On repeat

The behaviour of the British viewing public in late August is bizarre. On Wednesday at 9pm, Celebrity Master Chef on BBC 1 reached an average of 1.7m viewers, taking an 18.5% share of the available audience. 

Much earlier, at 12.15pm, an edition of Bargain Hunt, on its second  repeat, drew a comparable 1.5m, with a remarkable 38% share. A function of televisions just being 'left on' ? 

Spooning

Four and a half hours of DJ Spoony in today's summer schedule on Radio 2; evidence, or otherwise, of dynamic succession planning ? 

Figures

All Perspectives, the company who's only broadcast product is GB News, reached 3.6m people via four screens over the month of July; that's down from 3.9m in June.

Here comes Judge Kuntz

Freshly sworn-in Judge Jeffrey T. Kuntz took his seat in the Southern District of Florida this week, and a readjustment of the caseload of Judge Roy Altman meant Jeff, 6.4", US size 14 shoes, gets custody of Trump v BBC. 

Born in 1981 in Winter Park, Florida, he took a BA at Boston, then a law degree from Suffolk University Law School. On return to Florida, he joined Gray Robinson with twelve offices across the state. 

He's been an appeal judge since 2016. One case that came his way was Trump v The Board of the Pulitzer Prizes, in which the President's lawyers argue he's been defamed because they gave prizes to papers critical of the President, in particular to The New York Times for an investigation into Trump's finances. In February this year, Judge Kuntz gave his opinion that the case could be heard in Florida. In April, President Trump nominated Judge Kuntz for the next big Judge job. 

Flaky

Are all the big boys on August holidays ?  One detects a certain instability in BBC editorial coherence in recent days. The weekend coverage allowed to Reform's mere announcement of a forthcoming press conference on welfare cuts was disproportionate. Yesterday, the television 6 O'Clock bulletin confected a heatwave portfolio story, allowing headline shots of flames extinguished at the weekend, whilst Radio 4 led with Trump's threat to bomb Oman and Kushner's visit to Israel. The 10pm tv news came round in the end. 

This morning, Radio 4 and Radio 2 led with a preview of Meta's trial in Oakland, USA, from their US technology correspondent Lily Jamali. At time of writing, it doesn't feature on the News Online front page, nor on the US/Canada sub-page. There is an item from yesterday, on the Technology tab. Meanwhile BBC Breakfast led with Russia's threats to the UK. 

Clunky

Freely, the IP streaming replacement for Freesat and Freeview, had an unpleasant blip at the weekend. There's something over a million users at the moment, and forecasts of 10 million by 2034. Yet early adopters (like me) had to start from scratch with a factory reset, and were warned off using buttons marked 'programme restart'.  Factory reset is not plain sailing, and a few more resets will have me looking for alternative ways of reaching the IP future... 

Fillers

The click-hungry weekend curators at BBC News online must be tickled pink with "What's driving men to get penis fillers, despite the risks?", number 3 in the site's list of most-read items, at time of writing. 

It seems to be a simple write-up from an edition of Inside Health, first broadcast on March 3rd, and clearly then stuffed in a back pocket to fill holes in August....

Time for a change

As we note 20 years of The One Show, it's time to look for more changes in the basic BBC1 weekday line-up, to get Mr Brittin's BBC in the front foot. 

Peter Fincham's idea for The One Show, a nightly magazine format with elements of the old "Tonight" in the Cliff Michelmore era and bits of Wogan, dispatched with a rag-bag of 7pm offers - "What Not To Wear", "The Real Story", "Watchdog", "Should I Worry ?", "Didn't They Do Well ?", "Airport" and the dreaded "Regional Variations". Cutely, the Fincham commission also saved money, which was re-directed to drama, comedy and light entertainment. 

It's now pretty clear that now, during The One Show, most of those remaining in the family living room have a chat about what to watch next. Around 2.5m stay for EastEnders. It's not enough; the soap has become a bed blocker. People are scanning Netflix, Prime, Disney and Apple for a new film or a blockbuster series. The BBC's 'big offer' should start at 7.30pm.  Two one-hour 'bangers', followed by a half-hour comedy/panel show, to get to the 10pm news, still holding up well. 

Meanwhile, Matt, tell them schedulers to drop at least one episode of the Pointless comfort-blanket, and give the nation back a live-ish 5pm pop show... 

Holes

Messing around with colanders seems to have disrupted tv audiences yesterday evening. The biggest audience of the day was for regional news slot on the BBC at 6.30pm, adding up to 3.5m. The preceeding 6pm bulletin came second on 2.9m, and the 10pm was third at 2.8m.  Not banging, but top of the linear charts, Mr Brittin. 

Fourth place went to The One Show with an average of 2.4m.  

Warming up

As we head for new, unexplored areas of the thermometer, heed the words of interim BBC News boss, Jonathan Munro  “As this summer’s heatwaves have proved, up-to-the minute and accurate weather information has never been more important."

This was putting a brave face on plans which will reduce the number of national weather presenter roles on the BBC from 11 to 4.5.  These 4.5 will be split between London and Salford, with an additional four weather "reporters" (presumably cheaper than presenters)  based at the Met Office headquarters in Exeter producing online material, video, and social media updates

From the national press, we learn that some of the current roster of 11 may be interested in voluntary redundancy. But if six don't come forward, Mr Munro may find himself interviewing the remainder in competition.  A reminder - the 11 are Ben Rich (41), Tomasz Schafernaker (47), Darren Bett (58), Louise Lear (58), Elizabeth Rizzini (50), Matt Taylor (50), Chris Fawkes (43), Sarah Keith-Lucas (44), Stav Danaos (48), Simon King (45), and Helen Willetts (54). 

Mr Munro is presumably also facing an interview, to see if he can become more than interim; perhaps explaining why he thought the Panorama/Trump edit was acceptable journalism.