ITV Discussion Thread

They do, fast forward to 04:25 in this clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgfbp0XGiVg&feature=related

Been thinking about ways ITV could sort out its evening schedule and make it better. Had this idea for the start of next year, which involves re-incorperating Sundays into the weeknight schedule and streamlining the core parts of the schedule.

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/9855/itvscheduleidea.png

Soaps
I'm a firm believer that the soaps should be back to one episode a night, and in consistent, logical slots. To this end, Emmerdale is stripped Sunday to Friday at 7pm with absolutely no extra episodes commissioned for the year.

Coronation Street also reverts to one episode a night, and airs on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. On Sun/Mon/Fri it airs at 7.30pm before EastEnders, and on Tue/Thu it airs at 8pm after EastEnders.

News
ITV should up the ante with its news coverage. We've just seen a rebrand but it is widely believed to be horrendous in look, feel and tone. We need to revert to a look and editorial circa late 2009 before they switched to the yellow look.

With some work and faith, ITV and ITN could create a leading service. They need to put their time behind it to continue ITV's commitments to public service broadcasting. The 6.30pm bulletin is renamed "The Evening News" and airs at 6.30pm Sunday to Friday for half an hour. News at Ten is also extended to Sunday nights, and the network should run it at bang on 10pm.

World in Action
Tonight should be dropped and replaced by World in Action, which should have a variety of hosts comprised of the various faces of ITV factual and news output. Julie Etchingham, Mark Austen - perhaps even occasionally Trevor McD.

It should be high brow yet accessible and feature compelling subject matters - and trailed well. Mondays and Fridays at 8pm.

Paul O'Grady at 8.30
I put "Live" in the graphic but that is simply wishful thinking - I'd like to see the Paul O'Grady show commissioned for a hefty run in the year, airing four times a week - Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 8.30pm.

It probably wouldn't be live, but shown "as-live", with guests and music in a half hour slot. I think it would be a great move to have this at 8.30pm.

Quiz
ITV should capitalise on the potential of a decent quiz show by trying out a split format, in which a "cliffhanger" ending leads to the final portion of the competition in the second episode. I'd give this a go on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7.30pm and try out various different styles of quiz to gague what is popular.

Commitment to comedy
Thursday night at 9pm should be dedicated to comedy and light entertainment. I've suggested sitcom and comedy pilots and formats at 9pm, such as Moving Wallpaper (which had potential on its own), Benidorm and so on - but I'd like to see them try and echo the success of shows like Outnumbered, My Family - and dare I say it, even Friends.

At 9.30pm I'd like to see a show like Have I Got News For You, some kind of studio-based satire show, featuring a decent panel and host and something extra to give it an edge to the BBC offerings.

Drama
Sunday, Monday and Friday are the days for drama on ITV. Sunday for drama with big appeal, Monday for the thrillers and Friday for older-skewing drama such as Doc Martin, Heartbeat, Kingdom etc.

Two parters can air over Sunday and Monday, or two consecutive Mondays. I think shows like Married Single Other would work at 9pm on Sunday really well - especially after the X Factor results show. A lot of young people loved it.

I've also chucked in a new drama series, since ITV will be lacking them when The Bill joins Where the Heart is, Heartbeat and The Royal in the graves. It could alternate with Wild at Heart at 8pm on Sundays - I thought a firefighting drama would be a nice idea for a change - but without any attempts to replicate London's Burning.


That's about it really: consistency in the schedule, building viewers' trust and confidence back in the channel, commitment to drama, comedy and news output.

It won't happen though, we'll just stick to mis-scheduled shows failing; Corrie on Mondays Thursdays and Fridays at strange times, ruining story continuity; awful news coverage tarnishing ITV's reputation; no comedy of worth... blah blah.

I like what you have done, and has merit, but I DO have some disagreement with some of it,

I would actually cut
• Emmerdale back to 5 episodes a week and make it Sunday – Thursday
• I do agree with Corrie only being once a day but I would kick the Sunday epsoide and move it back to Wednesday.
• I would kept the 30mins slots on Tuesday and Thursday at 7.30 and 8.30
• I would have 60mins Paul show on Fridays at 9pm. Or better still 8.30pm – 10pm
* World in action will never come back, but saying that there should kill of Tonight and replace it with something better

Sorry to bring up ITV HD's playout problems again, but one thought. When ITV Schools transferred to Channel 4 in 1987, as ITV Schools on 4, Channel four used a computer system, to automatically playout programming and idents. All that had to be manually done was fading in and out the captions. Apart from one error with a caption on the first friday, September 18th 1987, ITV Schools on 4, and its auto playout operation, worked well, flawless.

So how on earth is it that ITV have had these issues crop up?

Why on earth would you bring back World in Action - do you really think it would end up any different to Tonight once ITV Plc have got their hands on it?

Tonight works well - just needs to focus more on the journalistic side of things rather than the generic consumer reports. Indeed the best solution would surely to be for ITV to launch a spin-off consumer strand, allowing Tonight to concentrate on a more newsworthy brief.

The soaps are always going to be a problem, but now we've got them out of Sunday I'd keep them out of Sunday. The only justification IMO for moving them to Sunday would be to ensure 8-10pm is free every night, which you plan doesn't achieve - not just from soaps, but also with a stripped chat show.

Your plan for 9pm though I'd pretty much agree with - though as BBC1 now seems to be focusing comedy on a Thursday I think the Tuesday or Friday slot would be better, with drama on ITV1 ideally on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays.

How many of the ITV/C4 Schools programmes were live?

Most TV channels have had automated playout systems for the last 10-20 years - it is just that since the BBC and ITV have outsourced there is even more incentive to cut costs. Also it is now increasingly common to not have separate playout areas for each channel, but a large open-plan operation where if you're not careful you can't hear yourself think (and certainly can't do decent objective sound monitoring)

Bit odd that ITV are trailing Autumn Drama's in mid June. No ?

I suppose apart from the World Cup, they have ver little to promote for the next month.

If you read Maggie Brown's excellent book on the first 25 years of C4, you'll find an account of the problems with their automated TX system in the early days. (And, of course, C4 weren't playing in adverts.)

Schools programmes in the late 80s would have been relatively easy to run on automation though. Opening 2 min sequence - programme - backtimed sequence - programme - backtimed sequence etc. Not like going between live programmes, trails and continuity.

Right, up to date. Does anybody know if ITV1 HD for the Granada region is being played out from Leeds or Chiswick? Has the Northern Centre been upgraded?

News of the World : ITV Woo Wossie for £2m

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/showbiz/851812/ITV-woo-Wossie-for-2m-But-thats-a-4m-pay-cut-for-Jonathan-Ross.html

And in more promising news, Jordan may be heading off to Living to be the face of their channel

They must have run out of stories to write about Christine Bleakley.

Story 1 - Not half bad if true ( although hardly the most reliable.)
I like Friday Night with JR - so as it's ending (on the BBC at least) it would be good if it goes to ITV. Could be true, as I don't think he'd be golden handcuffs to any channel , plus Peter Fincham most likely set up the so called "£18m contract" when he was at the BBC, so don't think it's out of the question that they have a good working relationship.

Story 2 - Thank God! I think Peter Andre's shows have been outrating KP's anyway.

Story 3 - The paper's will never run out of stories about Christine Bleakley ( although I've heard wispers that her decision will be announced this week) So plenty more stories too read!

No radio, fewer programmes and less exclusivity, that'll be why it's less pay (not that I've ever really believe the press reports about Ross's pay). Presumably it'll save a few jobs at Hot Sauce though