20th years since NAT was first dumped

Channel 5 to me seem to be obsessed with either the royal family or historical programmes at 9.00pm. Look at how much Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth, Meghan and Harry, programmes about other royals etc have aired on Channel 5 at 9pm recently along with a raft of history documentaries.

Next Saturday we have Elizabeth Our Queen and The Royal Family at War on Saturday prime time.

Back in 2002, Channel 5 was truly appalling at what they offered, for example on Friday 1st March 2002, 17 years a go their Friday night line up was as follows:

6.30pm - Family Affairs
7.00pm - World of Wildlife
7.30pm - 5 News
8.00pm - Gladiators of World War 2
9.00pm - Film: Hostile Intent
10.50pm - Film: The Glass Cage

Pure dire line up to try to "compete" with BBC and ITV in my opinion.

And on Sunday at the same time they're showing Britain's Favourite Crisps!

Not much better 17 years later on Friday 1st March 2019:


7.00pm Sacred Ireland: Holy Land
8.00pm Secret Scotland
9.00pm Meghan & The Markles: A Family at War
10.00pm Most Shocking Celebrity Moments

C5 is the channel where an 11pm bulletin could have worked. In it's early days I do think they should have used the 10.50-11.00pm slot that followed most of their films for 5 News rather than Exclusive Extra!

And we're not so off topic there - no doubt about it most of the changes in news in 1999 were heavily influenced by the perceived success of the 5 News approach - so a shorter pacier bulletin at 11pm with a younger host wasn't such a bad idea.