Are The BBC Up To Something

The only word I've seen from Five did suggest they'd be looking to keep it around it's current timeslot - and they've already made moves to drop/move the 5.30pm news by reinstating a full 30-minute bulletin at 7pm, which ticks OFCOM's boxes.


I'm not sure they'd want to put it against Hollyoaks at 6.30pm, or mess up their current Five Life "first look" screenings of Home and Away which rate pretty well.


Then again, Five probably commissioned Neighbours with the view to solving their 6.30pm problem - but personally speaking if they opted for the hour from 6pm, I think they'd put Neighbours on first and move Home and Away to 6.30pm.


I wonder what they'll do at lunchtime - I guess like Home and Away new episodes will premiere in the evening and be repeated the next day - but I'd be surprised if they opt to put Neighbours on at 12.30pm considering it is established in the later slot - and always lost ratings when it moved earlier.


I'd imagine they'll find an hour-long filler for midday, then air Home and Away and Neighbours back to back from 1pm.

Surely Neighbours will also get "first look" episodes when it moves to Five, so if they put it on at 5.30pm then the first look episode will be up against Home and Away at 6pm. Maybe they could do a first look soap hour from 6.30pm-7.30pm on Five Life but that would still be up against Hollyoaks on both C4 and E4.

Thanks Jugalug - hadn't noticed that - now corrected

That is the main complication really. The only way it could feasibly work is if they take a 30-minute break between the two, but that's not going to happen.

Then again though, if people are watching the first look edition of say Neighbours at 6pm, it's likely they'd also be watching Home and Away at first look pace, so shouldn't be an issue.


The worst thing they could do though is if Neighbours and H&A are on 5.30pm and 6pm on Five, to then follow with first look Neighbours at 6.30pm then H&A at 7pm - meaning fans of either soap would have to sit through another show to catch the first look episode of the one they want.


Although these First Look episodes rate pretty well with their regular viewers, there is no doubt that ratings jump following a big cliffhanger - and those viewers would probably be lost if viewers couldn't switch straight from one episode to the next.

Am I the only one who's thinking The One Show could do really well at 5:30? Up against other chat/magazine shows Paul O'Grady / Anthony Cotton [whhhhyyy!].

I think it could work really well - the kids are home from school, the workers are just getting back in and it'd become a proper end of day event.
This would be the best solution really, as you'd avoid the problem of curtailing TWL or CBBC to make a new schedule work. It would also free up the 7pm post-news slot for soaps, meaning Eastenders wouldn't need to take up main primetime space.

I wouldn't expect the BBC to move The One Show from 1900. It is getting pretty good ratings against Emmerdale, and not losing anywhere near as much audience from the highly rated 1830-1900 regional slot (which is hugely popular), and is building a strong foundation for the BBC in the evenings after the 1800-1900 news hour.

Moving it to 1730 isn't really an option - the audience it is aiming at just aren't around at that time (they're still at work), and the audience levels are much smaller.

I have heard that everything on BBC1 between 3.30pm and 6pm is to move to BBC2, and everything on BBC2 at the same time is to move across to BBC1, not just The Weakest Link. They may give the 5.30pm-6pm slot to BBC Switch.

[quote="Brekkie Boy"]

But they may do that to try and get people to watch both soaps in a "soap hour"

They could move Neighbours to 17:00, have first look Neighbours on Five Life at 17.30 while they show Five News on Five. And continue with how they currently do with Home and Away.

They could do but I doubt Neighbours will be on as early as 5pm - most people are travelling home from work.

Another possibility would be (albeit unlikely):


1700 Five Life - yesterday's Neighbours (Catch Up)
1730 Five - Neighbours (First Look)
1800 Five - Home and Away
1830 Five Life - tomorrow's Home and Away (First Look)

Could be - has it been confirmed that Five Life will do Neighbours first look? I think we are assuming they will because they do for Home and Away.