ITV Discussion Thread

Moving shows is an absolute no no. Regardless of how crap The Palace is, it must stay in its slot for its 8 week run. ITV have to show commitment to the dramas they have commissioned - they must lie in this bed now until the show ends.

I also like the idea of soap-free weekends but feel they could do with doing a couple of further re-shuffles to help things along. RE: Moving Wallpaper / Echo Beach, they are much more enjoyable if you view EB first, so I would be inclined to swap them around in the schedule. They're also on a ridiculous day and should have stayed on Thursday.

They bang on about soap free weekends yet treat Friday, full of soap, like one of the weekend days? The Corrie 8.30pm lead in has actually failed and not attracted big audiences for The Palace or Echo Beach/Moving Wallpaper. For this reason, I think we should return to having no soaps after 8pm on ITV1. Possibly a bit extreme but instead of splitting up the episodes, they could put an hour-long episode of Corrie at 7pm on Monday and Wednesday, with Emmerdale on Tuesday and Thursday. It's a reduction, but it's a solid idea to lead-in to 8pm nightly.

Fridays should really return to catering for the older audience that isn't likely to be out that night with shows like Kingdom at 7pm and then a new or repeat episode of Midsomer Murders at 8pm until News at Ten. The Friday night schedule is aiming for a demographic it can't really reach on a Friday night. When Moving Wallpaper ends they should do this, starting with the remaining two unaired episodes of the new Foyle's War series at 8pm.


Overall it would work more in hour-long blocks (apart from Friday at 8pm for two hours). This would be how I would have done the revamp week for weeknights, ideally - and I think it fits the 'streamlined' bill better than Grade and Shaps have done:

http://www.gorillaenterprises.co.uk/upload/uploadFiles/itv-ideal-schedule.gif

Yes, another schedule grid!

As for weekends... well, I despair. Sunday nights are fine and healthy but Saturdays - good grief. Al Murray could do with being back on Saturday, though, I feel, and they ought to swap Millionaire on Tuesday with Duel to add a bit of classic Saturday night stuff to the schedule (however tired Millionaire is now):

18:00 ITV News
18:20 YBF
18:50 Harry Hill's TV Burp
19:20 Primeval
20:20 Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Celebrity
21:20 Thank God You're Here
22:20 ITV News
22:30 Al Murray's Happy Hour

Notice respectable News bulletin times too!


Saturdays will improve a lot when Saturday Night Takeaway comes back in February.

A lot of ITV's problems have been because of the scheduling; Moving Wallpaper would have done so much better in a more high profile slot (I'd have kept it on Thursdays every week). Scheduling that and Al Murray on Fridays when the younger demographic it's suited to is out was madness.

Also, T&R should have taken Monday and Tuesday at 9pm weekly, with The Palace airing on Thursdays. Again, the slots just seem odd - T&R has always aired its two parters in two episodes a week on Mon/Tue or Sun/Mon - why change now?

News at Ten - if they want it to do well, they should air it every weeknight at this time!

A lot of jumbled thoughts there.

Realistically Dancing on Ice will remain on Sunday until the end of it's run - but as mentioned when announced, once that goes Sunday night's will be vulnerable too.

I don't think the scheduling is the problem with Moving Wallpaper/Echo Beach - it's more the fact they're ****.


On the other hand Duel is actually a good show and has suffered from the poor Saturday night line up - in hindsight it might have been best to launch it stripped across a week and then let it settle into a regular slot.

It would be a shame to see it axed because of it's scheduling - especially when crap like Golden Balls gets recommissioned!


To be honest I'm not convinced quiz shows like Duel or even Millionaire are suited to Saturday nights - Saturday's supposed to be "light entertainment" - quiz shows need you to think that bit too much. IMO it's them, not Dancing on Ice, which should have moved to Sunday.


Most disappointing of all IMO though is the post-News at Ten slot - it's just filled with the show we're not bothered about watching at 9pm, so why on earth would we want to watch them at 10.35pm!


Thinking about it the only thing I really watched on ITV last week was The Lakes on ITV3!


In hindsight it feels like this revamp was rushed on to air quickly without the content to really back it up. And really, they didn't go far enough to make it clear they were trying to revitalise their offerings - frankly Corrie could move back to Sundays and Dancing on Ice to Saturdays and people wouldn't even remember they'd been moved in the first place.

I like Moving Wallpaper. Not Echo Beach.

I agree with some of you, that Friday nights need to be re-aimed at the older audience. 9pm should have Midsomer Murders, maybe have part 1 on Thursday, then part 2 on Friday, with News at Ten on that night as well.
Also, I agree that Saturday nights are p*ss poor. Although, when Ant & Dec return, things will be looking up. Duel isn't bad, but let's face it, it's not going to get great ratings, whatever its lead-in is. Thank God You're Here isn't great: I'm sure it won't be too long before it gets axed.
Trial & Retribution could do what I'd like Midsomer to do as well. It doesn't really work as one week after the other, but it's bringing Thursdays average share up.
Erm...that's all I can think of just now.

Hmm, what are the overall ratings for this? Just out of interest.

Some weekend stuff coming up in February:

Celebrity Mr & Mrs (with Fern and Phil), Beat the Star (with Vernon Kay) and. Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. Also CGI Britain.

Takeaway begins 16th Feb.

A new 6 part drama for Feb called The Last Van Helsing: The Last Van Helsing. "‘In-humans’ – supernatural entities with freakish powers – are on the move and the only one who can stand in their way is Luke Forsythe. Luke is a normal, everyday 17-year-old Londoner until, one night, he wakes up to find a mysterious stranger raiding his fridge."

Well like January the only stuff that appeals there is the returning series...


Ratings - ITV1 doing very well early on Saturday night, then viewers switching off in their millions later at night.

You've Been Framed - 6.4m
TV Burp - 7m
Primeval - 5.7m
Dancing on Ice: Make Me a Star - 4.5m
Duel - 2.6m
Thank God You're Here - 1.9m

I'm sure I read on DS that the evening ITV News (6.15pm) on Saturday got 5.5m, is this a high or a normal? I thought ITN bulletins got 3m to 4m.

Good to see Tonight have their own background on the credits! It's not a generic one.. hopefully a sign to come with other programmes too.

Oh, I hope so! I'm pig sick of those awful blue bars. I'm not too keen on the ones used on the soaps either. The only set I like are the scrolling ones; I think they're currently used on Al Murray's Happy Hour.

That's about normal for an early-peak weekend bulletin.

On www.citv.co.uk there is a message saying retune your Freeview box on Tuesday.

More at MediaGuardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/29/bskyb.itv