A Saturday Morning Thread

Of course, at the same time they poached the original Saturday Kitchen in 2006, they also heard the Beeb were planning to do what became Something For The Weekend so rushed a spoiler on air which was Sunday Feast. I remember reading at the time that both the Beeb and ITV wanted Andi Peters to do it for some reason and were both trying to offer him more money and other gigs, and in the end he went for the ITV offer. And Sunday Feast promptly flopped and I think had been axed before Something For The Weekend even began.

And then Something For The Weekend itself moved channels, with a change in name!

Hi first post on here after been a long time reader. My Saturday shows were Live and Kicking and then the Saturday show. I think a Live and Kicking type show would still work today it would also be a good way of showcasing a couple of CBBC programmes does anyone agree.

Live & Kicking was dragged out for years whilst SM:TV Live came and went (with a poof, you might say) and yet the latter was much more memorable simply for, in my opinion, perfecting the Saturday morning format with the right mix of stuff for both kids and adults (watch the sketches now and admire how much stuff they managed to fly over your head).

Throughout this period CiTV was to me clearly superior to CBBC in programming and presentation, CBBC desperately trying to copy the success by relaunching Live & Kicking and even CBBC presentation by trying to ape their style (I saw right through it!).

The only thing that came close after was the first series of TMi (Dick and Dom is another topic entirely!)

I do agree with VM Phil that Live and Kicking should have ended when Jamie and Zoe left and a new show commisened. Though series 8 of Live and Kicking and was a completley different show and I think was quite good. I have never really liked Ant and Dec they seem overated and always stuck with CBBC which has always seemed better than CITV.

SMTV Live was another level - the sketches had a lot of effort put into them week after week and were actually funny for both kids and adults. The whole thing just worked to perfection during the Ant, Dec and Cat era. Funnily enough A&D are now the best presenters on UK TV by some way.

That first series of TMi was fantastic, however it all went downhill after that IMO. Not helped by the studio move from Leicester Square to TVC.

Yes it was quite incredible how it managed to drop off so quickly after that fantastic first series. I presumed something changed behind the scenes in terms of the features or sketches, but losing Leicester Square had a great impact on the feel of the show.

Indeed, the sketches and games were great and are still funny now, there are many clips of Wonkey Donkey on YouTube. I used to set my alarm for 9:24 every Saturday morning during that time.

Of course Ant and Dec then left and it was quite strange how quickly the Saturday morning 'ratings war' came to an end. ITV abandoned the format for various reasons and then shortly afterwards the BBC decided to as well, almost as if they didn't want to take part in a game with one team.

Now as you say it's just endless light chat/cookery formats that either flop or are tired beyond belief.

TMI was unfortunite as series2 happened at the time CBBC was having budget cuts and the CBBC target range was switched to 6 - 12 with the short lived BBC switch taking the older end of the CBBC target age range.

Another one was Ministry of Mayhem to Holly and Stephen's Saturday Showdown. I've read the original thread on here recently but i'm sure the reason of changing the programmes wasn't mentioned. Was it due to budgets again or didn't they want to renew Ministry of Mayhem in to 2006?

The original thread says Ministry of Mayhem was doing well throughout 2005.

I find it hard to believe it was anything but budgets, you could tell just by watching it the budget must have been slashed.