Blue Peter

Same old crap - it doesn't matter what you think or the history of the programme or CBBC, we're now told we have to aim at 6-12 year olds and that's all we bloody care about!


It really is only since that policy came in that the quality of programming across CBBC as a whole really has plunged downhill.

And if further proof were needed that heritage counts for little, Lime Pictures have this morning confirmed the new series of Grange Hill has been pushed back until the summer (originally it was planned for next month), and on the CBBC Channel only. As a consequence LP have "put on hold" the plans they made to celebrate the show's 30th anniversary.

It's easy for us to slag off current CBBC output because we're not the target audience but I can honestly say I'd have been embarrassed by some of what passes for CBBC today when I was the right age.

Only some ? Those few programmes that are worth watching have all been done a lot better in the past.

OK nowadays perhaps kids are more likely to watch TV alone rather than with their parents around, but certainly in the past shows in the 5pm+ slot were also bearable for adults to watch too, either with their kids or as a guilty pleasure.


Grange Hill was a drama about kids, not for kids, while Blue Peter would sometimes cover things far better than you'd find elsewhere.


This 6-12 thing probably all links in with pushing back the BBC1 slot 20 minutes too - the BBC will then argue in the earlier slot these shows get a younger audience, so hence should be crap!



We've swung alot of crap, deservedly so, at the new Blue Peter editor - but I think it's a problem which goes much higher than that!

They'd better at least have a 30th anniversary logo.

I think that the major change in direction for CBBC has been the decision to remove the "young teen" audience from the CBBC target demographic, and shift this to the BBC Switch, with the "old teen" audience shifted to BBC Three (and yes I realise BBC Switch isn't a channel in the same way...)

This has pushed all of CBBC's core output - Blue Peter, Newsround, Grange Hill etc. to more exclusively target a younger audience than has previously been the case over the last few decades.

For some shows - like Newsround - this has been reasonably pain-free (larger astons, and a change of treatment to some stories), but for others - Blue Peter and Grange Hill particularly, it isn't just tweaking it is major shifts in the DNA of the show, which isn't always a great way of evolving a show.

Another issue the Beeb is going to have to grapple with is the current inability of CBBC to broadcast after 7pm and BBC Three to start before 7pm.

(This could be shifted on Freeview by swapping CBBC and CBeebies? That would allow CBeebies and BBC Three to share and CBBC and BBC Four to share. You could then stop CBeebies at 1800, and CBBC at 2000, with BBC Three starting at 1800 and BBC Four at 2000?)

Why should they? BBC Three has virtually no established pre-watershed programmes and doesn't warrant having extra hours, while BBC Four is slightly more established in the pre-watershed slot.


And with the childrens channels, CBeebies performs much better than CBBC, with their "Bedtime Hour" at 6pm a key part of the schedule.

There is nothing in CBBC's schedule which could - or should - warrant having to be shown after 7pm. From next month they'll basically have a window from 5.15-7pm to screen their flagship programming after CBBC finishes on BBC1 - plenty of time, especially when you consider it's unlikely more than half an hour of that would be a new screening of an original programme.

The amount of new programmes shown every day (often as little as one) it doesn't really warrant being a stand alone channel!


Not to mention that CBeebies has had the same on-screen look since it began, whereas CBBC is currently on its third...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radioassets/photos/2008/1/21/35195_2.jpg

Oh those were the days! (Taken from some random photos up on the R1 site)

I managed to catch Konnie's programme yesterday and it was awful. I know I'm way beyond the demographic but even if I was 10 I'd have thought the programme was a poor sendoff. It just seem stuttered, unrehearsed, cramped (the camerman seemed to hit the back wall while tracking backwards ) - and largely made up of plugging another show.
I get the feeling from that article she wasn't impressed with the way things were going and after being there for nine years then suddenly having the dramatic change, it's no surprise she thought it was time.

They could have made it a real party occasion with bringing back past presenters and having a trip down memory lane. By the sounds of things the kids no longer like that (I guess that's also why there's going to be a low key 50th birthday). A real shame for a show with such heritage.

Out of interest, does anyone have any stats on how many kids are watching CBBC One these days? I assume they're still watching more than over on the Channel with Ed?

Today's montage show was ok, we got the clip of her first ever show that should have really been in yesterday's too (complete with Richard Bacon!), and a really early interview with JK Rowling when only one Harry Potter book had been released and the movies were years away. Other posts are right, though, there should have been the big celebration show she deserved - the earliest 'leaving' show I remember was Diane Louise Jordan's in 1996, and they pretty much kept to that format for all the others too!

It does seem a shame that the 50th birthday will be so low-key, though, I remember I really really enjoyed the huge 40th birthday show when I was 10, with all the past presenters coming back - I seem to remember a pancake challenge ending up with John Noakes flipping it so high it got stuck onto part of the set!

Every single Blue Peter presenter is still alive except three of them, so there's no reason not to have a show like that again.

CBeebies did have a refresh last year.






Don't know about "CBBC", but in the ratings thread last week someone posted figures for the whole day and the CBBC block got about 800,000 IIRC.

Though to be fair, it looks virtually the same.