ITV seem to be making an effort to strengthen their weekday schedule, with Goldenballs back at 5pm and a new series of "The Royal Today" at 4pm, which is apparently a spin-off of The Royal as it's set in 2008.

Will The Royal Today pull viewers away from DOND?! Or maybe ITV could pull a Channel 4 type trick and put Goldenballs on at 4:00 so as to ensure viewers are watching ITV when DOND starts? I don't see the point of putting The Royal Today on at 4pm really... it just doesn't make sense at all. It's a spin off of a Sunday evening programme and it's on at 4pm every weekday... bizarre. A 2pm or evening slot would be better in my opinion... I think it's quite clear they've put it at 4pm to try and help them win more viewers in the afternoon slot.

I don't think DOND has much to worry about...

2pm is a terrible time, with people at work and school/college/uni.

After the Channel 4 news sounds best. I would have otherwise suggested swapping with Simpsons and Hollyoaks, but pre-5pm time for Hollyoaks would be stupid.

Well Doctors and Neighbours are on at a similar time slot on BBC 1, and they do well for themselves. I don't think this sort of daily show would be suited to an evening slot, and would be better off in a lunchtime slot as Doctors and Neighbours has. 4pm seems an odd slot.

It looks as though The Royal Today was being thrashed by other channels (possibly DOND), as it's now been moved to 3:30 and repeats of Doc Martin are showing at 4pm every weekday from next week. I bet ITV are kicking themselves that they didn't get DOND before C4 did...

Yeah Channel 4 is the best

As the grand Jimmy Carr says 'ITV Is BBC's cousin and Channel 4 is the 25 year old art student who'd show her knickers for a f**

P.S Channel 5 Is Pointless

I am glad golden balls is being moved back to 5pm, cause i ususally watched deal or no deal then golden balls, i think golden balls should stay at that time slot.

The only downside that Doc Martin's episode tally is small. Expect to air for about 3/4 weeks. They're banking that the recent series had so much impact, the same would apply to the series repeats.

Golden Balls won't clash with DoND. Endemol won't allow ITV to do it.

I actually thought The Royal Today at 4pm is a superb move, it's the old crowd that are sliding away from DoND and putting that show there is a way of exploiting a familiar show 'brand' with something new (rather than just repeats)... I really think the significance of its failure and DoND's continued success cannot be easily overstated. It's probably DoND's biggest ratings defeat of ITV thus far, and I must admit I'm surprised at it...

Doc Marten is a big hit, but Heartbeat was a bigger one and merely did tolerably well in repeats against DoND...