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The Des & Mel/UTV situation

(January 2005)

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CO
Colm
Rather than go back to find other NI presentation threads...

Has there been any response in the local media to UTV's decision to opt out of the rest of the ITV network showing of Today with Des and Mel? Is it kicking up a fuss or has nobody really noticed?
BR
Brekkie
Why would there be an uproar - it's been the case for the last few years that ITV1's 5pm programme doesn't air live on UTV.

And Des and Mel is proving far less successful than Paul O'Grady was - Richard and Judy usually beat it by a good half a million!


However, as you bring up the issue it'll be interesting to see what happens when the Lunchtime News is extended to 60 minutes, as UTV will only have 90 minutes to play with in the afternoon.
MA
marksi
Difference is, it doens't air at all on UTV during the day, only the overnight repeat remains.

The trail goes out though as part of This Morning... Rolling Eyes
JE
Jez Founding member
Brekkie Boy posted:


However, as you bring up the issue it'll be interesting to see what happens when the Lunchtime News is extended to 60 minutes, as UTV will only have 90 minutes to play with in the afternoon.


I wonder if they will screen the 1 hour long lunchtime news from 12noon till 1pm. With Trisha going from ITV soon they could rearrange the morning schedule;

9.25am Talk Show
10.00am This Morning
12noon ITV Lunchtime News

That way This Morning would actually all be on during the morning, and they wouldnt need to alter the afternoon line up, but I wonder what would replace the 3pm regional news unless they just bring forward CITV by 15 mins.
GR
Gary Roberts
Yup, it is bloody annoying that Des and Mel isn't on UTV!

I have friends in Limerick who like the show and feel deprived of the happy hour, so I've been sending them recordings.

IMO, they should move D&M back to 1pm and adopt the following post-GMTV schedule:

9.25am Supermarket Sweep, Chain Letters, Lucky Ladders, etc
9.55 Regional News and Weather
10.00 About Britain
10.30 This Morning
12.20pm Regional News and Weather
12.30 Lunchtime News and Weather
1.00 Today with Des and Mel
2.00 Regional programmes
3.00 ITV News Headlines
3.10 Regional News and Weather
Followed by Community Progs, Crimestoppers, Puffin's Pla(i)ce, etc.
3.25 CITV
5.10 Blockbusters
5.40-6.00pm ITV Evening News and Weather
MA
marksi
Viewing figures for This Morning are not good in Northern Ireland. In fact from 0815 until 1745 UTV's viewing figures are substantially lower than BBC ONE Northern Ireland's.
TV
The TV Room
marksi posted:
Viewing figures for This Morning are not good in Northern Ireland. In fact from 0815 until 1745 UTV's viewing figures are substantially lower than BBC ONE Northern Ireland's.


I haven't enquired in recent times but how does Newsline fare these days against UTV Live?
FL
Flava
UTV could always show it the next day at 1pm.

There was a similar situation with Crossroads a few years back.

When Crossroads was moved from 5pm to 5.30pm in September 2001 UTV continued to show it at 5pm, but when Night & Day arrived in November, they moved it to 1.10pm, while the rest of the network continued with it at 2pm and 5.30pm.

However, this did end up with Northern Ireland being a day behind the mainland. (Although oddly they screened the World Cup Cliffhanger episode half an hour AHEAD of the mainland - it being a one-hour ep)
MA
marksi
The TV Room posted:
marksi posted:
Viewing figures for This Morning are not good in Northern Ireland. In fact from 0815 until 1745 UTV's viewing figures are substantially lower than BBC ONE Northern Ireland's.


I haven't enquired in recent times but how does Newsline fare these days against UTV Live?


UTV Live 37% share when 1800-1830 is averaged, and BBC Newsline 29% averaged 1830-1900. That's a terribly unscientific look at a couple of days in the past week, but seems to be reasonably representative.

That said, when there is a big local news story, Newsline and UTV Live are around the same figures, so I think it's fair to say that if the timings of the programmes was the other way round, (UTV Live being AFTER BBC Newsline) the figures may well also be reversed.
NE
North East
Friday 's Overnights
UTV LIVE 170,150 / ITV Evening News 133,180
BBC SIX 75,850 / BBC NI 127,820
Obviously thats just fridays and the figures vary.
FA
fanoftv
Jez posted:
Brekkie Boy posted:


However, as you bring up the issue it'll be interesting to see what happens when the Lunchtime News is extended to 60 minutes, as UTV will only have 90 minutes to play with in the afternoon.


I wonder if they will screen the 1 hour long lunchtime news from 12noon till 1pm. With Trisha going from ITV soon they could rearrange the morning schedule;

9.25am Talk Show
10.00am This Morning
12noon ITV Lunchtime News

That way This Morning would actually all be on during the morning, and they wouldnt need to alter the afternoon line up, but I wonder what would replace the 3pm regional news unless they just bring forward CITV by 15 mins.


In fact I'd say that that is the best bet. As I'm sure that Trisha wasn't a 60 minute programme when she took over from Vanessa, and it would make sense not to start the programme at 60 minutes so that if it does poor in the ratings they could always fill in with a quiz or something.

The only thing then is to find decent programming to fill in the 2-3 gap.

Of course they could move Des & Mel back to 1pm and continue with programmes like 60 Minute Makeover in the 2pm slot.

I don't think ITV are entitly happy with Des & Mel at 5pm, thus why it's been reported that they're in talks with Sharon Osbourne.

I think ITV will give CiTV the extra 15 minutes, it would be nice for them to do, and would also increase their little CiTV set of programmes.
MA
marksi
A little off topic, but UTV related... I'm certain I heard Robin Taylor a couple of weeks ago encouraging people to play along with Millionaire interactively, which surprised me. I don't know if it ever did actually work on UTV, but it certainly didn't tonight.

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