BBC and ITV1 set for Sunday night ratings showdown
Call the scheduler! The BBC and ITV1 are set for a Sunday night ratings showdown after ITV moved Coronation Street to go head to head with BBC1's hit 1950s nursing drama, Call The Midwife.
Call The Midwife, starring Miranda Hart, has attracted audiences of more than 10 million viewers and has already been re-commissioned for a second series.
But its final episode on 19 February will go up against one of ITV1's most popular shows, Coronation Street, draft programme schedules have revealed.
In the era of the personal video recorder and online viewing, there is no need for viewers to miss either ? but which one will they tune into live?
Like all good dramas there is also a twist in the tale. Call the Midwife has been so popular that the BBC decided to launch the second series of Downton Abbey rival Upstairs Downstairs off the back of its final episode.
That strategy is likely to be affected by ITV's decision to air Coronation Street against Call the Midwife.
ITV denied the move was designed to sabotage BBC1's Sunday night lineup and said it was because that week's Thursday night episode of Coronation Street has to be moved to accommodate a Uefa Europa League football match.
An ITV spokesman said: "It's because the Porto versus Manchester City match is on that Thursday so Coronation Street has been displaced as a result. The Sunday is the earliest we can book it in."
The change in lineup means ITV1's Sunday night regular Dancing on Ice, which has dipped in the ratings, will move earlier to 6.05pm.
It will be followed by Coronation Street at 8pm, long-running safari drama Wild at Heart at 8.30pm and then the Dancing on Ice skate-off at 9.30pm.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/08/coronation-street-call-the-midwife
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