Fantasy ITV1 schedules

ITV needs to build loyal audiences for its drama series -- and needs to start taking some proper risks, a la the US broadcasters.

I would designate the 7pm-8pm slot, and ONLY that slot, as a "soaps" slot. No more of this 8.30 Corrie rubbish, it goes 7.30 each day or they cut back. If they don't want to put it up against Eastenders, shunt Emmerdale out the way.

Drama series: 8pm and 9pm designated for long-run (13-week) drama series, and continuous programmes like The Bill.

10pm NAT, as they say they are going to do. 10.30 to be filled with a mixture of experimental products and live shows.

12pm-4am should be a complete repeat of the primetime viewing -- which should hopefully see off the predictable +1 channel, and also banish the quiz TV crap.

Don't care what happens on daytime, as it's all carp anyway.

Shunt it where? The only solution I can see to this conundrum is this, and it would take a lot of time for soap viewers to adapt:

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/7632/itvsoapsun0.gif

Obviously there would be objections to the Evening News move but it could just be justified with the News at Ten returning, but then Emmerdale fans would be up in arms about it being on at 7.30, Corrie would possibly lose viewers, etc.

It could work but it would take a year or more to stabilise ratings-wise.

I was thinking more along the lines of reducing both Emmerdale and Coronation Street back to 5 half-hours a week, and perhaps putting the latter on for an hour 7-8 Monday.

So Emmerdale on 7pm Sun/Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri (I'd say less often than that but unfortunately we won't get away with that one)

Coronation street on 7.30pm Sun/Wed/Fri, and 7-8 on Monday.

We'll go with your 5.45 national news, and have all five 6.30 slots to be taken up with either gameshows or local programming. That does have the additional positive effect of lifting regional TV out of the graveyard slot.

As you say, 7.30 would be filled with something like Tonight. Freed of its shackles in the 8pm slot, I'd like to see it becoming more of a serious documentary series like World In Action/This Week, which would return some of the old Gravitas back to ITV's scheduling. If you're going to lose money in a slot, you might as well use it to improve quality and provide a compelling alternative for the ABC1 viewer.

I don't see how the 8pm slot is "shackling" the show - in fact moving it earlier would probably result in it being even more lightweight.


OK. here is mine. I know many disagree and it would be a huge risk - but I am sticking with the idea of stripping the soaps in the 7pm hour, freeing up the 8-10pm slot completly for primetime entertainment and drama. Moving Coronation Street may be controversial - but it guarantees that people notice the schedule changes.

ITV Daytime
The Lunchtime News returns to 12.30pm, with Loose Women (or equivalent) following at 1pm. CITV also returns to weekdays either from 3-4pm or 4-5pm at least part of the year, allowing ITV to meet it's 5 hours a week without even thinking about it. The 5pm slot will concentrate more on new quiz formats than talk shows.


ITV Weeknights
Monday to Friday:
6.00 Regional News
6.30 ITV Evening News
7.00 Emmerdale
7.30 Coronation Street

In Champions League weeks Coronation Street would be shown at 8.30pm on Monday - as the double episodes do work well - and would work better if they weren't every week.


ITV Primetime
By freeing up the schedules, ITV1 will aim to offer a more varied peak-time schedule, with the second hour usually consisting of drama. To save ITV from commissioning 5 dramas a week, The Bill moves to 9pm.

Monday
8.00 Tonight
8.30 Harry Hill's TV Burp
9.00 New Drama series

Tonight is cut back to one episode a week in an effort to improve it's quality, with a handful of additional specials during the year. Coronation Street occassionally screens on Mondays, while the slot could also be used for a new consumer series tackling the lighter issues dropped from Tonight.

Tuesday
8.00 Lifestyle: e.g. Trinny and Sussanah
9.00 The Bill

During Champions League weeks, The Bill is dropped on Tuesdays.

Wednesday
8.00 Midweek Entertainment: e.g. new quiz show - Duel
9.00 The Bill

Thursday
8.00 Reality / Comedy: This slot would be used for formatted reality series - and would also be ideal for family comedy, if ITV had any!
9.00 New Drama series

Friday
Freeing up the 8pm hour means by the end of the week the budget has run out, so on Friday nights it's re-runs of detective dramas or family films - with the occassional new episode or film premiere thrown in.

Once ITV1 has estabhlished more 9pm drama series, The Bill would vacate the Wednesday slot and move to Fridays at 9pm.


ITV Nights
10.00 ITV News at Ten
10.25 Regional News
(mirroring BBC1)
10.35 After Ten with...
A late night talk show from Monday to Thursday, possibly using guest presenters each week rather than a regular host
11.15 US series, ITV2 replays, football highlights and late regional programming.

On Friday nights there would be a movie from 10.35pm.


Saturdays
Saturday nights is one area where ITV don't need much help - well, except in the Summer, but the main changes see Millionaire move to Sundays and Harry Hill's TV Burp move to the week. Also, ITV News wouldn't be pushed back to nearly midnight - or air as early as 4.30pm. The main regional news/ITV News would air between 5-6pm, ideally fixed at 5.30pm, with the late bulletin beginning no later than 11.15pm.


Sunday
Reinstating CITV in the week should neaten up the Sunday schedule especially. The Championship would be fixed at 9.25am, with Sunday Edition following at 10.30am.

Replays of The X Factor and similar continue on Sunday afternoons, with hopefully room for a Sunday family film around 4pm.

ITV News and regional news is at 5.30pm - again ideally fixed to create a regular time for the Weekend News.

Then it's...

6.00 Regional programming*
7.00 Millionaire
8.00 Heartbeat etc.
9.00 Drama Premieres
11.00 ITV News

* Sunday 6-7pm becomes the flagship regional hour - and considering what else is on around that time, it should perform quite well in the slot, but also help raises it's profile, and therefore the quality, of local programming.

One option for the slot is a Sunday edition of the 6pm news programme - but more feature and review based than news based, though it would serve as a weekend edition of the local news.

It's being shackled because although it is still up against Eastenders, it is still being used as a buffer to retain viewers in the more lucrative 8-9 slot.

Think about what ITV currently have at 7.30. The regional shows are far more quality-oriented in the main than Tonight is.

Well here's my attempt...
http://www.rp-network.com/tvforum/uploads/itvfantasyschedule.jpg

To talk you through....

WEEKDAYS
1800-1900 The regional and national news as is now - it works so why change it.
1900 I've Put Emmerdale and Corrie back to back Mon, Wed & Fri. Tuesday I've added a quiz (though may make that to an Emmerdale so that both have 4 eps each week) with the regional slot moved half an hour earlier than present on Thursdays which would be followed by a new style version of manhunt or a watchdog consumer style programme.

The biggest change is on Tuesday in my schedule, they have the rights to the Champions League, so there's no way around that, and I get sick (and I'm sure viewers do) of the Tuesday night filler shows every other week or so (especially as the viewers are so different to one another with football and fashion or something).
So I thought how about reinventing the Soccer Aid idea, and have famous footballers/coaches/celebrities and members of the public create a new football league (perhaps just a few teams - maybe 4- who would play on Tuesdays when there is no Champions League (and if successful maybe creating matches for other times in the week on ITV4), but I'd like it to be covered by ITV Sport presentation and production team. I thought that it would be a good idea to secure the male audience (well mainly male) every week, and keep a continuous stream of football on every Tuesday instead of creating filler programmes.

2000. I wanted the 8pm slot to offer similar to what it does now. On Monday I put both Tonight editions into one, and would change it editorially to deal with tougher issues, much more like World in Action/Panorama of old and dispatches on channel 4.
Tuesday would have the football through the evening.
Wednesday, I felt that I would create an entertainment night away from Saturday with a couple of family comedies that could be replaced with one or two light entertainment/quiz show formats through the year.
Thursday would be for The Bill, I wouldn't want to cut down the amount of episodes, but I would use ITV3/4 (depending on if they changed the programme to scew it at more males than being a soap) to air another episode, or maybe a spin off.
As for Friday, I've freed up a 2 hour slot for 2 hour long dramas such as Midsummer or A Touch of Frost, or maybe airing movies (well movies that would fit into two hours with breaks added).

2100. Monday and Thursday are for drama series, as friday could be used for airing two 1 hour dramas instead of one 2 hour.
Tuesday is again the football.
Wednesday I've billed in a chat show and was thinking about moving a big named chat show to Wednesday at 9 (a bit like the old days of Des O' Conner tonight - even though that was on at 8, though I suppose they could be changed if there was a comedy/light entertainment to lead into the news with good ratings).

2200, of course would bring the new News At Ten that would start dead on 10 (unless there was a live event preventing it - though I'm thinking awards or sports rather than I'm A Celebrity). I would preferibly have more adverts airing in within the 9-10 slot and then go straight from the credits of the 9-10pm hour into the News At Ten with nothing but an ident.

I'd like a full half hour of news, and so the regional would take the 2230 slot.

2245 Would be a time to try and take the audience and experiment with them with the surving 10pm experiements such as Ann Widdecomme, Benidorm, maybe the new spitting image/2D/3DTV show that they're planning (or were), a new comedy/panel show for Wednesday (I've tried to build it up as a comedy line up as all other days were taken), and time to experiment with ITV2 commissions on ITV1.

As for weekends....

Saturdays & Sundays are pretty much the same as they are now and self explanitory, although like nowadays Saturday's timings aren't on the hour, thus they have their own timescale.

The only things that I've charged are moving Millionnaire to Sundays (as others have already done, and removed the Emmerdale).
I've moved the Weekend news to 2230, and at 2245 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I wanted to create a 45 minute entertainment programme, with games, guests, music (not so much a chat show, but free for all with a big named host, who would be entertaining of course).


I think I've waffled long enough, sorry if it's confusing, any questions?

The thing is UTV, and soon to be STV! will hour its own newshour at 5.30pm onwards!

Looking at these actually reaffirms what a mistake bringing News at Ten back may be.


Granted ITV1 have hardly reclaimed the 10pm slot, but that extra half hour adds so much more flexibility to the schedule - especially for comedy.

It's quite easy for ITV1 to commission and schedule a comedy in the 10pm slot (not that they do) - but the loss of it means they now have to find something to pair up with it in an hour long slot, or push it back to after the news.

The only real alternative is to use a Sunday night slot - but that defeats the object of leaving the Sunday night slot free for extended drama premieres.

What's wrong with comedy at 10:35pm? BBC1 recently had big success with Outnumbered in that slot, and they often run comedy repeats in that slot

Considering you've named a show I've never heard of, I'm not sure it can be called a big success!

A Hollyoaks fans thoughts on other - higher quality - shows have absolutely no value whatsoever.

How dare you pigeon hole me as a Hollyoaks fan? I watch Big Brother too!

* Brekkie Boy struggles to think of any high-brow tele he's been watching lately!