In the country where Saturday night is still a big deal on TV, the big showdown this past Saturday night wasn't D-list celebs vs. aspiring singers on reality competition shows, but two scripted family dramas (in terms of appeal, not as in soapy shows) as BBC1 and ITV rolled out their big guns and overlapped each other--"Robin Hood" v. "Primeval," both starting their third season and providing along with Graham Norton around three months worth of Saturday night programming on BBCA. Robin of Sherwood beat the dinosaurs-run-amuck "Primeval" in the ratings, but could not hold back the direct competition of Harry Hill, the UK's Joel McHale, and his clip show "TV Burp" on ITV (and "Primeval" wasted some of "TV Burp"'s lead-in):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/mar/30/tv-rat-ngs-robin-hood-primeval The critics speak, a little more loving of "Primeval" than "Robin": http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/mar/30/robin-hood-primeval Meanwhile, on Friday night a new BBC1 reality series trying a real- life update of "Swiss Family Robinson" (from the creators of "Supernanny") won its hour, but with a meager-for-the-UK 19 share over "NCIS" on Channel 5, "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares U.S.," as they call it, on Channel 4 (the Brits should be a little aghast about how over- the-top the U.S. version is compared to their original), a BBC2 travelogue, and in last place, two ITV comedies, on a good night for the digital channels: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/mar/30/real-swiss-family-robinson How the once-mighty ITV has fallen--and to British TV geeks, their solution would be restoring the regional identities and bringing back on-camera booth announcers. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
