in vision, and so he speaks concisely and with brevity and it works an absolute treat. The presence as the roving reporter of the magnificent Mark Clemmit, a truly superb communicator on Five Live on the lower divisions for many a year, is also a major plus for the programme.

It was helped also by the large controversy at Bristol City, where an evident Crystal Palace goal was chalked off due to considerable incompetence form the officials, leaving the media-friendly but ever-hateful Palace boss Neil Warnock jumping up and down like Yosemite Sam on the touchline prior to a fudged, impromptu live interview with Bhasin “live from Cornwall” (according to the map of the UK taped to the camera which generously reminded us where Cornwall was) to tell us all again how unfair it all was. It made great television because a) Warnock is at his most entertaining when he has been hard done by; b) it was done with remarkable calmness by Bhasin, presumably on the basis that even a known outburst merchant like Warnock wouldn’t behave like a complete arse on national television; and c) you could almost hear fans of every club Warnock has managed to insult or alienate over the years laughing with great heartiness at their television sets.

There won’t be a controversial incident like this every week to discuss; indeed, many weeks it’ll have the air of Fantasy Football League‘s satirisation of the lower divisions, entitled Saint & Greavsie Talk About The Nationwide League – As If It’s Important, which will see Bhasin and Claridge gamely trying to find talking points from three dozen largely ho-hum matches. To fans gluttonously supporting Premier League teams, only the sponsors have altered since Skinner and Baddiel took the piss, but the lower reaches are still very important to those whose teams play in it, and the BBC should realise that by concentrating more on the action, making best possible use of their personalities, and reducing the gimmickry.

We weren’t to know then that it was to collapse into financial disarray less than two years later, but tuning into ESPN’s coverage of Everton vs Arsenal on Saturday teatime, you may have wondered if it had ever gone away. Jon Champion was in the commentary box, Rebecca Lowe was interviewing anyone she could grab and even the anthropomorphic Bet 365 letters were still jumping around their cartoon stadium before the ad breaks (no surprise, given everything in football now appears to be sponsored by betting companies). Yet this was always going to be the case – ESPN only landed the rights a matter of weeks ago, which is not much time to create a production team from scratch, and obviously there was an entire Setanta crew sitting around doing nothing. Indeed, alongside Champion, Setanta refugees Steve Bower and Jim Proudfoot have already turned up on ESPN voicing European football.

However the channel simply couldn’t produce Son Of Setanta, so there were some obvious changes. The most notable was in the anchor’s chair, where we met Ray Stubbs. The affable Merseysider is not, perhaps, the first person you’d think of to launch a new enterprise, thanks to his two decades or so as the Beeb’s jack-of-all-trades, but he brings professionalism and a no-nonsense approach to the coverage, and from its first match it seems that this is something ESPN are emphasising. The most obvious change was that rather than lounging around in open-necked shirts in an executive box, Stubbs and his guests were behind a formidable desk in a studio and had donned smart suits and ties. That’s surprising as in recent years both the BBC and ITV have moved towards a more smart casual closing policy (as did Setanta), and only Sky continued to enforce a more formal dress code, but the outfits seemed to point out that ESPN were a serious and professional outfit. Given the disaster of Setanta, that’s presumably something ESPN (and the Premier League) want to emphasise – these people know what they’re doing.

One of the best things about ESPN’s Premiership coverage is what they’re not doing. Coverage of Setanta’s Saturday teatime matches always began at 4pm, over an hour before kick-off, with the first hour interspersing the build-up with a rolling scores service. This was the worst of both worlds, though, as it meant the build-up was constantly interrupted and more often than not goals and major incidents came in the middle of a feature so they were always late announcing them anyway. ESPN have rightly taken the view that everyone who’s interested in the scores is watching Soccer Saturday so they don’t start their coverage until 5pm and, apart from a quick rundown of the scores at the start, concentrate entirely on the match in hand.

ESPN’s concentration on experience has also manifested itself in its choice of pundits, with Peter Reid and Ian Wright in the studio (obviously Wright didn’t wear a tie, but he did don a restrained dark jacket and shirt) and the veteran Joe Royle replacing the perennially pissed-off Craig Burley as Champion’s co-commentator. However ESPN haven’t yet installed any permanent pundits and, to my mind, they needn’t bother. Setanta almost always used Steve McManaman, Tim Sherwood and Les Ferdinand on all their matches, and seeing the same faces say exactly the same things every time made for boring build-up. A rotating panel of pundits isn’t a bad move at all, at least it’ll be a bit more interesting.

Similarly, ESPN haven’t yet commissioned any support programming for their Premier League output – they simply show the live games and that’s it. This could well be a side-effect of their frantic rush to get on air but Setanta’s magazine shows were never that interesting and added very little to the channel. In many ways it was a question of timing – the Beeb and Sky have nabbed all the decent timeslots, with Andy Gray’s Last Word analysis on Sunday teatimes and Match of the Day 2 on Sunday nights. By Monday night, when Setanta finally had the chance to run through Saturday’s goals again, we’d already seen them umpteen times and all the papers had had their say, and Setanta’s pundits rarely had anything more illuminating to add.

ESPN’s first match certainly had a memorable result, but was the actual coverage memorable? Well, the level of coverage demanded by the Premier League ensures that every match on television is filmed to the highest standards (and ESPN, eager not to break the bank like Setanta did, have farmed out their actual match coverage to Sky Sports anyway, thus guaranteeing quality) so there’s no problem there. The subdued red and black colour scheme is a bit easier on the eye than Setanta’s revolting bright yellow. Jon Champion’s as good as he’s always been. Rebecca Lowe is bright and intelligent in her interviews. And all the familiar aspects of a live football match are present and correct – forthcoming attractions are plugged every twenty minutes, there are unenlightening vox pops with the fans in the build-up as if anyone cares, and an actor, in this case Steven Berkoff, has been hired to recite a supposedly “stirring” monologue to accompany the montage at the start of the show. ESPN may be making their first steps in British football but there’s no deviation here from the well-worn Premier League template.

At the moment, ESPN simply haven’t had the time to think about anything but getting on air, but it could be said that this has been to the company’s benefit. Setanta desperately wanted to be Sky Sports, splashing the cash on rights of questionable value, aping their formats and presentation style to the letter and pretending its rivals didn’t exist. ESPN know that about 90% of its audience will be watching both channels, because if you want to see all the Premier League matches, you have to. It may be that, in the future, ESPN will dominate the UK sports television market as they do in the USA, but for now, as the signing of the unassuming Stubbs proves, they know their place.

So let me be one of those happy few (currently less than 2 million), to say that not only am I still watching Big Brother, but I’m enjoying this series more than perhaps any in the last three or four years.  Outside the house, the show’s luck seems to have completely run out, but get past the camera runs and the opposite is happening.  Fate has decreed that storylines such as housemate Noirin’s ability to infatuate all the heterosexual males in her company, have been allowed to twist and turn to their fullest extent.

Let’s take Noirin, for example. Her first admirer was bullied out of the house by Marcus, who swiftly became admirer number two.  This led to an entertaining and protracted period in which Marcus’ ego was able to inflate to such an extent that not only had he convinced himself  Noirin reciprocated his lust, he also started referring to himself as in mythological terms, labelling himself Captain Cool-As-Fuck and the Dark House.

As a viewer you were desperate for his comeuppance to be delivered on screen, but in classic Big Brother style as soon as it came, your allegiances began to shift and Marcus suddenly became a sympathetic figure. And that’s how it has been this series – it’s been a year of shifting allegiances, slow-burning storylines, and at least a few genuinely intelligent housemates.  Plus, the show can still deliver some excellent and insightful editing by the production team.

Listening to the radio the other day, Mark Kermode said of the controversial Lars Von Trier film Antichrist, (and I’m paraphrasing here) anyone who slags it off without having first seen it is an ignoramus.  It would be good if the same rule could be applied to Big Brother.

Mind you, Culture secretary Ben Bradshaw has described the Beeb’s position as “wrong-headed” which is an equally weak rebuttal . And anyway, where did that stupid expression come from? I have heard “wrong-headed” floating around in business speak for a year or so now – is it really necessary to invent such a silly sounding term? Grrr

It seems to me nothing more than those aforementioned radio personalities just suit the kind of freewheeling format that radio offers and telly can’t.

Who knows, perhaps Mayo and Kermode will be ace on The Culture Show - somehow though I doubt it.

Just how will daily doses of adult telefantasy fare on BBC1 next week?

It’s undoubtedly a courageous move of the Beeb to schedule such a niche programme in primetime five nights on the trot.

But there’s been a lot of publicity (in Radio Times at least) and the fact there’s nothing much new on the other channels might work in its favour.

Here’s an episode-by-episode prediction:

Monday
No big-hitters to compete with the debut episode, and this plus the novelty factor plus a few people’s hope of seeing an appearance by Dr Who means Torchwood will probably win the slot. It’ll be close, though, seeing as how Coronation Street prefaces ITV’s 9pm offering, while BBC1 has Panorama.

Most watched, in order:
Torchwood (BBC1)
Real Crime (ITV)
The Supersizers Eat…The French Revolution (BBC2)
The Hotel Inspector (C5)
Inside Nature’s Giants (C4)

with Torchwood getting 5.4m

Tuesday
There’ll be some inevitable seepage here, a phrase that seems somehow apt for Torchwood, as interest wanes and the twin guns of Big Brother and Ladette to Lady swing into action.

Most watched:
Ladette to Lady (ITV)
Torchwood (BBC1)
Big Brother (C4)
CSI: Miami (C5)
Girl with a Pearl Earring (BBC2)

with Torchwood getting 4.9m

Wednesday
Second prize again tonight, although if Big Brother wasn’t in decline it would have been third place. More people will give up on the show when they realise they’re only halfway through and Dr Who still hasn’t turned up. A rubbish sitcom about war journalism could push BBC2 into last place for the second night running.

Most watched:
Trial and Retribution (ITV)
Torchwood (BBC1)
Big Brother (C4)
Panic Room (C5)
Taking the Flak (BBC2)

with Torchwood getting 4.1m

Thursday
Third place, thanks to Trial and Retribution and a new series of Mock the Week. It might even be fourth, if Gerry Robinson trying to save a pie-and-pasty firm proves more appealing than John Barrowman trying to save the time-space continuum.

Most watched:
Trial and Retribution (ITV)
Mock the Week (BBC2)
Torchwood (BBC1)
Gerry’s Big Decision (C4)
The Mentalist (C5)

with Torchwood getting 3.6m

Friday
Will there be a sudden surge of interest as the end nears and, according to Radio Times, “Gwen stands alone when the final sanction begins”? It feels unlikely, and any boost in viewers won’t be enough to push it back up the chart. Instead it could well sink down to fourth, given the competition.

Most watched:
Doc Martin (ITV)
RHS Hampton Court Flower Show (BBC2)
Big Brother (C4)
Torchwood (BBC1)
NCIS (C5)

with Torchwood getting 3.8m