SW
Unfortunately ITV2 dating shows of 2002 are now a fading memory, although there was a dating show on ITV1 around that time called Eliminidate with Kerry Katona, which was a big flop and booted out of its slot after about three weeks.
They were very lucky with Pop Idol because they'd had two high profile Saturday night flops in 2001, The Premiership of course plus also the intention was that Slap Bang with Ant and Dec could be a long-runner that could be on for six months of the year like the House Party, but it was a disaster.
I remember reading this article at the time - https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/jul/02/mondaymediasection3 - which is from just before The Premiership began and is very interesting. Funnily enough one of the shows they mention as their big hopes for the autum is HearSay It's Saturday which was an even bigger flop than Slap Bang and the final episode ended up going out at two o'clock in the afternoon. Moment of Truth never went to Fridays though there were a couple of Saturday staples that were on Fridays for a bit, like The Brian Conley Show.
Soapstars was never shown on Saturdays, it was part of another ill-advised venture on ITV that autumn, where Mondays were specifically branded as an evening of particular interest to younger audiences, they did a load of trailers for it - "Monday's my day" - and alongside Soapstars there was the Russell T Davies drama Bob and Rose and The Sketch Show, the, er, sketch show with Lee Mack and Tim Vine, all skewing a bit younger than your average ITV weekday fare. And the whole thing lasted five weeks before they panicked at Bob and Rose getting low ratings, punted that to a post-10pm slot and parachuted Denis Norden repeats in to replace it.
Would be fascinating to think what might have happened if The Premiership had worked at 7pm, not just for Saturday night telly but for the Premier League, presumably we wouldn't have Saturday teatime matches. But it probably would never have worked, even if the show had been brilliant (which it wasn't), and I think ITV knew that. The original plan was to do it at 6pm which would have meant it would have been out of the way before the big shows, and because it was so soon after the final whistle, it would have seemed like the matches were almost live and people might have deliberately avoided the results. But it turned out the rights wouldn't let them do it at 6pm, and they'd spunked so much money on it, it was a waste putting it on after ten, so they decided to do it at seven, which didn't work for anyone.
Did any of those ITV2 shows mentioned at the end ever get made?
Unfortunately ITV2 dating shows of 2002 are now a fading memory, although there was a dating show on ITV1 around that time called Eliminidate with Kerry Katona, which was a big flop and booted out of its slot after about three weeks.
They were very lucky with Pop Idol because they'd had two high profile Saturday night flops in 2001, The Premiership of course plus also the intention was that Slap Bang with Ant and Dec could be a long-runner that could be on for six months of the year like the House Party, but it was a disaster.
I remember reading this article at the time - https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/jul/02/mondaymediasection3 - which is from just before The Premiership began and is very interesting. Funnily enough one of the shows they mention as their big hopes for the autum is HearSay It's Saturday which was an even bigger flop than Slap Bang and the final episode ended up going out at two o'clock in the afternoon. Moment of Truth never went to Fridays though there were a couple of Saturday staples that were on Fridays for a bit, like The Brian Conley Show.
Soapstars was never shown on Saturdays, it was part of another ill-advised venture on ITV that autumn, where Mondays were specifically branded as an evening of particular interest to younger audiences, they did a load of trailers for it - "Monday's my day" - and alongside Soapstars there was the Russell T Davies drama Bob and Rose and The Sketch Show, the, er, sketch show with Lee Mack and Tim Vine, all skewing a bit younger than your average ITV weekday fare. And the whole thing lasted five weeks before they panicked at Bob and Rose getting low ratings, punted that to a post-10pm slot and parachuted Denis Norden repeats in to replace it.
Would be fascinating to think what might have happened if The Premiership had worked at 7pm, not just for Saturday night telly but for the Premier League, presumably we wouldn't have Saturday teatime matches. But it probably would never have worked, even if the show had been brilliant (which it wasn't), and I think ITV knew that. The original plan was to do it at 6pm which would have meant it would have been out of the way before the big shows, and because it was so soon after the final whistle, it would have seemed like the matches were almost live and people might have deliberately avoided the results. But it turned out the rights wouldn't let them do it at 6pm, and they'd spunked so much money on it, it was a waste putting it on after ten, so they decided to do it at seven, which didn't work for anyone.