26th Anniversary of the biggest shake up in ITV

Wasn't this a major factor in Emmerdale being changed? Carlton apparently complained that it was a loss leader in London and damaged their ratings for the rest of the evenings, and that was part of the reason why they got Phil Redmond in and had the plane crash etc.? (Although clearly, the old format would have been too quiet and uneventful to survive on post-1993 peaktime ITV anyway; weirdly enough, it was very popular in the Southern region in the late 1970s, where it was on at 7.00, which suggests that it might have done better in the south-west and East Anglia if they hadn't shown it at 5.15 ... and maybe even London, where it also stayed at 5.15 until 1985 but then did better than anyone expected opposite EastEnders.)

I know that '623058' has a bee in his bonnet about the Network Centre and the new school at ITV for a while before that wanting to give the channel more southern appeal, but that was only an attempt to rectify a bias the other way which was built into the network beforehand. Rightly or wrongly, when more active commercialism was allowed they were always going to follow the money. I've got to give him some respect because he sometimes votes my long posts up, but reading his stuff sometimes you'd think it would have been impossible for Nicola Sturgeon to love Wham! as a girl, because they were seen to represent south-eastern affluence - but we know from her tweets after George Michael died that she did.

Thinking of that ABBA lyric "no more champagne and the fireworks are through" - maybe it was more of a thing in mainland Europe to have New Year fireworks before London and people in England generally did. I think they were already established in Edinburgh and probably Scotland generally.



The previous year ITN had also come on at 11.55 to mark the turn of the year and link into Big Ben, interrupting the film Down and Out in Beverly Hills - although of course Scottish, Grampian, Border & Ulster were all doing their own things. I think those were the only two years they did that.

It is worth noting, in this context, that British television showed an unprecedented interest in its own past during 1991/2 - The Lime Grove Story, TV Heaven, Granadaland, Black and White in Colour, lots more archive material than ever before. Clearly, in retrospect (and probably even at the time), this was because they knew a particular broadcasting ethos was slipping away and they wanted to take a look back before it was gone entirely. A bit like the sudden interest in 'classical Hollywood' in the 1960s.

It was either on this forum or another forum where someone who worked in TX for the Beeb in the eighties talked about 1987 when they showed 'stEnders at 11.30, including the bongs at midnight. Apparently there was some sort of issue with doing it live so it was actually a recording from a few nights earlier, and they didn't tell anyone. But then when they did presentation from Lime Grove they had a scale model of Big Ben in the studio which they sometimes used in place of the real thing.



Around that time the ITV network weren't especially bothering with New Year's Eve anyway. There had been various programmes - Hogmanay from STV up until 1986, and then Des O'Connor Tonight in 1987, pre-recorded Cilla specials in 1988 and 1989 and a show from the Palladium in 1990 - but as mentioned in 1991 most of the regions had them in the middle of a film, and I remember Granada actually opted out for a special edition of their regional music show What's New. So the ITN bulletin in 1992 wasn't especially unusual, and indeed they did it for the next few years.

Seems amazing now that New Year's Eve gets such a big audience when up until a decade or so ago it was an absolute dead night on telly and at midnight there was all kinds of rubbish after Clive James packed it in. Actually aside from Clive James from 1988 to 1994, there wasn't really a traditional show on BBC1 on New Year's Eve for about thirty years - sometimes they'd take BBC Scotland's show, sometimes they'd do Wogan or something, there was that 'stEnders in 1987 as I say.



Hmm, maybe, but they were already making attempts to broaden its appeal before Carlton came along. I remember in 1992 they did a big advertising campaign which involved running adverts in things like Smash Hits, in an attempt to interest a younger audience. So while Carlton might have wanted it sexed up a bit further, it was part of a process that had already begun, probably since they dropped the Farm from the title in in the late eighties.



Hmm, more likely I would say is that the first generation that had grown up with television and had such fond memories of it were graduating to the big jobs in broadcasting and able to produce and commission these shows. Most of the BBC2 shows were the responsibility of Michael Jackson, for example, who was a total telly anorak and inevitably the number of shows about TV skyrocketed when he was running the BBC arts department.

That kind of thing still happens today. In recent months Adrian Chiles' show on Five Live has run lengthy features reuniting the casts of Going Live and Ghostwatch, clearly pet subjects of the thirty and fortysomethings producing that show. Similarly it's no surprise Doctor Who came back given the number of Doctor Who fans who were becoming major players in drama.

I'll start with Emmerdale, TSW did actually move the series back to 19.00 around the same time as Thames in 1985, ony anglia stv and Grampian kept it at 17.15, because there disliked it. in 1988, it was networked to 18.30 and by 1990 everyone had Emmerdale at 19.00 So for three years. So was is still poorly in south-west and East Anglia during the early 90s? STV in 1993 moved the whole 17.00 - 19.30 schedule around which meant emmerdale and some network content was moved to 17.10, give the 19.00 slot to local programming which including Machair Gaelic soap opera, high road, scottish action. So STV happily told the network centre to bog off, I wonder why Carlton didn't.

Network Centre claimed to represent the people/viewers/ advertiser. I dont believe there did. A Prime case Take the high road . There said no wants it anymore. There took if off the english screens in mind 1993, yet alot of complaints brought it back in expect YTV and TT (there did bring it back in 96, by 98 only Carlton stations kept it on until may 2002) I bet there a few other programme the network centre claimed people didn't like but viewers actually did...



I dont think STV/ Grampian ever took the ITN news around midnight on new years ever until 2000s?

Nice piece from the Guardian

While we're talking about new year, here's a video I found on one my my aunt's old videos, of Sky's coverage of New Year 1992 (presumably simulcast on all their channels, this was recorded on Sky Movies)

I didn't realise that Paul Jackson was Carlton's head of programmes at launch. Explains a lot.

Why does that explain alot?

Really interesting. Any other videos like this lurking around from galleries at TVS/Tvam or TSW? I’ve the seen the on screen shutdowns so often be good to see something different!

His history is riddled with misfires and errors of judgement.

I imagine any footage of the TVS gallery would be less interesting, as it stayed on the air, just under Meridian instead.

Yes I believe it was pretty much Meridian in all but name by that stage. (the farewell show was pre-recorded).