Weaver's Week 2018-12-30

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The Week of the Year for 2018. In a nod to Countdown tradition, the best is at the beginning.

Contents 1 Top Five 1.1 The Time it Takes (Hat Trick Productions for BBC1) 1.2 Football Genius (Hat Trick Productions for ITV4) 1.3 The Button (Avalon Television for BBC1) 1.4 Prosiect Z (Boom Cymru Plant for S4C; two series) 1.5 Spy School (Zodiak Kids for CITV; one-and-a-half series) 2 Cakey Cakey Sing Off 3 Celebrity shows 4 Cheap-as-chips daytime quizzes 5 Primetime quizzes 6 Children's television 7 Reality and skill contests 8 Pure entertainment 9 Cymraeg 10 Remembered this year... 11 Any other business 12 The ratings story 12.1 ITV 12.2 BBC1 12.3 BBC2 12.4 Channel 4 12.5 Channel 5 12.6 ITV2 12.7 Dave 12.8 W 12.9 The Satellite Channel 12.10 E4 12.11 BBC4 12.12 5* 12.13 More4 12.14 Living 12.15 Artsworld 12.16 ITVBe 12.17 MTV 12.18 ITV4 12.19 Comedy Central 12.20 Really 12.21 Spike 12.22 Challenge 12.23 CBBC 12.24 Cbeebies 12.25 4Seven 12.26 CITV 12.27 Home 12.28 Colors 12.29 Lifetime 12.30 Nickelodeon 12.31 4Music 12.32 Good Food 12.33 My5 12.34 Food Network 12.35 BET 12.36 &tv 12.37 VH-1 12.38 BT Sport 2 12.39 Community Channel 12.40 S4C 13 Roll of Honour 14 Coming up...

Top Five

These are the five programmes we expect to nominate in the Poll of the Year when it opens on 2 January. That's next Wednesday, it says here.

The Time it Takes (Hat Trick Productions for BBC1)

Joe Lycett asks general knowledge questions while all hell breaks loose in the studio. Co-host Alison Hammond is asked to do all sorts of useless tasks – separate clothespegs by colour, squeeze the juice out of lemons – while Joe asks questions.

This show offers two entertainments for the price of one. There's a visual treat of someone doing something televisually silly on screen. There's the audio treat of Joe asking questions to see if the contestant is paying attention or getting distracted by the lemon squeeze action. It's a fun entertainment and a decent quiz at the same time.

Football Genius (Hat Trick Productions for ITV4)

Hat Trick have done well in the entertainment-quiz space this year. This column knows diddly-squat about football. We couldn't tell you about the goaltender for the Arsenal Hotspurs, nor any of the winners of the FA Superbowl Shield. We can tell you about a playful show when we see it, and Football Genius is exactly that.

Tim Vine hosts at his usual breakneck speed. Sam Quek from the hockey and Paul Sinha from The Chase introduce a set of football fans, and they answer questions to move a virtual ball about and – hopefully – make some soccer scores. The rules are just complex enough to satisfy football fans, but simple enough to make sense the first time we see them. Most importantly, we come away feeling like we've spent the last half-hour having harmless fun.

The Button (Avalon Television for BBC1)

A half-hour of harmless fun was the feeling from The Button. Video links mean that the action takes place in your home, often using items or ideas we can all find familiar. The Button was often at its best when it was the most mundane – which family can get the most people in a queue in half-an-hour, or deflate a bunch of deflatables. That kind of thing.

Warm and joyful and human, The Button worked because of some really slick editing and a jaunty soundtrack. Alex Horne's voice explained the challenges, and talked directly to the competitors. The key element was the competing families, reflecting the diverse inhabitants and uniting them in a love of daft challenges. Prizes weren't huge, but the real prize might not be cash.

Prosiect Z (Boom Cymru Plant for S4C; two series)

The prize in Prosiect Z is not cash, it's survival. After a scientific project went wrong, the world has become a mess. Groups of children are stranded in their school, with help on the way. To get out, they'll need to unlock the front door; to unlock the front door, they'll need to distract the "zeds" by sounding an alarm, but where is the alarm? A single touch from one of the "zeds" will spread the nanobots, so don't get caught.

From a very simple formula (the same five rounds, played in the same order) we get great entertainment. Each show includes escape room challenges made specifically for your school, and tests the children in a manner appropriate to their age. We've enjoyed every minute of Prosiect Z, and it's reminded us how great television transcends language. We hope the show's being sold for international remakes, or adapted into a real-life escape room, and it's great to say "Won the 2018 Children's BAFTA for Best Entertainment Show."

Spy School (Zodiak Kids for CITV; one-and-a-half series)

Hawked for international remakes, Spy School is a delicious mixture of challenge and entertainment. The challenge is deadly serious – pairs of children take on a "spy simulation" assault course, then test their wits and intelligence against touchscreen problems. Our dynamic duo are in contact with an agent at one of London's landmarks, and join her there for the final puzzle.

The characters are wonderful – Becky Naidoo plays the no-nonsense Agent L in the field, Jack Finch is the benevolent taskmaster Agent J. The star is Steve Furst's Goldfist, a Massive Evil Overlord (TM) who is perpetually betrayed by his own uselessness. A range of supporting characters with punful pseudonyms (robot fan Simon Borg, archaeologist Wendy-Anna Jones, moneylender Donald J Guff), and the producers smuggle a teensy-weensy little bit of educational content into each show. We've laughed at each episode, and cheered for the neophyte agents.

Cakey Cakey Sing Off

For quite some years, the biggest genre of new shows has been cookery. This year, the larder has finally emptied. Just one major new show went out on network television, Best Home Cook on BBC1 during the spring. Mary Berry was one of the judges, Claudia Winkleman was the host, but two of the Beeb's biggest stars couldn't elevate Best Home Cook to great heights. Make no mistake, this wasn't a bad show, but it rather sagged in the middle. Let's hope the second series will be more to people's taste.

The BBC's cookery juggernauts returned – massive popularity for Masterchef, and Celebrity, and Professionals. Great Local Menu proved adept in its teatime slot on BBC2, where it was joined by Family Cooking Showdown, revamped to give more screen time to the winners. Channel 4 added a Professionals series to its pilfered Bake Off. The latter is Channel 4's biggest show, though still not quite as good or as popular as it was on the BBC.

Singing shows also ploughed their usual furrow. BBC The Voice of This Territory returned to ITV, winner Ruti is teasing something amazing in the new year. The X Factor felt like it was going through the motions for much of the series, and is surely running on fumes by now. Two series of CBBC's Got What It Takes? found very different winners – the extrovert Rio and the more understated Lauren both have the ability to become stars, if that's what they want.

Two new shows crossed our path. Change Your Tune gave performances by bad singers before they had vocal coaching, and then cut to their performance afterwards. Might have worked as a one-off, might have worked if they'd shown the journey, but not as a six-part series on ITV.

All Together Now turned into a proper hit on BBC1, a cast of 100 judges would join in with the performances they loved. It's a big and brash format, it rewards crowd-pleasers rather than delicate ballads, and it turned into a breakout hit early in the year. Another series is already in the can, and we'll spend at least one Saturday cheering along at the telly.

Celebrity shows

The Saturday nights are clear because Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway won't be back in 2019. Ant McPartlin left the show halfway through the series, to resolve some personal problems he was having. The last two episodes worked on a massive wave of goodwill to Dec, and support from co-hosts Stephen Mulhern and Scarlett Moffatt. Got Talent just about worked as a Dec solo vehicle, and the winner was always going to be the winner.

I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here was too big for Dec to host alone, so they drafted in Holly Willoughby from This Morning and Dancing on Ice. A "lowkey" series with much friendship and few manufactured rows, viewing figures were higher than ever, proving they're still doing something right. The greatest news is that Ant is recovered and able to return to work, he will appear on the new run of Got Talent.

Over on the BBC, Strictly Come Dancing ruled Saturday nights with a rod of iron. As usual, the winner was someone who had been on a journey, not someone who came in brilliant already. As usual, the scoring system conspired to keep in the popular but less-able contenders deep into November.

Just two new celebrity shows. And They're Off For Sport Relief raised money and laughs for Sport Relief, by getting well-known people to hurl themselves at a wall of water. The prizes were minimal, the show's aim was to raise money for charity through the medium of entertaining television.

At the end of the year, I'll Get This challenged celebrities to avoid paying for an expensive meal by playing a bunch of table games. A very good idea, perhaps needs a little less chatter in the next series.

Cheap-as-chips daytime quizzes

Here's another sector that seems to be consolidating, as the flood of daytime shows earlier in the decade has slowed to a trickle. The winners have held their place in the schedule.

The Chase was taken off air only for Mark Pougatch's The World Cup, and often proved to be ITV's biggest show of the entire day. Tipping Point remains phenomenally popular, and Tenable does the business. There might be room for something new at 3pm, but we can't see any major changes in the next year.

On BBC1, Pointless spread new episodes very thinly, viewing figures suffered, and was replaced over the summer by Rick Edwards' !mpossible. While Pointless Celebrities could run forever, we wonder if !mpossible is being lined up as the logical replacement at teatime – and maybe in Saturdays, after a celebrity run in early autumn.

BBC2 has its little block at 6pm. Eggheads celebrated 15 years on air, and there were new series of Richard Osman's House of Games and of Letterbox. With regular bookings for Great Local Menu and Strictly Come Dancing It Takes Two, we reckon BBC2 is one teatime show away from a full house. As they've got quizzing and puzzles and words wrapped up, wonder if they might go for something drawful.

Channel 4 daytime has a bit of structure. Countdown sits in the 2pm hour, then there's often a quiz at 3 – Fifteen-to-One has been joined by The £100k Drop, a version of The Million Pound Drop with a digit missing and some editing to make it move faster. The lifestyle shows include Come Dine with Me and Four in a Bed, joined this year by Star Boot Sale and Buy It Now.

Back on BBC1, a couple of new quiz formats were tried. Hardball with Ore Oduba measured progress by rate of success. How many questions have you answered correctly? How many questions should you have answered correctly in this round so far? Your place on the video wall, that's how many you have got. The place of this big silver ball, that's the required rate. The gap, that's your margin for error. So simple, even a daytime audience can understand it. But the show was a little bit too slow, and it was a flat and grinding watch.

Chase the Case was a game of partial information, deduction, logic, quiz, and trying to guess other people's reactions. Witty and entertaining questions, the charming Dan Walker, and a final round designed to make good television. The viewing public didn't take to the show, perhaps because you couldn't start to watch it halfway through and hope to play along.

This column's favourite new cheap-as-chips daytime show is Beat the Internet. The framing of an internet search engine hides a sharp quiz about pop culture, presented by the swift wits of John Robins. For various reasons, this show is buried in primetime on the Dave channel, when it needs to be teatime on Channel 4.

Primetime quizzes

The winds of change are blowing through BBC2's intellectual quizzes. Only Connect spent 2017 on a Friday night sabbatical, returning to Monday nights for 2018. It displaced University Challenge from 8pm, reversing the polarity of Quizzy Mondays. And the ratings figures have rewarded Only Connect with greater popularity – consistently, University Challenge has been about 100,000 viewers below The OC. We don't think this is weakness from UC, but OC finally reaching its potential after ten years.

There is a problem for Mastermind, it's been struggling for viewers for a few years, and capsized this autumn. Ratings aren't the only measure of a show, but it doesn't look good when a heritage brand is below a show the critics hate, like Letterbox. The problem is scheduling: Mastermind has been shunted from pillar to post, moving between 7pm and 8pm, and being taken off for sport. Cosmetic twiddlings with the presentation feel like change for change's sake. It will be interesting to see what emerges next series, as Mastermind is out for competitive tender.

The pinnacle of quiz is Top Brain, awarded once a decade for the greatest Brain of Brains winners. An edition of Top Brain was held this year, and we salute Mark Grant as the greatest quizzer of his generation.

We class Top Class on CBBC as a primetime quiz, as 9.30 on Sunday morning is primetime for the CBBC audience. Susan Calman asked questions of another set of primary schools, with the best side winning the tournament. Top Class is never going to be the most complex show, and Susan Calman remains an enthusiastic-to-shouty host.

Win Your Wish List returned for a new series on Channel 5, Gino D'Acampo took over the host's role. The show is now played by families, rather than couples, and includes physical challenges as well as asking each other questions. All of these changes enhance the game, and a greater budget helps to make this a destination show in its own right. Though there's little competition, we'll name Win Your Wish List as our Revival of the Year.

Who Wants to be a Millionaire also came back, catering to people who want Jeremy Clarkson to be on their television screens. It's a hard pass from this column.

ITV had two very different family quizzes. Brightest Family with Anne Hegerty was a set of puzzles and challenges, not a test of general knowledge. The show attracted attention with a gimmick of rising chairs, and kept attention by being a properly hard knockout competition.

What Would Your Kid Do? was a question for parents; their child is put in unusual situations, and the parents predict what will happen next. Jason Manford hosts with a sparkle in his eye and a twinkle in his step, it's a show that accepts children as human and doesn't criticise them for not living up to unrealistic expectations.

Children's television

Which brings us to shows made for younger viewers. We've already waxed lyrical about Spy School and Prosiect Z. Swashbuckle continued to provide gentle moral lessons for the youngest viewers. CBBC continued its comedy panel game The Dog Ate My Homework and the entertainment show Sam and Mark's Big Friday Windup.

There are normally a couple of talent shows on CBBC, this year only Match of the Day Can You Kick It? filled the brief. A test of soccer skills and football ability, with a few cameo appearances from famous stars. We're not convinced there was enough variety and content to fill ten episodes.

There was enough to fill Last Commanders, and we weren't watching that show for the plot. Specially-programmed laptops allowed children at home to control actors in the studio, a sort of Knightmare with video-linked laptops replacing the Helmet of Justice. Four teams start each show, at least one will win, and it's edited together in a way to advance the adventure in a natural style. Most Jaw-Droppingly Brilliant Use of Technology – and we so hope to see more, because Last Commanders asks thoroughly interesting questions about cybernetics and its relationship with humans.

Reality and skill contests

Channel 5 hit on a promising idea: The Great Model Railway Challenge. It's got the warm embrace of Bake Off, it's got the slight nostalgia of Bake Off, it's got the motif of people working really hard and achieving things of lots of contests – including Bake Off. The show, which is a bunch of people making little worlds starring a model railway, charmed and captivated. It proved more popular than Big Brother, which came to the end of its run with a whimper.

All of the cool kids were watching The Circle, anyway. Channel 4's voice-activated show about life in a block of flats. The gimmick: the contestants never meet, never talk directly to each other. All they see are words on the screen. It led to lots of introspection, deep soliloquies about the meaning of life, the ontology of ratings, and whether that emojus is a turtle or a terrapin. Big characters dominated the game, and none bigger than Alex, who played the role of Kate, using his girlfriend's pictures. It's social media, edited and filtered and blurred for television, and clearly the television experiment of the year.

Maya Jama also hosted MTV's True Love or True Lies, a show that ended up on very similar ground to The Circle. A bunch of couples live together in sunny Italy, but some of them are pretending to be couples. Every night, one couple's voted off, using evidence gathered during that day and previous days. There's playalong value as we viewers try to work out if Kim and Ron are a real couple, and if the teams have made a terrible mistake. The most convincing couple wins, even if they're faking it. Bit like Alex and Kate, really.

There's no music on MTV any more, but there's plenty from the Eurovision networks. May's Senior Eurovision Song Contest was won by a lucky cat and its feminist owner. August saw the Eurovision Junior Musicians contest, won by a superb pianist. Trust us, this event took place, even though it's not been shown on BBC4. In November, Junior Eurovision Song Contest was won by a contemporary pop song, now a top 20 radio hit in the performer's native Poland.

All three contests had heats shown over here. Eurovision You Decide felt like cookie-cutter television, with the best songs overtly undermined by a poor performance and more subtly by the judging panel. Young Musician of the Year was confined to BBC4, though outgoing champion Sheku Kanneh-Mason became famous when playing weddings in Berkshire. S4C's Chwilio am Seren lived up to its billing and found a star, though not the best result in Minsk.

Take the Tower wasn't so much reality as surreality: put normal people in preposterous situations, and film the results. Relive your favourite action movie scenes, such as the one where you're dangling from a hoist above a floor you mustn't touch. Or the one where you're playing quick-draw with Dolph Lundgren. The Hollywood hard man played a delicious character, but poor scheduling meant that literally no-one saw the ITV4 programme.

ITV2's Survival of the Fittest had huge ratings, by comparison. It was billed as the winter answer to omni-hit Love Island, but we proved less willing to sit down and watch people in February than we were in July. Might be the weather. We also don't expect further runs of The Satellite Channel's action shows Revolution (skateboards and BMXers) and Carnage (battle cars). The Wave (W) tried to meld quiz with swimming, and sank like a stone.

Pure entertainment

Channel 4 continues to thrash about, trying to find some entertainment hits. Village of the Year was a worthy daytime-primetime hybrid, Penelope Keith meandered through chocolate boxes, looking for worthy improvements to fund. The big failure was I Don't Like Mondays with Alan Carr, a messy programme that just meandered aimlessly before someone was resigned from their job. Six episodes made, three left on a Channel 4 shelf: that's even worse than The Crystal Maze, which aired all of its episodes produced this year (though three from last year remain unaired).

BBC1 tried a couple of new formats. Ready or Not was a compendium of small games: how would you react to a talking dog? What happens when you meet Sam and Mark in a lift? Hidden cameras and a light heart made for fine fluffy viewing at Saturday teatime. We'd like to be as generous with For Facts Sake, but that would be a lie: it was like listening to Steve Wright in the Afternoon where they read bits out of the encyclopaedia, no context, not sure they understand it.

But there was a bigger failure. Wedding Day Winners brought two couples and their families and their friends to a studio. And gave them some very silly things to do. Not just talk to Lorraine Kelly and Rob Beckett, but bounce up and down to pop a Champagne cork. Or make egg sandwiches and a trifle while wearing boxing gloves and blindfolded. Or have a competitive barn dance. The winners get married on network television, and a five-star honeymoon; the losers are the viewers. It wanted to be the new Generation Game, but lacked confidence in its ideas, and came across as a mess. Taken off air after three episodes, the rest of the series was buried in the summer.

The Generation Game was revived for two episodes on BBC1; the critics didn't quite understand what Mel and Sue were doing, and expected it to be as good as their memories tell them it was. But Generation Game was never consistently outstanding television, it relied on in-jokes, it needed the characters created by Bruce and Isla and Larry and Jim. Give them a proper run – six or eight episodes – and Mel and Sue can find their groove and click with the show.

Or do something very different: Don't Hate the Playaz on ITV2 was built around rap and hip-hop music, and proved the best new panel show of the year. Keep up with a breakdancer, or smuggle film titles into a rap, and the show ends with a group sing-along — well, a rap-along. Much more fun than we dared hope it could be.

Cymraeg

By a clear margin, Welsh-language station S4C is this column's channel of the year. We've watched more new shows here than anywhere else, and we've already waxed lyrical about both Prosiect Z and Chwilio am Seren. We don't miss an episode of Celwydd Noeth, and it's an event when a pair gets to the final question for the £10,000 jackpot.

As the general entertainment channel for all things in Welsh, S4C has to offer a broad mixture of content. So we've had straight-laced sports quiz Y Ras and boozy darts quiz Oci Oci Oci!, both were great shows with a little headroom to improve. We had outdoors reality show Dianc, which dug its own grave with an aggressive introduction speech.

There was cooking contest Pwy 'Di Bos y Gegin?!, where the team captain would sit out if anyone on the team made a mistake. Fferm Ffactor returned for a short celebrity edition, and there were new runs of children's shows Pigo dy Drwyn and Y Gemau Gwyllt.

Remembered this year...

A short selection of people who passed away during 2018.

• Katie Boyle – entertainment host and panelist
• Lys Assia – first winner of the Eurovision Song Contest
• Jim Bowen – Bullseye host
• Dale Winton – Supermarket Sweep host
• Matt Campbell – Masterchef The Professionals star
• John Julius Norwich – Round Britain Quiz doyenne
• Anthony Bourdain – The Taste critic
• Paddy Feeny – Top of the Form host
• Leslie Grantham – Fort Boyard baddie
• Barry Chuckle – To Me To You co-host
• Denis Norden – raconteur and panelist

Any other business

Podcast of the Year is Fingers on Buzzers. Lucy Porter (comedian, and very funny) teams up with Jenny Ryan (you'll know her from The Chase) to talk about quiz, mostly television quizzes. There are interviews with contestants and show-makers, there's a regular quiz between the hosts. And Jenny talks Lucy through elements of the "quiz syllabus", topics that come up a lot on pub quizzes. The style is bright and cheerful, and the mixed bag of topics means there's something for everyone. That's http://www.fingersonbuzzers.com.

Article of the Year came from the Dirty Feed blog. It's an exploration of Noel Edmonds' flop Channel 4 show Cheap Cheap Cheap. We cannot do it justice with a summary, so we'll just point to the whole article: http://www.dirtyfeed.org/2018/09/cheap-cheap-cheap/

Year of the Year was Blue Peter marking its 60th birthday. The celebrations began in January, and hit their high-point on 16 October, the actual anniversary, with an hour-long light entertainment special. How to make everything from your grandmother's life relevant to the curious nine-year-old? Plenty of archive clippage, how things have changed and how things have stayed the same. Get old presenters to attempt a classic make, have one of the presenter's daughters sing for us. Have Radzi go on a ship, and send Lindsey up in a floating chair. And then, next week, make an even better show.

Food of the Year Everyone should go to Amsterdam at some point. Not just for the DASH puzzle hunt, not just for the tourist attractions, not just for the ambience and the canals, but for the food. This column's best meal was from the Vegan Junk Food Bar, a not!chicken burger and the crunchiest fries we've tasted in years. Must do it again some time. Locaties en menu's: http://www.veganjunkfoodbar.com/

Downloadable Art Installation of the Year Perfection by Yasmin Curren, Tiffany Derbyshire, and Tabitha Beresford-Owen. A first-person psychological click-through that taps into humanity's insecurities. We're putting this in the same class as a short piece of immersive theatre, the developers putting out the building blocks for each member of the audience to build their own show. (The developers call it "horror" for a couple of jump scares, so be warned.) Runs on your computer, from http://yagmanx.itch.io/perfection

Achievement Unlocked of the Year Wham!ageddon; this column avoided the 1984 release by George and Andrew, and we didn't fly halfway round the world to do so. Next year's challenge is to be played at a much easier level – no-one will ever play Ladbaby's download after — well, last Tuesday, apparently.

The ratings story

(If you'd rather skip to the Roll of Honour, be our guest.)

Ratings only ever measure part of a programme's success. Raw numbers tell us how many people watched, but not how many people enjoyed the show, or the effect a programme has had on lives or the greater culture.

Nevertheless, we can crunch the numbers and present the most popular shows of the year. We include people who watched live, or within 7 days of transmission, and include +1 and HD channels where appropriate. Changes from 17 September mean these figures include people who watched over the internet, and go somewhat deeper for many channels. We'll only list one entry per title, the most popular over the year.

Ratings figures are in thousands, so I'm a Celebrity has a peak rating of 14.168 million - or 14,168,000.

ITV

I'm a Celebrity (first)	18-Nov	14168
This Territory's Got Talent	28-Apr	11180
Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway (first)	24-Feb	8970
I'm a Celebrity Coming Out	12-Dec	8747
Dancing on Ice (first)	07-Jan	8560
The X Factor (first)	01-Sep	7230
BBC The Voice of This Territory	20-Jan	6600
Who Wants to be a Millionaire (first)	05-May	6100
The Chase Celebrity Specials (first)	14-Oct	5094
Catchphrase (I'm a Celeb)	09-Dec	5058
The Chase The Bloopers	23-Dec	4804
The Chase	03-Jan	4520
Brightest Family (first)	10-Jan	4290
Ninja Warrior (first)	14-Apr	4070
Take Me Out (first)	06-Jan	3980
Through the Keyhole	20-Jan	3920
What Would Your Kid Do? (first)	06-Feb	3860
BBC The Voice of This Territory Kids	16-Jul	3730
Harry Hill's Alien Fun Capsule (first)	14-Apr	3600
Tipping Point	01-Mar	3130
This Time Next Year	24-Apr	3110
The Big Quiz (2)	05-Jan	3100
Tipping Point Lucky Stars	29-Dec	3075
Big Star's Little Star	11-Aug	3000
5 Gold Rings	07-Oct	2975
Five Gold Rings	16-Sep	2710
Big Star's Bigger Star (first)	15-Dec	2323
Re-Play 2018 with Richard Osman	28-Dec	2227
Change Your Tune (first)	01-Apr	1950
The Imitation Game (pre-watershed)	14-Dec	1915
The Imitation Game (first)	02-Sep	1590
Tenable	06-Mar	1120

I'm a Celebrity was the biggest game show of the year, 11 million or more each night through its run. Got Talent and Takeaway demonstrated how much we love Ant and Dec. Two vintage talent shows returned but trended downwards.

BBC1

Strictly Come Dancing (final)	15-Dec	12995
Strictly Come Dancing Launch Show	08-Sep	9180
Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special	25-Dec	7557
Eurovision Song Contest (final)	12-May	7010
Masterchef (final)	13-Mar	6090
The Generation Game (first)	01-Apr	5890
Pointless Celebrities	01-Dec	5545
Strictly The Best	15-Sep	5540
Have I Got News for You	13-Mar	5510
Celebrity Masterchef (first)	23-Aug	4970
Would I Lie to You	19-Jan	4950
Sir Bruce A Celebration	11-Mar	4740
Celebrity Mastermind	04-Jan	4380
A Question of Sport	01-Jul	4110
All Together Now	03-Mar	4030
Pointless	28-Dec	3908
Who Dares Wins (first)	24-Mar	3680
University Challenge Boat Races	24-Mar	3640
The Big Painting Challenge	22-Apr	3430
Best Home Cook (first)	03-May	3340
For Facts Sake (first)	15-Oct	2362

Strictly brought 10 million to BBC1 every Saturday night, and a recap of the show's history just misses the top five.

BBC2

Masterchef The Professionals (final)	20-Dec	3684
Dragons' Den	26-Aug	3320
Masterchef The Professionals Rematch	27-Dec	2826
Mastermind (Children in Need special)	16-Nov	2770
University Challenge (final)	23-Apr	2720
Christmas University Challenge	02-Jan	2600
Only Connect	19-Nov	2560
Great Local Menu	10-Oct	2499
Strictly Come Dancing It Takes Two	12-Nov	2435
Mastermind	12-Jan, 19-Jan	2200
Mock the Week	21-Sep	1890
Antiques Road Trip	27-Nov	1800
QI	05-Jan	1790
Monkman and Seagull's Genius Guide (first)	17-Sep	1720
QI XL	12-Jan	1670
Eggheads	19-Jan	1390
Bargain Hunt	10-Apr	1370
Richard Osman's House of Games	05-Dec	1368
Motty Mastermind	19-May	1250
Family Cooking Showdown	23-Oct	1245
Celebrity Eggheads	28-Aug	1240
Letterbox	17-Oct	1040
Insert Name Here (Christmas)	19-Dec	1040
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is	06-Sep	1000
I'll Get This (first)	06-Nov	923
Best Junior Doctors	26-Jun	760
Curious Creatures	21-Jun	760
Gareth Malone's All Star Music Quiz	27-Sep	731

A mixed bag for BBC2, the most popular game is a cookery spinoff.

Channel 4

The Grate Breadxit Burn-Off (final)	30-Oct	10339
The Grate Minor Celebrity Breadxit Burn-Off (first)	20-Mar	5680
The Grate Festive Burn-Off	25-Dec	3904
The Big Fat Quiz of the Year	26-Dec	3717
Celebrity Hunted	30-Oct	3377
Hunted	11-Jan	2860
SAS Who Dares Wins (first)	07-Jan	2700
The Grate Breadxit Burn-Off An Extra Sic (final)	02-Nov	2441
The Grate Breadxit Burn-Off Crème de la Crème	20-May	2290
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown	02-Feb	2260
Lego Masters (first)	06-Nov	1942
The Big Fat Quiz of Everything	12-Jan	1940
The Crystal Maze (celeb, Christmas)	26-Dec	1759
The Crystal Maze (civilian, first)	15-Apr	1580
The Circle (first)	18-Sep	1490
Village of the Year	20-Jan	1420
Four in a Bed	02-Mar	1260
Come Dine with Me	03-Jan	790
8 Out of 10 Cats	09-Mar	780
Star Boot Sale (first)	19-Mar	730
I Don't Like Mondays (first)	06-Apr	710
Countdown	02-Jan	650
Buy It Now	25-Apr	620
The £100k Drop	20-Jun	602

Channel 4 relies on its baking tent, and to a lesser extent on its missing persons. While Catsdown remains a success, we reckon Countdown is secure. Lego Masters just about held interest, but may have reached its build-by date.

Channel 5

Celebrity Big Brother (first)	16-Aug	2510
World's Strongest Man (final)	01-Jan	1750
The Great Model Railway Challenge	09-Nov	1318
Big Brother (first)	14-Sep	1250
Blind Date	11-Aug	1150
Gino's Win Your Wish List (first)	28-Jul	930
When Game Shows Go Horribly Wrong (rpt)	28-Jul	810
When Eurovision Goes Horribly Wrong	06-May	800
Celebrity Game Night	30-Dec	788
Celebrity Big Brother's Bit on the Side	05-Jan, 16-Aug	740
Regional Strongest Man (first)	27-Nov	736
Celebrity Big Brother Behind the Scenes	24-Jan	720
Big Brother's Bit on the Side (first)	14-Sep	480
Eurovision Greatest Moments	06-May	470
Lip Sync Battle	16-Mar	450

Channel 5's top game came with an argument in the Celebrity Big Brother studio.

ITV2

Love Island	08-Jul	4455
Love Island The Reunion	05-Aug	2596
Love Island The Christmas Reunion	17-Dec	2496
Love Island Aftersun	08-Jul	2176
I'm a Celebrity Extra Camp (final)	09-Dec	2011
Celebrity Juice	12-Apr	1194
This Territory's Got More Talent (first)	14-Apr	1063
Survival of the Fittest (first)	11-Feb	1045
Release the Hounds	18-Jan	714
Celebability (first)	20-Jun	623
Hell's Kitchen	21-Mar	511
This Territory's Got Talent (repeat)	29-Apr	496
I'm a Celebrity (repeat)	08-Dec	483
Catchphrase	24-Dec	438
This Territory's Got Talent (compilations)	25-Mar	378
Take Me Out	05-Jan	365
The X Factor	14-Oct	326
I'm a Celebrity Coming Out (repeat)	16-Dec	237
Don't Hate the Playaz	01-Nov	236

A hot summer, Love Island, ITV2 was in heaven this year. Celebrity Juice is cooling from its heights, but a million viewers each week is still massive.

Dave

Taskmaster (first)	02-May	1238
Would I Lie to You	03-Mar	497
Go 8 Bit	12-Feb	389
Have I Got a Bit More News for You	21-Jan	360
Room 101	20-Mar	353
QI XL	14-Jan	330
QI	17-Oct	325
Mock the Week	23-Jun	304
Beat the Internet with John Robins	06-Dec	103

Dave is the last channel to pull a million viewers with a single show, its commission Taskmaster is perhaps not winning many new viewers.

W

The Wave (first)	15-Jan	980
Masterchef Down Under	31-Aug	278
Masterchef Junior Us	20-Mar	261
Masterchef Us	27-Feb	235
Tipping Point	13-Jan	212
The Great Local Bake Off	18-Jan	102

Trend for The Wave was downwards at a rate of knots. W is the top pay-tv channel, not available without a cable or satellite subscription.

The Satellite Channel

A League of Their Own (first)	30-Aug	909
The Heist (first)	09-Nov	386
Carnage (first)	13-May	364
Revolution	15-Apr	230
Duck Quacks Don't Echo	18-Jan	155
Portrait Artist of the Year (first)	21-Jan	126

The Heist was a Hunted clone mixed with a bank robbery. This is another pay-tv channel.

E4

Five Star Hotel (first)	12-Mar	618
Coach Trip Road to Tenerife (first)	08-Jan	526
The Grate Minor Celebrity Breadxit Burn-Off (first)	10-Mar	416
The Grate Breadxit Burn-Off (first)	01-Sep	346
8 Out of 10 Cats	02-Jan	309
The Crystal Maze (celeb)	05-Jan	281

Cheap reality shows do well on E4; Five Star Hotel was a tonic in very cold weather.

BBC4

Eurovision Song Contest (semi-final)	10-May	563
Christmas University Challenge	06-Dec	520
Young Musician (first)	06-Apr	328
Eurovision at 60	11-May	327
Young Jazz Musician	25-Nov	133
How Quizzing Got Cool	14-Nov	58

5*

Celebrity Big Brother

20-Jan

557

The episode premiered on 5* at 9pm, repeated on Channel 5 after midnight.

More4

Four in a Bed	21-Jan	551
Come Dine with Me	20-Jan	430
The Grate Festive Burn-Off	16-Dec	415
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown	18-Mar	348
The Grate Breadxit Burn-Off Crème de la Crème	19-May	162

Living

Yankee Next Top Model	02-Mar	499
My Kitchen Rules Down Under	17-Sep	217
My Kitchen Rules Southern Africa	21-Sep	60

Changes in programme policy mean that UK Living is now KY Witless, still pay-tv, and won't show games.

Artsworld

Portrait Artist of the Year	27-Feb	445
Landscape Artist of the Year	27-Nov	303
Master of Photography (first)	29-May	150
Celebrity Portrait Artist of the Year	18-Dec	138
Portrait Artist of the Year 2017	14-Jan	87

There's a loyal audience for these painting shows. Another pay-tv channel.

ITVBe

Love Island Down Under (first)	13-Aug	381
Dinner Date	02-May, 12-Aug	146
Dress to Impress	17-Apr	101

MTV

True Love or True Lies	07-Aug	344
Celebrity Big Brother	26-Aug	72
Big Brother	16-Oct	64
Lip Sync Battle	01-Jun	49
Fear Factor	30-Aug	46
Wipe Us Out	06-Oct	21
Refreshers Week	26-Sep	17

A pay-tv channel from the same owners as Channel 5.

ITV4

The Chase Celebrity Specials	01-Feb	328
Football Genius	09-Oct	133

Comedy Central

Your Face or Mine	21-Nov	313
Rupaul's Drag Race All Stars	09-Mar	245
Lip Sync Battle	10-Mar	149
The Chris Ramsey Show	21-Mar	148
8 Out of 10 Cats	08-Jan	128
Takeshi's Castle	01-Mar	126

A pay-tv channel from the same owners as Channel 5. We're surprised Your Face or Mine hasn't jumped to free tv.

Really

Antiques Road Trip	11-May	307
The Great Local Bake Off	01-Jan	177
Tipping Point	25-Oct	119
Bargain Hunt	15-Oct	80

Spike

World's Strongest Man The Winners	01-Jan	288
World's Strongest Man	27-Dec	150

Challenge

The Chase	04-Feb	272
Bullseye	25-Mar	267
Who Wants to be a Millionaire	06-Jun	257
Catchphrase	25-Oct	147
The Cube	10-Mar	143
Blankety Blank	06-Oct	132
Pointless	20-Nov	131
Price is Right	13-Oct	120
Wheel of Fortune	25-Oct	115
Strike it Lucky	07-Oct	111
Family Fortunes	20-Oct	109
Who Dares Wins	01-Dec	102
Take Your Pick	02-Dec	84
Ninja Warrior Yankee	14-Oct, 18-Nov	82
Deal or No Deal	31-Oct	81
Robot Wars	21-Nov	69

CBBC

Sam and Mark's Big Friday Wind Up	23-Feb	258
Horrible Histories Gory Games	30-Nov	194
The Dog Ate My Homework	19-Feb	175
Last Commanders	03-Apr	173
Remotely Funny	01-Apr	168
Got What It Takes?	15-Oct	160
Raven	11-Jun	146
Top Class (celebs)	11-Nov	142
Match of the Day Can You Kick It	23-Nov	129
Copycats	26-Dec	87

Cbeebies

Swashbuckle

27-Dec

246

4Seven

The Grate Celeb Burn-Off (first)	07-Mar	193
The Grate Breadxit Burn-Off	12-Sep	175
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown	03-Mar	136
Come Dine with Me	02-Apr	130
The Grate Festive Burn-Off	02-Jan	128
The Grate Breadxit Burn-Off Crème de la Crème (first)	07-May	116
Four in a Bed	07-Oct	115
Celebrity Hunted (first)	16-Oct	105
Hunted	19-Jan	100
Big Fat Quiz of the Year	29-Dec	98
Lego Masters (first)	07-Nov	82
The Grate Breadxit Burn-Off Extra Sic	19-Oct	74

CITV

Spy School	14-Jan	167
Ben 10 Ultimate Challenge	24-Nov	115

Home

Bargain Hunt	29-Apr	144
Masterchef Yankee	21-Jun, 16-Jul	104
The Great Comic Relief Bake Off	26-Dec	120
Junior Bake Off	04-Dec	99
Masterchef Down Under	12-Apr, 20-Apr	99

Colors

Bigg Boss	21-Sep	138
India's Got Talent	17-Nov	78
Rising Star	18-Mar	74

An Indian pay-tv channel, showing imports from India.

Lifetime

Project Runway	15-Mar	127
This Territory's Next Top Model	13-Aug	35

Nickelodeon

Paradise Run	24-Jul	119
Double Dare	28-Oct	87
Lip Sync Battle	17-Dec	27

All shows are from Nickelodeon's US branch, cut to remove commercial sponsorships.

4Music

8 Out of 10 Cats

09-Dec

116

Good Food

The Great Local Bake Off	18-Jul	79
The Great Comic Relief Bake Off	25-Aug	70
Masterchef	23-Aug	51
Masterchef The Professionals	05-Apr	44

My5

World's Strongest Man	09-Jan	67
Blind Date	27-Dec	51
When Game Shows Go Horribly Wrong	27-Dec	48

Food Network

Great Local Menu

25-Jan

62

BET

Lip Sync Battle	16-Jun	43
Face Value	06-Jan	16

&tv

The Voice Kids (India)

20-Jan

40

Another channel showing entertainment from India.

VH-1

Rupaul's Drag Race	02-Nov	37
Lip Sync Battle	02-Jun	31

BT Sport 2

Call Yourself a Fan

18-Sep

36

The subscription channel showed a quiz-chat hybrid straight after its European football coverage.

Community Channel

Couples Come Dine with Me

17-Jun

25

S4C

Celwydd Noeth	14-Nov	20
Junior Eurovision (final)	25-Nov	20
Y Ras	21-Sep	20
Chwilio am Seren Junior Eurovision (first)	25-Sep	19
Sion a Sian	25-Oct	12
Pigo dy Drwyn	22-Sep	10
Prosiect Z	13-Nov	10

Roll of Honour

(All results as transmitted are final)

Christmas University Challenge – Keble Oxford (Paul Johnson, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Katy Brand, Anne-Marie Imafidon)
University Challenge – St John's Cambridge (John-Clark Levin, Rosie McKeown, James Devine-Stoneman, Matt Hazell)

Round Britain Quiz – Myfanwy Alexander and David Edwards

Celebrity Big Brother
(January) – Courtney Act
(August) – Ryan Thomas
Big Brother – Cameron Cole

Eurovision: You Decide – "Storm", written and composed by Nicole Blair, Gil Lewis, Sean Hargreaves, performed by SuRie

Cân i Gymru – "Cofio Hedd Wyn", written by Erfyl Owen, performed by Ceidwad y Gân

Survival of the Fittest – Mettisse Campbell

All Together Now – Michael Rice

Dancing on Ice – Jake Quickenden and Vanessa Bauer

Portrait Artist of the Year – Samira Addo
Landscape Artist of the Year – Jen Gash

This Territory's Got Talent
(TV3) – RDC
(ITV) – Lost Voice Man

RTE Dancing With the Stars – Jake Carter and Karen Byrne
Strictly Come Dancing
Series – Stacey Dooley and Kevin Clifton
Christmas – Aston Merrygold and Janette Manrara

Fiteach – Tamgar
Raven – Sotteo

Mastermind – Brian Chesney

BBC The Voice of Holland of This Territory – Ruti Olajugbagbe
BBC The Voice of Holland of This Territory Kids – Daniel Davies

Masterchef – Kenny Tutt
Celebrity Masterchef – John Partridge
Masterchef The Professionals – Laurence Henry

Got What It Takes?
(Apr) – Rio Leanna
(Nov) – Lauren

Band Cymru – Cory Band
Ieuctnydd – Band Jazz Ysgol Tryfan

Brightest Family – Curtis Family (Alex, Chris, Brendan)

Only Connect – Escapologists (Frank Paul, Lydia Mizon, Tom Rowell)

The Big Painting Challenge – Oliver Freeston

Eurovision Song Contest – "Toy" for IPBC, written by Stav Beger & Doron Medalie, performed by Netta Barzilai
Eurovision Young Musician – Ivan Bessonov (piano)
Junior Eurovision – "Anyone I want to be" for TVP, lyric by Maegan Cottone, Nathan Duvall, Cutfather, Peter Wallevik, Daniel Davidsen, Malgorzata Uscilowska, Patryk Kumór; composed by Maegan Cottone, Nathan Duvall, Cutfather, Peter Wallevik, Daniel Davidsen; performed by Roksana Wegiel

BBC Young Musician – Lauren Zhang (piano)
BBC Young Jazz Musician – Xhosa Cole

Fighting Talk – Richard Osman

Ninja Warrior – no winner

Best Home Cook – Pippa Middlehurst

Revolution – Alex Dechuna (skateboarder)

Carnage – Hellraiser

Brain of Britain – Clive Dunning

Countdown
(June) – Zarte Siempre
(December) – Mike Daysley

Bake Off Crème de la Crème – Sam and Emmanuel from London Hilton Park Lane

Rostrum Camera – Ken Morse

Taskmaster
(spring) – Liza Tarbuck
(autumn) – Kerry Godliman

Master of Photography – Federica Belli

Love Island – Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham

BBC New Comedy Award – Stuart Buchanan

True Love or True Lies – Liv and Louis

One Man and His Dog
Young Handler – Murray Common & Queen
Brace – Ricky Hutchinson & Jock & Moya
Team – Murray Common & Queen / Bobby Henderson & Bonnie & Tweed (as "Scotland")

Chwilio i Seren Junior Eurovision – Manw

Great Local Menu – James Cochran

Refreshers Week – Gareth

Celwydd Noeth – Bethan and Llyr

Y Ras – Ifan Gwilym

Counterpoint – David Sherman

The Grate Breadxit Burn Out – Rahul Mandal

Top Class – Cardwell Primary from London

The Big Family Cooking Showdown – Mitesh, Prachi and Anup Mistry

The X Factor – Dalton Harris and Simon Cowell

Lego Masters – Paul and Lewis

I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! – Harry Redknapp

Match of the Day Can You Kick It? – Will

Fifteen-to-One – Ryland Morgan

Coming up...

Intellectual pursuits early on New Year's Eve, the return of Round Britain Quiz (Radio 4), and David "Lenin" Aaronovitch is back on Christmas University Challenge (BBC2). By 3am, we'll be fit only for The Crystal Maze (C4, repeated). Same procedure as every year (Artsworld).

New Year's Day has the traditional highlights: World's Strongest Man (C5), Bake Off (C4), and a new run of Who Wants to be a Millionaire (ITV).

From Wednesday, we have Countdown Championship of Champions (C4) and the first new episodes of Eggheads in some months (BBC2). For Friday, Channel 4 gives us The Big Fat Quiz of Everything.

On Saturday, The Greatest Dancer starts on BBC1, and at least one element looks suspiciously familiar. ITV has new runs of BBC The Voice (Sat) and Dancing on Ice (Sun). SAS: Who Dares Wins does its thing on Channel 4 from Sunday, while Hunted returns from Thursday 10th.

The Week doesn't expect to publish again until 13 January, simply because there's not been much to talk about over Christmas. We wish you all the best for the start of the new year, and propose a toast: Good games to you!

Photo credits: Hat Trick Productions, Avalon Television, Boom Cymru Plant, Zodiak Kids, KEO films, Remarkable (part of EndemolShine group), STV, Mighty, Bandicoot, Vice Studios, Gameface, Panda Television / Objective Media Group Scotland, Studio Lambert and Motion Content Group, BTRC / EBU, TwoFour (an ITV Studios company), Remedy Scotland and Argonon, Rondo.

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