I guess it’ll be the first time in a very long time that there’ll be some kind of normality in the breakfast slot on Christmas Day. I know GMTV used to put on a taped studio based show for a while on Christmas mornings for a few years in the 1990’s.
To be fair in the circumstances ITV’s line up doesn’t seem too bad. As said we may mock GMB, Lorraine and This Morning for being shown on Christmas Day, but at least it’s something.
TVam used to be live on Christmas morning, I seem to remember it being quite good, with some lots of guests and a bit of a party atmosphere. I think the presenters brought their families in too.
Live TV is lacking on a Christmas day, of course around the time that TVam were live in Xmas day a few hours later so was Noel on the other side
It's "Gone Live" all over again for Philip all these years later then.
I see Paul Sinha is the new Noel in
TV Showdown.
Good to see a TV quiz show back. Hope the set resembles something more than a shiny floor and two desks though (Telly Addicts always worked well with the sofas).
Bradley Walsh’s How to Win a Game Show
and the SMTV retrospective should be good too.
I can't help thinking Partridge when I hear a climate change documentary called
Dancing on Thin Ice with Torvill and Dean.
Confirmation too that Clarkson is literally the new Tarrant.
It would be a missed opportunity if This Morning isn't live. Phil would be in his element doing a Christmas morning with Noel kind of show, perhaps with Andi Peters as a Smitty style sidekick
James Martin and Ainsley Harriot shows are also mentioned for Christmas Day, so that's pretty much them sorted through to the Queens Speech.
Personally although I think a Christmas Day edition of This Morning is probably a good idea I'm not so sure about GMB - it isn't exactly the soft and comforting family show you'd want to see on Christmas Day and I think CITV may be more useful for the family audience at least - though that said I wouldn't be surprised if GMB ends up just airing for an hour or so from 8am, as unlike The Big Breakfast or even GMTV it isn't the sort of show where you can play best bits on Christmas Day really - nobody wants a compilation of Piers ranting.
It does seem ITV had put much more effort into their Christmas output this year, than in any year of the past 20 years.
I remember an historian saying ITV usually avoided big expensive Christmas specials, as advertising revenue for the Christmas period was very low, as most people had spent their cash by Christmas Eve, and so ploughing a fortune into Christmas specials was not financially viable.
Now, because of this truly appalling year of 2020, ITV management have seemed to have thrown a lot more effort and a little bit more cash into their festive output. Good for them.
It is a shame, as ITV always seems to be a hit or miss approach to Christmas television. One year they get Christmas Day offering right, and the following year they mess up big time.
