I'd disregard at least half of that though as it is the News of the World, which is pretty much the worst tabloid of any of them
It also refers to 'Channel 4 bosses' at the start and then later 'ITV bosses', so who cut the budget is still unknown. That's if Carol even spoke at all to the NotW which is doubtful!
I don't necessarily disbelieve the quotes. If they weren't true, they'd put Vorderman into a very tricky situation and she would doubtless be quick to demand a retraction.
Of course all the muck-spreading about the "ITV insider" is probably a load of bunkum. Words like "£2,000 a day for sticking up some numbers" are hardly the sort of thing that ITV would be wanting to get out -- and if it is an insider talking, he/she would probably be from YTV and most unlikely to want to rock the boat at this stage.
If this is all even half true it is decidedly tatty behaviour on ITV's part it has to be said.
I think you mean perhaps the largest exterior lot for a single programme. That is rather different to the largest studio which I believe is at TLS. However, Europe's largest 'sound stage' (007) is at Pinewood.
AIUI TC1 at TVC is, or was, the largest single TV studio in the UK.
Fountain have a pair of studios with a central door that can be opened to operate as a single studio, and in this configuration it is the largest TV studio in the UK AIUI.
TLS have large studios - but not as large as TC1.
The new BBC Pacific Quay operation has the largest single TV studio outside London.
(This is ignoring movie sound stages now configured for TV)
:-(
A former member
does this mean that Lotto show is the in studio 2?
Not as easy as it sounds, with no disrespect to Yorkshire, Leeds or Yorkshire TV at all, it's not that easy getting the talent up to Leeds these days, and on ITV's behalf they don't seem to be putting much effort in outside of Countdown, Emmerdale and Heartbeat, even then a considerable amount of that is done on location.
Quote:
I have a bad feeling there may move it to Manchester ?
They did some from Manchester last year as they had to be out of Leeds for some reason, so if they've done it before, they can do it again.
For me it sounds like ITV want to kill it off, I can't see why Channel 4 would want the show off and Carol out, it still does well and it doesn't cost much to produce in comparison to other game shows.
Although this is my opinion, I think ITV don't want The Leeds Studios.
For me it sounds like ITV want to kill it off, I can't see why Channel 4 would want the show off and Carol out, it still does well and it doesn't cost much to produce in comparison to other game shows.
I can see why they'd want to cut talent costs. Carol only gets such a high salary because she's been there a long time and I imagine it increased a lot in the era when she was on every programme going
The cost of talent is probably much higher than a co-presenter on a daytime game show would get were it a new show to launch now
A 90% paycut is a real slap in the face if the story is true. They obviously wanted to get rid of her. But to be honest I think Countdown has had its day.
If not Ch4 could well give it to someone else to make
This could be the issue, the copyright to the programme is held by Yorkshire Television Ltd (unlike most C4 programmes where it's held by Channel Four Television Corporation directly). This presumably therefore means that the episodes produced to date are ITV's property and C4 merely have the rights to show them, rather than it being a C4 programme with production merely outsourced to ITV.
Added also that the programme in it's earliest form was originally aired on ITV as a Yorkshire regional programme, then in all likelihood ITV claim ownership not only of the material produced, but of the series format itself.
It's based on a French fomat,
Des Chiffres et Des Lettres
("Of Figures and Letters"), so ITV don't own it outright. Exactly how the licensing contracts are tangled up - and the name "Countdown" itself of course - may be more complicated.