ITV Discussion Thread

Maybe they should swap Corrie and Emmerdale around? Emmerdale always seems to thrash Eastenders when they go head to head, and they seem reluctant to let Corrie and Eastenders go on at the same time.

Alternatively, Corrie could air similar to how it does now - Mon, Tues and Weds at 7:30, and the for an hour on Sunday at 7.

It all might make sense, but ITV just haven't got the balls to overhaul their schedule in that way. I wish I could share your enthusiasm - but however secret they were trying to keep them, if major changes were in the works for the 7-9pm slot we would know about it by now.


Grade isn't interested in substantial change - all he's doing is making the headline moves such as bringing back News at Ten in a vain attempt to convince people ITV didn't stuff up by choosing a complete has-been for the job!

In that link ( I posted) he complained that someone with A power point convinced itv to dump news at time, and because of that ITV had no idea what there going to fill in it place there had 2 hours out of 250!

I think there are Major changes on the way!

Not to put a downer on things, but what about the Champions League coverage?
It takes over the schedule for many Tuesday nights throughout the Autumn and Winter seasons. What would you do with Corrie?
Could you really see ITV wanting to drop a Corrie ep, or finding somewhere else for it like 10.30pm?

I do like the idea, and if it may work, though you have to consider the football, the regional programmes and eastenders.

As for the Sunday night though, I like the idea to get rid of the soaps, as Heartbeat/The Royal would work well (as they currently do) as soaps for 26 weeks of the year for each (maybe 2x13ep series).
Giving them the chance to air Wild at Heart, Kingdom and other gentle dramas.
Though of course not Rosemary and Thyme (as Harry Hill says) as by airing it back to back with heartbeat would create an overall sedative effect to kill the elderly.

I can't see a soap hour appearing on a Tuesday evening because of the Champions League. Therefore I can still see Emmerdale appearing at normal time of 7pm ONLY. But I also think that it will be cut back to 5 epiosdes a week whilst I think that Coronation Street will be shuffled around i.e 730pm Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. This then frees up the 730pm on Tuesday and 7pm on Sunday for regional programming.

I can also see the early evening news programme being switched from 630 to 530pm and then freeing up 630pm for daily gameshows as a lead into the evening!


Edited bit now!!!!!!

I can see the soap style Heartbeat/The Royal in the 8pm Sunday slot as usual, but programmes like Wild at Heart, Doc Martin, Kingdom etc would actually do well in an 8pm slot during the week (but not on Tuesday's) ideally replacing one episode of The Bill!

Again, I still think the ideas hold weight and fit with Grades "streamlined" and more "commercially competitive schedule".

Regarding BBC1 and the clashes that would result, they would obviously have to be rectified by the BBC. Grade has said he is going to stop looking at what the BBC are doing schedulewise and this fits.

ITV have already shown with the hour-long Emmerdale clashes that they are unconcerned about clashes like this and due to the temporary nature of it the BBC haven't moved EastEnders - if Corrie went Monday to Friday they'd soon sort it out.

Below are two schedules - one for 'normal' and one for 'football' weeks.

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/3166/schedulefootieis8.gif

Notice in normal weeks Tonight is shown in a double bill on Monday at 8pm. In football weeks, the episodes air as now in two episodes on Monday and Friday.

Corrie goes out Monday to Friday at 7.30pm on normal weeks, but on football weeks its Tuesday episode is moved to 8.30pm on Monday (this can coincide with excitement in the show) with the remaining episodes on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday airing as usual.

As Grade has confirmed News at Ten is only back four times a week, the Friday night Midsomer or whatever can air at 8.30pm on football weeks, ending at 10.30pm.

I'm still not sure about regional programming but I would probably have an hour of it at 6pm on Sunday night.

What will STV do?

their have just dumped Tonight onto a Tuesday at 7,30pm, so a stv gameshow can get the Monday slot

The whole point of bringing back News at Ten is to rectify changes that were made years ago and ITV have never recovered from. Therefore I doubt they will make any other major changes that could equally go wrong.

Take your soaps idea. You are clearing Sunday's schedule. BBC1 then decide to order an extra episode of EastEnders (as they will probably do at some point), they show it on Sundays at 7.30 creating a good audience going into 8pm, before you know it BBC1 are then winning Sunday nights and ITV have lost that slot for good

Isn't this the same man who Clean Broad and did a MAJOR overhaul of BBC in 1986?

I doubt it very very much - Heartbeat and The Royal would do very well in the 7pm hour as they have the same audience as Emmerdale/Corrie.

Monday's 8.30 Corro is a late peak banker...why would they move it to early peak???
...and a 60 min Tonight @ 8pm on Monday's would be commercial suicide!

Against EastEnders and Panorama it's dead anyway. Commercially having 5 nights with a good 8pm lead-in is better than one night having a 9pm lead-in with two (Tue/Thu) having nowt.