Knightmare.com

Since we mere mortals are no longer permitted to access the full viewing figures, the BARB Top 10 is the best we can get. This is Challenge's Top 10 rating programmes for the first week KM S5 started showing:

Challenge      Millions Viewing (Including Timeshift) - w/e 26/10/2003  
 Programme Total
1 TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Thu 1829)  0.15  
2 TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Tue 1829)  0.13  
3 TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Thu 1759)  0.12  
4 TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Sun 1800)  0.12  
5 FORT BOYARD (Mon 1700)  0.11  
6 KNIGHTMARE (Wed 1759)  0.10  
7 FORT BOYARD (Fri 1700)  0.10  
8 FORT BOYARD (Sat 1700)  0.10  
9 FORT BOYARD (Wed 1700)  0.09  
10 TAKESHI'S CASTLE (Sun 1831)  

100,000 viewers, at least on one day, can't be too bad. Hopefully the figures on the other days and slots were okay too.

Well, Km remains Challenge's third most watched programme then! Very good news indeed.

Cool. If Knightmare appears in the top 10 for any future week, please paste it here. I will eventually collect them all and stick them on the site.

Will do.

I sort of can't believe TC is still tops. I thought that people would probably be sick to death with it by now. Anyways arn't Challenge going to stop showing TC or is/was that just rumours?

Not bad at all, the most watched 'classic' programme (i.e. made before 2003).

I expect a challenge (o-ho!) from Gamesmaster, however. Those hours of Knightmare and GamesMaster on Challenge are the best ones man could have.

Ye, it's definitely encouraging to see it among the Top 10. I do miss really dissecting the figures. I used to do a lot more than any of you saw posted here, and rather enjoyed it. Yes, I'm a bit weird, but you knew that already.

I think Challenge have reined back Takeshi's a lot. It's not shown quite so much now, thank goodness. I do think Challenge realise it won't last forever, and they have stated on their forums to the people who keep clamouring for more TC that there just aren't any more episodes to do anything with. The figures may actually get a boost with summer being over and more people turning to their TVs for entertainment as the weather gets worse. But at least they (hopefully) won't think Takeshi's is so universally popular and marketable in the medium term that they neglect other programmes because of it. I think they're really making an effort now to start putting together a good portfolio of shows, and marketing more of them- while I watched Murder in Small Town X the other night, I saw the KM/GamesMaster advert 4 times in an hour.

So that show won't be hugely popular, though it'll be something they can keep in their schedules for a good while yet. Obviously Fort Boyard rates better than KM now, but a lot of them are a new series, and they really need to bring in the viewers to be cost effective, I would have thought. Not sure if they had a target viewing figure in mind, but it should definitely be outrating just about all other shows.

On GamesMaster, I have to say I was slightly reticent about them getting it. I knew it wouldn't be one of their awful investments, but I'm not sure just how many people will watch it. I'm not saying it will do badly, especially since I've started watching it myself recently, but it's hard to predict if it will do really well either. Hopefully more people will do what I did and give it a chance, because it is very entertaining. You can tell that Challenge made a mental leap from KM to GamesMaster, especially since they've scheduled and advertised together. I have no idea if largely the same people who enjoy KM will watch GamesMaster, or vice versa.  

It'll be interesting to see. Certainly both those shows are- for me- far more entertaining than certain Challenge shows I could mention. I accidentally watched 5 minutes of Celebrity TV Bloopers the other day when waiting for something else. Oh, the horror. Oh, the shame.

The thing is, once you start watching Gamesmaster again, you become hooked. Until series 3, that is.

But that's another story. With Knightmare one simply becomes hooked forever.

Put Hugo Myatt and Sir Patrick Moore on Celebrity Poker! Or don't.

GG, is the figure of 100,000 for Knightmare a record in terms of it being shown on Challenge? Or were there any higher figures? I think if memory serves me correctly the previous best was 70,000.

The thing is, once you start watching Gamesmaster again, you become hooked. Until series 3, that is.

I noticed all this debate about series on the Challenge forum. I didn't understand any of it, but hey!

But that's another story. With Knightmare one simply becomes hooked forever.

Teehee, sounds like you won't have trouble fitting in on this forum then!

Put Hugo Myatt and Sir Patrick Moore on Celebrity Poker! Or don't.

I watched that for the first time last night. I'd love to see the two of them on it. They could get all the presenters of all the Challenge shows in and we could watch as Hugo and Patrick take all Melinda Messenger's chips within two hands. She'd be saying "I still think I did AWFULLY well" as she bounces away from the table.

GG, is the figure of 100,000 for Knightmare a record in terms of it being shown on Challenge? Or were there any higher figures? I think if memory serves me correctly the previous best was 70,000.

It'd definitely hit 80,000 before, but without searching through my data (which I'll do tomorrow) I think it is pretty much the highest so far. When Series 4 was first shown in the same slot, the average figure was around 50-55,000 viewers, although 1. The data were from slightly different sources, so there may be some variation and 2. Seasonal factors will be starting to kick in now. Interestingly, with Series 4 the viewing figures built up pretty steadily- hopefully the same will happen this time too. In any case, KM/FB/TC reepatedly rated far far higher than their nearest rivals. I don't expect that's changed with respect to the old shows Challenge have kept in their schedules. With the other new shows, it's anyone's guess.

Oh, so nice to have a question about the ratings. I feel so "yay".  

No KM in the Top 10 for the week figures have just been released for. Just Takeshi's Castle X6, Fort Boyard X3 (only one of them was a new episode) and a rogue episode of Guinness World Records.

This is when I miss having access to all the viewing figures.

This sounds stupid but how are we meant to raise the score/tally...?  :)

By starting rumours that 'watching Takeshi's castle gives you piles'

or 'watching Knightmare helps cure all diseases'.

I always find it difficult how accurately they can judge whether a programme accumulated 80,000 or 100,000 , given that BARB (excuse me! ) only go round asking a 1000 people which programmes they watch.

No KM in the Top 10 for the week figures have just been released for. Just Takeshi's Castle X6, Fort Boyard X3 (only one of them was a new episode) and a rogue episode of Guinness World Records.

This is when I miss having access to all the viewing figures.

I would have thought that series 5 would be a lot more popular than series 4. Lets hope thought that now Challenge have moved the evening slot forward an hour, it will be a lot more popular now as there will be more people at home to watch Knightmare and less people at home to watch TC, especially the 6.00 showing! That's when every one needs to try and somehow all watch the same edition, such as 7pm.

Hey, first post in the Knews section for ages! The figures should definitely prove there will be demand for Challenge to buy the right for Series 6-8, but what I want to know is, when will they buy Series 1 and 2 since they haven't been shown yet?

Well, once they've exhausted series 6-8 and if there is still demand, they may decide to purchase series 1 and 2 then.