ITV Discussion Thread

Well, it fits nicely with Kingdom, doesn't it? And yes, Heartbeat is finishing, mid-series though. I guess it'll return after The Royal succeeds Wild at Heart in 8 weeks time.

I'm guessing the format for Sundays will now go a bit like this:

6.00 Reality shows (Dancing / Talent / X Factor)
8.00 Fluffy drama (Heartbeat / The Royal / Wild at Heart)
9.00 Reality results
9.30 Sunday dramas (Kingdom / Foyle's War / etc)
Then News

Not 100% sure if mixing drama and entertainment in this way quite works, it certainly does with Dancing on Ice but The X Factor's audience is very different to that of Heartbeat etc.

All About Soap magazine says in their "whats hot on the box this fortnight" section that Ladette to Lady will be starting on Thursday 17th January, I assume at 9pm? They could well be wrong as they are not a listings magazine and just show tv highlights.

Also nothing has been said about The X Factor moving to Sundays has it? Unless you just mean the auditions? I can see the early stages of the X Factor possibly going on Sundays (auditions, boot camp, jusges homes) but id be very surprised if the live shows moved from Saturday.

Same here. I think rather than starting the shows in the middle of August they'll have them over Sat/Suns in September, then live shows on Sat from October. Apparantly Ant and Dec have a show for Sundays in the Autumn anyway.


Britain's Got Talent I think might be more likely to crop up on Sundays - that would fit more comfortably IMO.

I agree Brekkie, and I think that the Ant and Dec entertainment show rumoured for Sundays in the autumn will hark back to variety shows of the past. The wheel keeps turning - and Grade is from a major showbiz background. Britain's Got Talent has proven that there's an appetite for these kind of shows.

Must be 8pm cos Trial and Retribution is 9pm Thursdays for 16 weeks.

Edit it's Tuesday 22nd January 9pm.


Duel - Saturday 8pm.
Wild at Heart - Sunday 7.50pm
Kingdom - Sunday - 9.30pm

[quote="Brekkie Boy"]




XFactor is a HUGE saturday night success story - they won't mess with that. Begin the series on a Sunday night then switch it to Saturday night??? Come On. That won't happen.

The South Bank Show gets a 10.35pm slot on Sunday 20th January for its new series. Is this its best ever time slot? The schedule for the second Sunday goes like this:

17:50/18:20 Dancing on Ice
19:50 Wild at Heart
20:50 Dancing on Ice: The Skate Off
21:30 Kingdom
22:35 The South Bank Show

I'm not sure if the News will go at 23:35 or 21:20.

I'd guess Kingdom will be pushed back to 21:20 then then news at 22:20 before The South Bank Show.


Really really really HATE them pointlessly starting ten minutes before the hour!


And back to The X Factor - probably by the Autumn ITV will need something to save their Saturday night schedules anyway.

So Emmerdale got 7.8m compared to 6.8m for EastEnders lastnight, though EastEnders did take over from 7.45pm - and picked up an extra 1.3m at 10pm.


The Royal Today - the comments I've seen suggest it's worse than Crossroads, which says alot. It got 2m on Monday (against 2.8m for Deal or No Deal) - don't know about Tuesday.


I guess though Honest is the first big test for ITV1, along with Moving Wallpaper/Echo Beach tomorrow. I guess it's the 5m barrier they're aiming to crack nowadays.

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/2922/cap00003nt4.png
Promo for Duel
Video: http://www.watelevision.com/site/upfiles/Duel.avi (2.4mb)

ITV director of television Simon Shaps has claimed his new year overhaul of ITV1's schedule is the most significant in more than 25 years.

Speaking to Broadcast, Shaps admitted that the revamp was crucial to the main channel's prospects.

The changes will see the much-hyped return of the News at Ten, more original drama and comedy on Friday and entertainment replacing the traditional soap line-up on Sundays.

Shaps said: "I've been at ITV since 1982. I can't recall a series of changes like it. It affects our biggest and most high-profile shows - the soaps, the news. It really significantly affects Tuesday nights, Friday nights, Saturday nights and Sunday nights as well as some of the most important genres on ITV."

When executive chairman Michael Grade arrived just over a year ago, many predicted the director of television's days were numbered. But 12 months on, Shaps is leading the changes.

Critics have accused the broadcaster of actually taking a backwards step with the new schedule by using the old template that split the ITV programming week, with LWT taking over from Friday evenings.

But Shaps seems to think the model is a good one to emulate: "There used to be a very clear sense that the weekend started here. There was a gear change and the channel felt like much more of an entertainment channel and we wanted to get back to that."

More: http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/2008/01/itv1s_biggest_shakeup_for_years.html

I've noticed over the past few days that the sponsor we're getting here on UTV for The Royal Today is different from the sponsor on ITV1. We've got Lemsip while ITV1 have UK Online Centres I know we're also getting a different sponsor for the ITV National Weather but is this nothing new? Or is it only a more recent thing?