Fantasy ITV1 schedules

We all know Michael Grade has promised a revitalised and refreshed ITV1 schedule from 2008. Indeed, he has called it a facelift, with things becoming more efficient. One of the changes we now know of is the reinstation of the News at Ten to the schedule - but what more can he do? Well, I feel there are several areas for improvement.

Here is a semi-realistic "fantasy schedule" which includes shows that are due to air in 2008 like Rock Rivals, Moving Wallpaper, Echo Beach, Lost in Austen etc.

http://www.rp-network.com/tvforum/uploads/itvschedule.gif

The 10.30 slot is a mix of first-run ITV2 shows (other examples instead of Secret Diary could be Supernatural or Peter and Katie, trash like that) and other stuff we've seen at 10pm this year.

Big changes:
Cutback of soaps. Loss of one Emmerdale (Sunday's), one Coronation Street (Monday's second episode) and one The Bill (Wednesday's).
Move of Tonight with Trevor McDonald from Friday to Wednesday.
Move of Millionaire to Sunday nights at 6.30pm.

Things like vaguely themed nights like Thursday with The Bill, Manhunt and Police Camera Action are things ITV should look into as well.

Anyway, there are my ideas, what are yours?

Losing one Emmerdale isn't enough. Other shows should be given chance to occupy the 7pm slot for some of the week.

Anyone else got a feeling that if indeen the News at Ten goes ahead, the next programme will begin at 10.45?
The News a Ten would end at just after 10.20, leaving room for the weather then adverts. Then 10 minutes of regional news from just after 10.30, then another ad break.

Hmm...

Monday
ITN News updates on the hour, except at 15:00, 16:00 and midnight
15:00 joins CITV
17:00 Teatime game show
17:45 ITV Early Evening News , followed by Weather
18:15 Regional news magazine, followed by Regional Weather
19:00 Emmerdale Farm
19:30 Coronation Street
20:00 Regionally-produced film - perhaps from indie companies or amateur film-makers? Would certainly encourage more regional programming
20:30 Tonight
21:00 One-off drama
22:00 News at Ten , followed by Weather then Regional News/Weather
22:40 Police, Camera, Action
23:40 as 20:00
00:10 ITN News, followed by Weather
00:20 Closedown

Tuesday
ITN News updates on the hour, except at 15:00, 16:00 and midnight
15:00 joins CITV
17:00 Teatime game show
17:45 ITV Early Evening News , followed by Weather
18:15 Regional news magazine, followed by Regional Weather
19:00 Regionally-produced film
19:30 Coronation Street
20:00 The Bill
21:00 Drama serial
22:00 News at Ten , followed by Weather then Regional News/Weather
22:40 FILM
00:10 ITN News, followed by Weather
00:20 Closedown

Wednesday
ITN News updates on the hour, except at 15:00, 16:00 and midnight
15:00 joins CITV
17:00 Teatime game show
17:45 ITV Early Evening News , followed by Weather
18:15 Regional news magazine, followed by Regional Weather
19:00 Emmerdale Farm
19:30 Regionally-produced film
20:00 Trinny and Susannah
21:00 Documentary
22:00 News at Ten , followed by Weather then Regional News/Weather
22:40 FILM
00:10 ITN News, followed by Weather
00:20 Closedown

Thursday
ITN News updates on the hour, except at 15:00, 16:00 and midnight
15:00 joins CITV
17:00 Teatime game show
17:45 ITV Early Evening News , followed by Weather
18:15 Regional news magazine, followed by Regional Weather
19:00 Regionally-produced film
19:30 Cookery programme
20:00 Sitcom
20:30 Sitcom
21:00 One-off drama
22:00 News at Ten , followed by Weather then Regional News/Weather
22:40 ITV2 repeat
00:10 ITN News, followed by Weather
00:20 Closedown

Friday
ITN News updates on the hour, except at 15:00, 16:00 and midnight
15:00 joins CITV
17:00 Teatime game show
17:45 ITV Early Evening News , followed by Weather
18:15 Regional news magazine, followed by Regional Weather
19:00 Emmerdale Farm
19:30 Regionally-produced film
20:00 FILM
22:00 News at Ten , followed by Weather then Regional News/Weather
22:40 News Knight with Trevor McDonald
23:10 Chat show
00:10 ITN News, followed by Weather
00:20 Closedown

Saturday
17:00 Harry Hill's TV Burp
17:30 ITV Early Evening News , followed by Weather then Regional News/Weather
18:15 Dancing on Ice
19:30 Primeval
20:30 Dancing on Ice Results
21:00 Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?
22:00 News at Ten , followed by Weather then Regional News/Weather
22:10 FILM
00:10 ITN News, followed by Weather
00:20 Closedown

Sunday
ITN News updates on the hour, except at 15:00, 16:00 and midnight
17:00 ITV Early Evening News followed by Weather then Regional News/Weather
17:30 Primeval (rpt'd from yesterday)
18:30 'Fun' documentary (like Born Survivor , Local Heroes etc)
19:30 Game show
20:00 FILM
22:00 News at Ten , followed by Weather then Regional News/Weather
22:10 The South Bank Show
23:10 ITV2 on ITV1
00:10 ITN News, followed by Weather
00:20 Closedown

Main goals being:

• Less soaps
  
• Fixed times for news, closedown (no ITV Play)
  
• Retaining key elements - ie big Saturday night show, Millionaire , South Bank Show on Sundays
  
• More regional programming - one regional programme EVERY weeknight and the regional news magazines extended by 15 minutes.

Just focusing on weekdays...

http://www.gorillaenterprises.co.uk/upload/uploadFiles/ITV1Schedule.PNG

- Less soaps, all at 8pm each weekday;
- More new commisions (good ones, they need to shake off this 'cheap' image), including current affairs;
- One half-hour regional a week, to build upon;
- 9 o'clock drama, new commisions.

I surprised myself by doing this, I wouldn't normally attempt a fantasy schedule.

My Saturday line-up would be as follows

0600 GMTV
0925 CITV
1100 Saturday Cooks
1230 ITV News and Weather
1240 Regional News and Weather
1245 The Planet's Funniest Animals
1315 FILM
1435 ANOTHER FILM
1620 Regional News and Weather
1635 ITV News and Sport. Including Weather
1650 Primeval
1750 You've Been Framed or Harry Hill's TV Burp
1820 Dancing on Ice
2000 Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway
2115 Dancing on Ice: The Skate-Off
2145 Al Murray's Happy Hour
2245 ITV News and Weather. Including Regional Weather
2300 FILM
0045 ITV Play (if it hasn't been axed by then)
0400 60 Minute Makeover
0450 ITV Nightscreen
0530 ITV Morning News

Saturday Night Takeaway will be back in February so this schedule is made to look like when it returns. Also the late night lineup will change if ITV show any Boxing coverage.

Well, at least Pad you are pretty realistic - unlike some that followed - though even losing the fifth Corrie and the second edition of The Bill is probably a move too far. Sunday's Emmerdale is slightly more likely - and required.


Agree with moving Millionaire to Sunday, though Tonight wouldn't work on Wednesday.


I'll think about it more at a later point, but my simple ideal solution would be to strip Emmerdale and Corrie, Monday to Friday from 7-8pm, leaving 8-10pm soap free as the prime-time slots for ITV to concentrate on, while The Bill would keep it's two shows a week, but perhaps move one back to Tuesdays so it is dropped during Champions League weeks.

Corrie Monday-Friday wouldnt work IMO. Corrie needs to lose at least 1 episode a week and not be shown 5 nights a week Mon-Fri.

Let's see your schedule?

Well this is the official recovery plan :

Accelerate
Long running, sustainable dramas
Factual & Entertainment formats
Sketch comedy & sitcom

Grow
Long running formatted documentary series
Lifestyle programming
Gameshows and quizzes

Sustain primacy
Soaps
Daytime magazine / Talk

Reduce
One-off dramas

9pm Strategy
More 60 minute drama at 9pm
Fewer repeats
More football
More comedy

and now of course News at Ten.

I wasn't neccesarily trying to be realistic, just showing how I would like it to evolve.

Since I'm off work with tonsillitis and have far too much spare time, I thought I'd have a go and came up with this:

http://img451.imageshack.us/img451/5904/itvfantasyra5.png

The main points are moving Emmerdale and Coronation Street to 7:30 and 8:00, allowing the regional slots and Tonight etc to follow the news, and making 8:30 a common start time across the week. The new soap commissions will go in on Friday making it soap night, whichever is the most lighthearted of the two would be the later, leading into comedy. Tuesday programmes still allow for the football to interrupt and I have included a consumer programme the likes of which we haven't seen on ITV in a long time. The South Bank Show is cut to 45 minutes but is followed by a programme that is related to its subject somehow. Finally, I've put in a few quiz shows, something else that's missing from the schedule (I've axed Millionaire!)