Areas where ITV is 'missing a trick'

I knew there was a reason I was avoiding this thread.


They did try that years ago and called it Live Talk, which didn't work. "Loose Lunch" could work, but it is what it is and seems to be popular enough to warrant virtually a year round slot, so can't see any reason to change it.

To be fair to ITV, the problem is the economy. The changes which really would add quite a bit to the brand value of ITV cost money, money they simply haven't got at the moment, hence why the changes that are being made are the ones that are saving cash. The new 8pm soap hour on Thursday for example is filling that newly vacated slot very cheaply in comparison to keeping the soaps in their old slots and then commissioning something new to air each week in the slot.

Sunday night is the biggest problem for me - since the soaps moved ITV has only really been victorious on Sundays with Dancing on Ice, rather than practically every week. The X Factor will help of course in the autumn, but may fit rather uncomfortably in the schedules if the usual Sunday night offerings are scheduled around it.

When ITV make quiz shows we end up with crap like The Colour of Money, which they commissioned in the hope of making a fortune, turning down Wipeout at the time, which turned out to be the biggest new Saturday show of the year, despite the BBC making a complete balls up of the format.

CITV needs a regular slot on ITV - as usually an hour of daytime can air without any ads at all, I don't see the harm in having kids shows one-hour a day - indeed with the advertising from toy companies etc. it would probably bring in more revenue. Failing that, a regular slot on Saturday or Sunday morning - ITV's reduced commitment to 5 hours a week has completely disappeared out of the window this year.

Regional programming - I do think there is still scope for regional programming, but probably just a couple of six-part series a year, tied in with national brands. For example, Countrywise could air a regional six-part series, and then as a national longer series the rest of the year, taking footage from regional programmes (which they do now anyway).

Finally drama - it is series they need, but they need to be hit series. However, since ITV abandoned the drama premieres the overall quality has dropped somewhat. They may have been costly and rarely led to longer commissions, but when ITV were screening a one or two part drama premiere every week, generally they were of a very high quality.

I think what ITV need to do is look at longer running series, rather than 6-8 parters. Obviously a first series would be shorter to test the water, but ITV could do with some shows that fill the slots week in week out for half of the year.

Colour of Money was pretty atrocious, even at the casting stage. We were all struggling to come up with a "reason" to randomly pick a colour... "err, I'm in a puce mood today", "well... I like sage and onion stuffing..."

God it was dreadful.

Total Wipeout isn't very far removed from the US version - unless I'm missing something you've spotted though.

Sometimes Hammond is a bit "can't be bothered" about the whole thing - but I never miss an episode if I'm around to watch it.

Its fab.

Oh, it is far from the quality product the US version is. Hammond is fine, but needs someone to banter with, but the filler content, repetitive obstacles and pointless changes for the worse, especially with the Wipeout Zone this series where it's all just moving on rather than continuing to attempt the obstacles until you conquer them, make it incredibly inferior not just to the US version, but to most other countries as well.

Also it is one of those shows where having ad breaks actually helps give the show a solid structure too.

I'm deeply puzzled. The games are the same. The changes are the same - whether its the sweeper having two arms or giving them a sack to jump in - the same across the board. The US are on 2nd (or maybe 3rd) season, and those changes seem to happen throughout.

Can anyone back me up on this or am I having a senior moment?

I don't think you understand what the phrase 'not a core-asset' means.

Their core is TV, running a cinema advertising company is not core. Showing an ITV logo before the cinema adverts would do nothing to improve the brand awareness of the TV company, in fact it would probably do the opposite.

The US are on their second season (which is effectively two seasons in one really), but even compared to the first ours is vastly inferior.

The basics are the same granted, but whilst Total Wipeout repeats obstacles two or three times a series, Wipeout had new obstacles virtually every week - and those obstacles are there to be used by the international versions, along with new ones which haven't been used in America. Similarly with The Sweeper that varies every week with much more than The Crusher and Sacks, yet we got the basic Sweeper every week in series 1, and just two variations in series 2.

The same can be said for the Dizzy Dummy and Dreadmill - although granted I think the "Double Dreadmill" is a good twist on the original, but shows they could have used the original single player version in series 1 then introduced the "Double Dreadmill" as a twist on it this series.

Even if you forgive all that though, the Wipeout Zone is the real problem. It was bad enough in the first series when we had a spinner that spins slowly in comparison and the rolling log which didn't roll, but at least then they followed the original rules and all parts had to be completed. Now you just swim to the next obstacle if you Wipeout, which completely misses the point of the show. It's no fun seeing someone miss the spinner landing and climb the ladder and move on - it is fun seeing them have to try and try again until they succeed.


And secondly, the editing. Without the ads an hour is too long, yet they still take out parts of the actual gameplay (two runs on the Dizzy Dummy, individual runs on the Dreadmill, one finalist in the Wipeout Zone (plus quicker times for the rest). Add to that the obvious time fillers, including unnecessary recaps of the leaderboard (it's irrelevent if only 6 or so people have ran so far) and the excruciating sequence with the three finalists which completely misses the point of the show (a bit of fun, not life changing moments!) and then the monotonous editing on the qualifier and you can see we are the poor relations when it comes to this show.


The format is great - but the show itself doesn't do it justice, and I'm absolutely confident that if the BBC hadn't unnecessarily tinkered with the basics, they'd have an even bigger hit on their hands. And taking it back on topic, if ITV had grabbed the rights when they had the chance (and they were offered them first), they wouldn't have been so afraid to let it air as an innocent hour of entertainment, rather than trying to package it as something it isn't.

Well you know your Wipeout - I'll give you that.

Maybe the Beeb will tweak a little for the next series - but let's not go looking for commercial breaks!

Personally I prefered it when Bob Monkhouse presenting

I preferred the Paul Daniels version myself.

I understand exactly what a 'core asset' is. It may have gone over your head, but ITV recently forked out a lot of cash to play an ITV 'brighter side' ident out in cinemas. They could have done that for free if they still had Carlton Screen Advertising, by replacing the Carlton ident with the ITV one.

And ITV have got their finger in dozens of non-core assets such as ITV Babysign, ITV Casino, ITV Bingo. Disposing of screen advertising was actually ditching one with some relevance to ITV.

Have you considered the costs of running Carlton Screen Advertising? It's more than a case of 'well, we could save a few quid when we show that ad for a few months, let's keep it'.