New series of Red Dwarf on Channel 4?

[Carlito]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7841607.stm

Purely speculative, of course. With negotiations of a merger between Channel 4 and BBC Worldwode, do you think this new relationship could lead to the return to major network TV of Red Dwarf?

I mean, if GNP and the cast even wanted to make a new series of course. Do you think BBC Worldwide, who assumingly make shitloads of money from the RD brand, could have more influence over the schedules of C4 than it does over the BBC? Could this mean a new home for our favourite space-based plothole-laden sitcom?

Topic

[Carlito]

Yes, Worldwode. I stand by that spelling.

At least, I HAVE to, as there’s no edit option. :S

[Seb Patrick]

Yeah, we took away the edit option for the first post in a thread, because it gave people the ability to delete entire threads (as kakchriskak recently did), and… well, we didn’t really want that happening.

[Tarka Dal]

Well we’ve already got a new home haven’t we? Dave.

Actually I do kind of like the last human being… Dave, now being on Dave. Everybody’s watching Dave.

In fact…

Holly: Good morning, Dave. It is now safe for you to emerge from stasis.
Lister: Haven’t I just gone in?
Holly: Please proceed to the Drive Room for debriefing.
Lister: Where is everybody, Hol?
Holly: They’re watching, Dave.
Lister: Who is?
Holly: Everybody, Dave.
Lister: What, Captain Hollister?
Holly: Everybody’s watching, Dave.
Lister: What, Todhunter?
Holly: Everybody’s watching, Dave.
Lister: What, Selby?
Holly: They’re all watching. Everybody’s watching, Dave.
Lister: Petersen isn’t, is he?
Holly: Everybody is watching, Dave.
Lister: Not Chen?
Holly: Gordon Bennett! Yes! Chen, everybody. Everybody’s watching, Dave.
Lister: Rimmer?
Holly: He’s watching, Dave. Everybody’s watching. Everybody is watching, Dave!
Lister: Wait. Are you trying to tell me everybody’s watching?
Holly: I wish I’d never let him out in the first place.

[pfm]

If Norman was onboard they could have played on that SO much. They still might, though no-one else calls him ‘Dave’. ‘It’s Dave…on Dave’.

‘Sir, we’ve flown into the path of an ancient Earth transmission, a TV channel known only as “Dave”. Patching to the viewer now.’ *random series V repeat appears onscreen* ‘It’s me! Smeggin hell, it’s me! “Dave” a channel dedicated to me, Dave Lister, last human alive.’ ‘Last human, sir? You mean Miss Kochanski didn’t survive the long term effects of that triple-strength gamma ray I accidentally fired at her while I was irradiating the ship’s remaining food supplies?’ ‘You know she didn’t, Kryte.’

[Carlito]

Well, I think of Dave as a makeshift home. Should there ever be another full series, I doubt Dave would provide much of a budget. Plus about 5 million viewers is about all the show could realistically hope for on Dave, and that would probably make it Dave’s most watched show ever. A new series on a “terrestrial” channel, or a more established channel, would make more sense and provide a bigger budget.

I mean, I’m excited for the new episodes for sure but I have a feeling that once they have aired we will all be agreeing that (good or bad) any further episodes will need more money behind them.

[JamesTC]

I think it might be DVD sales which will really decide if the specials do well. Without even being filmed yet they are doing quite well, they have already been sold to twenty odd countries.

[locusceruleus]

>I mean, I?m excited for the new episodes for sure but I have a feeling that once they have aired we will all be agreeing that (good or bad) any further episodes will need more money behind them.

That depends on the writing. How much can ‘Marooned’ have cost to make? And who’d be disappointed with a ‘Marooned’?

[Dave]

>And who?d be disappointed with a ?Marooned??

Norman Lovett

[Mnoooah]

OOOOH. Good Point. I’m excited again. Thank YOU, locusceruleus!

[ChrisM]

>That depends on the writing. How much can ?Marooned? have cost to make? And who?d be disappointed with a ?Marooned??

Marooned is essentially a 2 character show though isn’t it? I wonder if it (or a Marooned style show) would be the same with 4 characters. Would it drag? Lose, or increase the sense of claustrophobia? Thinking about it, I can see positives and negatives.

Then again we had well written episodes in the first two series set entirely on the ship with no guest characters. As Rob Grant said in the DVD commentary for Bodysnatcher, “We couldn’t do that forever” but for these two specials it could work well.

[Ridley]

?Sir, we?ve flown into the path of an ancient Earth transmission, a TV channel known only as ?Dave?. Patching to the viewer now.? *random series V repeat appears onscreen* ?It?s me! Smeggin hell, it?s me! ?Dave? a channel dedicated to me, Dave Lister, last human alive.? ?Last human, sir? You mean Miss Kochanski didn?t survive the long term effects of that triple-strength gamma ray I accidentally fired at her while I was irradiating the ship?s remaining food supplies?? ?You know she didn?t, Kryte.?

“Actually I’m watching Dave. My Dave” *TV with cowboy hat*

[Almighty_crj]

‘Marooned’ with four characters? Isn’t that ‘Duct Soup’?

[pfm]

> Plus about 5 million viewers is about all the show could realistically hope for on Dave

Sadly no. It would be very lucky to get 5m on BBC2.

[ChrisM]

>?Marooned? with four characters? Isn?t that ?Duct Soup??

Actually that one did drag in places, although it was better in rewatches. Some very funny scenes in there though.

[JamesTC]

>>?Marooned? with four characters? Isn?t that ?Duct Soup??

>Actually that one did drag in places, although it was better in rewatches. Some very funny scenes in there though.

I don’t think ‘Duct Soup’ dragged on, infact I think the X-tended version was much better. I liked it because it was more of a character study than a plotted piece which is good now and again for TV shows.

[TheLeen]

I think that Duct Soup is my least favourite episode ever, EVER EVER.

Followed by Marooned actually.

[ChrisM]

>Followed by Marooned actually.

OOOOOH! Form an orderly line with the paddles! ;}

Marooned was the second episode I saw (after the End. I really didn’t like it at the time.) The one that got me interested in Dwarf. I can see how some wouldn’t like it though as not a lot happens in it. It’s not my favourite, but it’s a nice episode to watch if I haven’t seen it for a while.

[hummingbird]

Duct Soup has some good opening scenes, but the moment they get in the actual ducts I have the urge to lobotomise myself with a blunt object.

[Dave]

>Followed by Marooned actually

It’s one of those things, like everyone can remember where they were when Marleen Kiral was shot.

[Carlito]

When I was about 10 yrs old (circa 1993), me and a mate acted out a hybrid of the “He’s taking the smeg!” scene from Queeg, and some of the two-hander stuff from Marooned for our primary school talent contest.

I seem to remember it basically played to a bunch of blank faces ranging from 5 to 11 yrs old, and a couple of teachers who had a giggle at the “Inflatable Ingrid” gag even though we probably didn’t even get it ourselves at that age.

So Marooned has a special place in my heart.

[Carlito]

> Plus about 5 million viewers is about all the show could realistically hope for on Dave

> Sadly no. It would be very lucky to get 5m on BBC2.

Dave got about 4 million viewers for their Car of the Year coverage, so I’d assume a well-promoted brand new Dwarf could top that.

[Mnoooah]

God I hope so. Car of the year. Pfffft. *rolls eyes* ;)

[Tarka Dal]

> Sadly no. It would be very lucky to get 5m on BBC2.

Given series 8 managed to pull in over 8 million viewers for it’s first episode and the ongoing DVD sales I think that’s a very pessimistic figure. There’s a hell of a fan-base for Dwarf and with the right promotion there’s no reason why it couldn’t do it again. Sure over a full series figures would probably drop away, the did with VII and VIII, but for that first episode I still think it could do fantastic business.

[Phil]

>When I was about 10 yrs old (circa 1993), me and a mate acted out a hybrid of the ?He?s taking the smeg!? scene from Queeg, and some of the two-hander stuff from Marooned for our primary school talent contest.

Youtube. Please.

[Danny Stephenson]

I think that Duct Soup is my least favourite episode ever, EVER EVER.

Followed by Marooned actually.

Care to elaborate?

[Mnoooah]

> Youtube. Please.

*Nods vigorously*

[Carlito]

There were no camcorders in those days, and Youtube won’t accept hyroglyphics.

[Mnoooah]

A reenactment then. We have to keep ourselves entertained *somehow* until Easter.

[Ian Symes]

> Sadly no. It would be very lucky to get 5m on BBC2.

Given series 8 managed to pull in over 8 million viewers for it?s first episode and the ongoing DVD sales I think that?s a very pessimistic figure. There?s a hell of a fan-base for Dwarf and with the right promotion there?s no reason why it couldn?t do it again. Sure over a full series figures would probably drop away, the did with VII and VIII, but for that first episode I still think it could do fantastic business.

Those Series VIII figures were ten years ago – when multi-channel TV was still in its infancy, and before any of your Sky Pluses, your iPlayers, your YouTubes and your Bittorrents. To get around 5m on BBC2 these days would be deemed as successful as 8m was ten years ago.

On Dave, however, I think topping 1m would be an outstanding achievement.

[Tarka Dal]

Well sure I’m being a tad optimistic, but viewing figures were already on the decline when series VIII arrived. I had been watching the viewing figure charts week by week on Ceefax for about 7 years by that point and 8 million even with the repeat shows was a phenomenal figure for a BBC 2 show even in 1998.

Sure we have Sky+, youtubes etc… but I still think Dwarf has a big enough following to count as event TV to a lot of people.

Supposedly hit shows like Ab Fab and The Office rarely scored more than 3 or 4 million on BBC2. I’m not sure what a hit terresterial sitcom achieves nowadays but it’s still around 2 or 3 isn’t it?

Obviously Multi-channel TV has reduced figures, but the majority of it is repeat TV. New media is still the rarity, and if there’s enough hype and buzz around a show people would still rather watch it on the night if they can than watch a re-run or catch it on internetz next day.

[Tarka Dal]

Additional:

I clearly haven’t looked at any viewing figures in the last 4 years.

*SHAME MODE ENGAGED*

[Mr Flibble]

The other thing is – if it’s on Dave, you know it’ll be on 86 times in the next week. Therefore it is not event TV – Dave is just not an event TV channel.

[Ian Symes]

I’m not saying that VIII wasn’t a success, or that the new shows won’t be. I’m just saying that the parameters are very different now to how they were last time Dwarf was on air. VIII’s initial viewing figures were brilliant, but we’re simply not going to see 8 million these days.

[Tarka Dal]

No you’re absolutely right. I was talking out my backside based on an outdated concept of current viewing figures.

[Somebody]

Given series 8 managed to pull in over 8 million viewers for it?s first episode

That’s… not strictly true. What actually happened was that the total between the original (Thursday) showing and the first repeat (on the Sunday) totalled 8.05m between them. That’s not “unique viewers” – that’s, to borrow and mutilate a web term, “viewing impressions”

[BARB don’t do that any more. Robot Wars, incidentally, also benefited from the same effect, and they were indeed the apparent 1/2 for BBC2 until the end of the RW series.]

[Carlito]

Dave gets an average of 3 million viewers per day. Car of the Year, a Dave original, got 4 million viewers.

I doubt anyone would be impressed if brand new Dwarf only scored 1m.

[Carlito]

Car of the Year was 2007, my bad.

[Carlito]

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a80331/uktv-celebrates-daves-growth.html

[Somebody]

The top-rated “multichannel” programme of last year was an episode of Without a Trace on Five US. It got 2.58m viewers. Only 7 programmes got more than 2m viewers, of which three were football matches on Sky Sports.

Dave had precisely Zero programmes in the Top 30, which bottomed out at 1.34m (ITV2’s, uh, “Ghost Hunting With Coronation St”).

As far as I can tell from BARB’s website, Dave’s top rated show of 2008 (and, indeed, since their relaunch AS Dave) was a QI repeat on Monday 28th Jan. It got 756,000 viewers. Their top show of a week tends to be in the 450k-600k range.

[Somebody]

Dave (was UKTV G2)
w/e 18 Nov 2007
(figures are thousands of viewers)
1 TOP GEAR (Sun 1800) 468
2 RED DWARF (Sat 2140) 425
3 TOP GEAR (Sun 1559) 383
4 RED DWARF (Sat 2220) 366
5 TOP GEAR (Tue 2003) 363
6 TOP GEAR (Mon 1902) 354
7 QI (Mon 2140) 351
8 RED DWARF (Sun 2221) 340
9 TOP GEAR (Sun 1500) 337
10 CAR OF THE YEAR LIVE FINAL 2007 (Sun 1700) 329

[hummingbird]

Interesting that the RD repeats are holding their own against TG.

[Somebody]

Yeah, we took away the edit option for the first post in a thread, because it gave people the ability to delete entire threads (as kakchriskak recently did), and? well, we didn?t really want that happening.

Can you please, please, PLEASE fix the bug that leads to an edit throwing a post to the bottom of the list of posts?

[Somebody]

hummingbird:
Interesting that the RD repeats are holding their own against TG.

That was November 2007. The last time a RD episode appeared in Dave’s top 10 for the week was:

Dave (was UKTV G2)
w/e 29 Jun 2008
(figures are thousands of viewers)
1 QI (MON 21:00) 440
2 NEVER MIND THE BUZZCOCKS (MON 21:40) 403
3 HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU (TUE 21:00) 346
4 QI (SUN 21:40) 322
5 HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU (THUR 22:19) 304
6 TOP GEAR (SUN 17:00) 270
7 TOP GEAR (SUN 15:59) 263
8 LOUIS THEROUX: THE MOST HATED FAMILY IN (THUR 21:0 257
9 THE CATHERINE TATE SHOW (FRI 21:00) 249
10 RED DWARF (SAT 23:39) 249

[hummingbird]

>That was November 2007

Ah. I read that as 2008.

[JamesTC]

250,000 for a repeat of a show made upwards of ten years ago is pretty good if you ask me. I think 1.5 million seems a good figure for the Red Dwarf specials, atleast the first one.

[Carlito]

Either UKTV are lying about the audience figures they achieve, or BARB aren’t an accurate source of information. Or some wires are crossed somewhere.

[JamesTC]

It could be adding all its top ten shows figures together.

[Jonathan Capps]

> Can you please, please, PLEASE fix the bug that leads to an edit throwing a post to the bottom of the list of posts?

Why don’t you just get it right the first time, fucko?

[Jonathan Capps]

> Or some wires are crossed somewhere.

The figures you’re quoting are total views per day, not the highest figures achieved by a single show.

[pfm]

> The figures you?re quoting are total views per day, not the highest figures achieved by a single show.

Finally someone with a bit of sense.

If Dwarf gets 1m that would be beyond brilliant. Loads of people casually switch over to the repeats that Dave shows, and I’m sure this will also happen with the new Dwarf eps, but to pin down a million viewers (not literally) for the whole episode would be a huge achievement, even with promotion (which should basically amount to Dave trails). Regardless of what some people think, there are NOT 8 million avid Dwarf fans out there ready and waiting to tune in to new Dwarf, especially in a multi-channel environment (if I hear or read ‘multi-channel environment’ again I may scream). As long as it beats repeats of QI and Dwarf itself (how funny would it be if a repeat of Quarantine beat the new episodes?? Actually I might cry if that happened, but it’s not an impossibility)

[Author]

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