Take Me Out is taking its time to build an audience

After the success of X Factor in the autumn re-confirmed ITV’s status as an entertainment network, can the network re-visit the success it once enjoyed with dating formats?   Take Me Out, is ITV1’s would-be successor to Blind Date, and is presented by Paddy McGuinness, who deploys his wit and a particularly irritating catchphrase to support a very simple premise – match a single man with one of thirty girls.

Maybe it is too simple, as it is rating under 5 million – the first show had 3.6million/14% share on 2^nd January at 7.20pm.   However, it has shown some growth – last Saturday’s show ran at a slightly later time of 8pm and its audience was 4.6 million/19% share.   Not surprisingly its particularly popular with 16-24 year olds, with a 24% share for Saturday’s show.

The opposition during the final quarter hour of the show is BBC1’s So You Think You Can Dance, which had 5.4 million/22% share for its 30 minute segment.  Earlier, at 7pm it had 5.8 million/25% share for its 60 minute show.  So You Think You Can Dance, presented by Cat Deeley, and judged by Nigel Lythgoe and Arlene Phillips, comes from the USA with strong credentials, but its audience has slipped since it debut of 6.4 million/27% share.

Not surprisingly Dance is very popular with older viewers – 30% share among over 65s, and not popular with younger viewers, under 20% for the 16-24 year olds who like Take Me Out.   BBC1 enjoyed a primetime lead over ITV1 on Saturday of 24% to 19%, but among younger viewers ITV1 had 23% to BBC1’s 18%.   The issue for Take Me Out is whether, without the volume enjoyed by its BBC1 dance opposition, its has sufficient demographic strength to be regarded as a success.  The fact that it is building suggests ITV1 will have to wait until the end of this first run to know whether its got the new Blind Date or not.

However ITV1 will be looking critically at its Friday night celebrity singing show, Popstar to Operastar, which had just 3.7 million/15% share on Friday at 9pm, down from 3.9m/15% share when it launched a week earlier – last Friday it was out-rated by Silent Witness, with 6m/24% share.  There is an awkwardness about this show, unlike Take Me Out, which comes across as show which feels it ought to be on ITV1.