Congratulations to London Tonight, ITV's regional news show for the capital, which has seen audiences rise 3% year-on-year. ITV bosses and Ofcom will be pleased. So what's their secret? Take last Wednesday's show, in which viewers were able to compete to meet Arsenal striker Thierry Henry - all for the cost of a 25p phone call. Live coverage of Henry's visit to a local college the following day saw audiences rise to an all time high of 20.1%. Fantastic. But the question for Ofcom remains: does a combination of footie-mad youngsters and the footballer of the year qualify as regional news?
Or perhaps London Tonight's record audience was down to ITV chief executive Charles Allen, who made an unlikely appearance in a story about the government's health drive to promote ITV's fitness special, Britain on the Move. Allen, who was filmed puffing over Waterloo Bridge, told viewers: "This is an initiative from ITV despite the fact we're only a few months old." Aside from completely baffling non-media viewers, hats off to Allen for airbrushing 49 years of history in a single stroke.
Sounds like it could be an all-male lineup on LT this evening - Alastair Stewart and Jonathan Wills
Do they ever usually do that - I know Lookaround has Tim Backshall and Adam Powell presenting together occasionally, and Fiona Armstrong and Courtney McLeod.