Schedule Schedule

So you might have seen this in the comments, but I thought I’d put it up for a bigger audience. Basically Channel 4 are rejigging their schedule from next Monday:

• 2:40pm: Countdown
• 3:30pm: Deal or No Deal
• 4:30pm: Come Dine With Me
• 5:00pm: Coach Trip
• 5:30pm: Superstar Dogs – Countdown to Crufts

Who are the winners and losers here? Bear in mind that a new series of behemoth Tipping Point begins at 4pm on Monday on ITV.

Difficult not to see Countdown as the big loser here, just as it was recovering to a halfway respectable figure C4 puts it back to Nowheresville. Deal and Dine will be really interesting, right now Deal‘s getting over a mill and Dine remains a strong 1.5m performer, but Deal’s audience halves when put up against Tipping Point, in theory there are less people around at half three, and it doesn’t fall in a natural junction (ITV has the perennial Dickinson’s Real Deal and the returning Alan Titchmarsh at 2-3 and 3-4, and I suspect people will lock into it for the afternoon if they start watching. On the other hand, Deal still seems to skew young even if it’s only half a mill, and is apparently profitable enough  for everybody that rumours (and I stress rumours) are suggesting it’s been recommissioned post 2014). Come Dine With Me feels a bit like it’s in the middle of nowhere really being a utility prop-up-the-slot show. Coach Trip has been rating well and there’s no reason to believe it won’t continue, Superstar Dogs will have old ladies and kids awwwing over John Barrowman, my gut suggests it might be a fun show in the wrong slot, Barrowman is certainly no guarantee of success. But we’ll see.