The end of CITV...?

Children only started lookinmg elsewhere because ITV stopped making programmes for the relevant ages groups and just concentrated on pre-school programming. First they moved to the BBC, and then when BBC followed suit (with the same excuse as ITV - funny same person as well Nigel J Packard!!!!!!!!) then where else are children to look - but towards the digital platforms.

If anything it is the fault of one person that mainstream children's programming has completely faultered - Nigel J Packard!

But did not this Mr Pickard make a big success of Citv as his head of the department, and commissioned the most successful Saturday morning show in ITV history?

errrrr, not exactly!

Yes he did run CITV for a short period after he lost his job at TVS when they lost their franchise. If anything SMTV was unique and was the only decent programme he bought in. In terms of viewers %age yes it was successful for its era, but it never reached the audiences that Tiswas and No73 did.

Up until TVS losing his franchise he was head of children's programming at TVS which included How 2, No73/7T3/Motormouth, Art Attcak, Finders Keepers - but he was not head of CITV Network programming as this was done at Central. When took over the role at Central TV he cancelled many of the big named shows, which were not pass their sell-by-date, axed many of the popular US animations, even lost the network contract of Warner Brothers and even Disney deserted CITV (although with luck they do/did have a share in GMTV so the channel does still show some disney cartoons). He introduced many more pre-school programming and completely forgot about the older children. During this period he did also axe many of the full-length British animations - at the time there was The Hurricanes, Phantomcat, Victor and Hugo, Rupert, Dr Zitbag's Transylvanian Pet Shop, etc...

When he went to CBBC he basically did the same - convinced the BBC to outsource Grange Hill (and look at the mess that is now), watered down Byker Grove and introduced much more younger children's programming.

Packard's real problem is that he does not know what to commission for older children and so he totally forgot about them. SMTV was just a freak of a show (don't get me wrong not in a bad sense, but in a sense that he primarliy aimed the show for an audience of 8 to 12 year old and it was only Ant, Dec and Cat that managed to create an audience of older then the range planned).

Look at what happened when he came back to ITV - replaced SMTV (which was past its best by then - but only due to the choice of presenters at the time) with MOM and then replaced it with Saturday Showdown - both aimed at the younger children's audience.

Although Packard can be seen as a success at children's programming, when he was at TVS, after that he was very lacklustre and does look as though he did not know what to provide for the older children's audience (12-16).

It's not part of ITV Productions so probably not (is it even owned by ITV any more?). If it is part of this then it's a far btter candidate to be sold off than the rest of iTV childrens production as it's a stand alone company.

I thought Cosgrove Hall Productions was owned by FremantleMedia? Well it was a company that span off from Thames, though I cannot see the demise of this company due to the fact of their rather extensive and popular archive, along with comissions for both CBBC and CITV.

You are right as they had the credits for SM:TV and then the LWT ident before CD:UK started.

Sorry if this has been mentioned, but from Monday, 3rd July, CITV will only be on for 1 hour on ITV1, weekdays, followed by The Darling Buds of May at 4pm.
Don't know if this is permanent though, I can only see listings up to 4th July.

Source: RadioTimes

My understanding is that was Phil Redmond's doing - Nigel was only instrumental in that he was the head of department who gave it the green light. Maybe that's just the official spin - who knows? But I can't disagree with your final sentence.

There is some suggestion that Pickard moved the goalposts with Grange Hill when he was in charge of CBBC. In 2001, he rigorously defended the show after parents complained about the Tom and Leah rape storyline, parents believing this was not suitable for a show going out at 5pm. Twelve months later, he says the move to Liverpool will ensure Grange Hill's continued success. A disproportionate shift of thought in a relatively small amount of time.

I was in correspondance with someone who made numerous visits to the Grange Hill set in Elstree; when she visited the set in 2001 (during filming of what turned out to be the last series made there), she felt the atmosphere had gone from one of vibrance to unease, as if the cast and crew knew something was coming.

Well, clearly these morons don't know how to shoot fish in a barrel as far as comissioning/aquiring for the older audiance is concerned.
If they did, well lets not have bais but I'm sure the shows I'm thinking about would be on TV and it would be win win.

Instead, Saturday Morning TV's a mess, CITV weak days are all but gone and CBBC effectivly has no compotition now so they'll get slopy and so on.

I quite clearly remembering SMTV going into a commercial break then staright after CD:UK starting. then as the credits solled at the end of CD:UK they also showed the credits for SMTV at the same time. Blaze TV for ITV (no LWT logo in sight)

AIUI CD:UK was never supposed to be part of CiTV, only ever SMTV Live was part of CiTV, CD:UK was part of the normal ITV service, as it didn't classify as a Childrens programme, same goes to it's predacessor, The Chart Show. In the very early days of SMTV/CD:UK, it was an LWT Production for ITV, but this was still in the IT* era, when this was common practice, though if anyone knows more then feel free to add.

Yes, it was the case until late 1998 that any programme not made by one of the ITV franchisees still had to be comissioned through them, and had their logo on the endcap- CD:UK was commissioned through LWT (and made in their studios until 2003). And I know at some point, CD:UK used to have an ident before it. It didn't when it first started, and it didn't when it finished, but it did at some point- it was certinally the case in 2001. Though it was always the case, with the exception of SMTV Gold that SMTVs credits were shown at the end of CD:UK (which meant they were shown on the repeats of CD:UK as well).