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Richard and Judy: their defection will leave ITV with a big gap to fill

Losing Richard and Judy to Channel 4 will leave a gaping hole in ITV's daytime scheduling - This Morning beats all competition hands down.

The dynamic duo turned an American format into an impressive ratings winner, dominating the daytime schedule for the past 13 years.

Every day last week, This Morning beat competition from the BBC. The corporation's line-up of City Hospital, House and Garden Invaders and Wipeout during This
Morning's slot of 10.30am to 12.30pm proved no match.

The best the BBC could do was on Tuesday, May 1, attracting an average of 1.1 million viewers, a 29% audience share.

This Morning's best performance last week was on
Monday, April 30 - 1.4 million devotees were watching, a 38% audience share.

BBC1's The Weakest Link looks good in its new slot on Thursday evenings at 8pm. Last week 7.6 million, an impressive 36% audience share, tuned in to watch the queen of sarcasm.

ITV's Garages From Hell proved no match for The Weakest Link - in the same time slot, 6.7 million were watching, a 31% audience share.

BBC1 scored a hit with it's poignant documentary; Life of Grime Special: Mr Trebus.

Shown at 9.20pm on Thursday, May 3, it had 6.6 million entranced, a 29% share.

Channel 5's documentary on Prince Andrew - The Playboy Prince - shown at 8pm on
Tuesday, May 1, did quite well, netting 1.4  million, a 6% share.

Hollywood Knifes, BBC1's gory exposé of plastic surgery in Tinsel Town, was watched by 5.2 million, a 22% share, at 9pm last Wednesday.

Channel 4 scored well with The 100 Greatest TV Characters, on Saturday, May 5, at 9pm, 2.4 million, a 12% share which bathed in nostalgia.

ITV's Saturday night movie The Fugitive pulled 6.8 million viewers, a 33% share.

Channel 4 didn't fare too
well with Wembley: a Football Farce, shown at 6.40pm, just before the largely ignored Queer and Catholic, as only 0.8 million footie fans tuned in - a measly 5% audience share.