Peston on Sunday to move to Wednesdays

Because being out-rated nearly 10:1 by Marr on BBC One an hour earlier, means those ratings aren't 'par for the course'.



Not sure how news-making it will be at that time of night on a Wednesday (clips from interviews on it won't be leading any bulletins that day as they'll all have been broadcast before it). Will they get the big hitters at that time of the night in the middle of the week?

Time will tell. Maybe ITV want it to be more 'This Week' than 'Marr'?

Will be a shame to not have it as part of my Sunday routine - even if that was watching it on +1 so I could watch Sophy Ridge too. It’s a genuinely decent show.

But it is "par for the course". The ratings in the Sunday slot are near identical to the repeats previously shown in that slot, but probably a more attractive audience to advertisers (hence increasing ad minutes in the slot). The network's losses are minimised. The programme is also attracting the right guests despite the ratings and is getting headlines to build ITV's political cachet. Until this announcement, ratings had barely been mentioned in the press following the launch, so the crap numbers weren't visibly hurting ITV's reputation.

If - as you suggest - the network thinks it's a stinker that turns off viewers and it is being kept purely out of a sense of duty / reputation building, 22.35 is a completely mad slot to move it to. If it rates anywhere near as poorly, ITV will lose money on the ad slots and - as you say - they won't get the same headlines / brand cachet out of it because of the timing.

This is a perfectly reasonable approach if the next step is, in six months, to say that the programme isn't working and is being axed. It's also a perfectly reasonable approach if they genuinely think they can build the show this way and make a success of it (maybe - as you suggest - by morphing into more of "This Week" than "Marr"). It's not rational if the intention is to maintain it for the long-term as a tool to convince people of the network's merits as a PSB.

Slot averages are just that - averages. They aren't expected audiences for a show. Some shows massively outperform their slot. Some underperform. I wouldn't call hitting a slot average 'par for the course' for a show. If Strictly got the slot average ratings on BBC One on a Saturday, would you call that 'par for the course' for Strictly?

Peston seems to hit the slot average you say. However that average is not for a high-profile signing presenting a live show. Not outperforming the slot and being massively out-rated by a rival show in a slot only an hour earlier must surely mean that the show is not seen as an unmitigated success.



I suspect that behind the scenes the Peston team were having to work harder to avoid being the 'also rans' in guest booking terms though. Some weeks there are more credible guests than outlets, and some outlets work better to some interviewees strengths than others. However if you wanted to make a big announcement or provide a big interview, you'd have been crazy to have chosen Peston over Marr if you wanted to reach an audience.



I didn't say that - just that being out-rated nearly 10:1 in a very similar slot after a sensible length of time to bed in, means it's not proving to be an audience success. Peston is obviously talented, and has his own audience. Maybe they think that audience is more likely to watch on a Wednesday than a Sunday, particularly if that audience skews younger.

Could also be that there are other reasons - Robert may not want to be 'up against' Marr/Sunday Politics all the time. He may want the show to do something different.



No - put a PSB show that nobody watches isn't that useful either.

Very wise that it's not being branded as "Peston on Wednesday", as it would then have the same initials as "Prisoner of War". Imagine if the programme got #PoW trending...

So? Think of what PoS also stands for... and I don't mean point of sale...

They're working on some new themes:

I’ve been listening to some awesome cuts by @sittingduckmus for new #Peston very exciting!

— Erron Gordon (@errongordon) August 16, 2018

The only real competition Peston has on a Wednesday night from the autumn is Newsnight on BBC Two. I don't know what the viewership numbers are like when you take into consideration that Newsnight is expected to be repeated on the NC for up to five nights a week. With the new title Peston for the show being decided upon from ITV; I would say that it really has a good opportunity here to try & beat that Newsnight time slot if it badly wants to from the BBC just for that one night every week.

Robert Peston was trying to give something to the audience that was new & fresh but while keeping a serious tone in it's make up when this show initially began with ITV on Sunday mornings. With the likes of Marr & Sophy Ridge hoovering up that vital share of the audience it was seen as a somewhat decent bit of competition. But it was seemingly too much of a challenge for Peston to go against the like of the BBC & Sky. But with Wednesday nights now on the cards for the new season; Peston is trying to make the show with a different take with what the show will become well into the future with an added extra of asking political analyst's reactions to PMQ's later on in the night.

A show like this in this new time slot is perfect for someone who has an interest in politics while working their regular shifts & seemingly did not have the time to watch PMQ's during the day. Peston will already have gained some ground here with getting a potential new audience into it's ratings with a show that will include something catered to their needs as soon as these viewers try & wind down during their Wednesday evenings.

I thought the Newsnight repeat on NC had been dropped?

What ratings does Ridge get? I'd have thought the bulk of the hoovering was by Marr not Ridge?

Not enough to get into the Barb Top 10 for the channel. The most rated non-news bulletin shows are the evening Press Preview editions.

So fair to say that Ridge wasn't hoovering up that many ratings against Peston.