ITV Ratings and Schedule Crisis

Actually the reason that Family wasn't moved earlier was to do more with the sponsorship deal. In the case of Sweet Medicine the move was going to be after episode 5, but they had problems finding a suitable replacement, and also it was felt making such moves against billing would send out a bad message in light of the then merger activity.

The view at the moment is that late ad bookings are down, so remedial action had to be and will be taken to attract the late money thats still floating around. Doing an against billing change wouldn't be an issue, as will become apparent in the next few weeks, with another couple of programmes currently under 'serious review'

As for the lack of a 'scheduling crisis', it is pretty well documented that major advertisers are very unhappy with the current schedule and have misgivings about various shows and their slots - for example the Michelle Collins drama on Saturday night.

As for the wannabe Sun reporter comment, nice one, sadly couldn't afford the cut in salary!

Personally, I don't object to scheduled schedule changes as much as programmes being dropped after the listings are finalised.

ITV1 are stupid with Sweet Medicine. It was beaten by Canterbury Tales most of the time, but over recent weeks had picked up viewers and is likely to do so against the BBC's Hunting Chris Ryan. And with only two episodes left, it only appears to have been done to fit in Holiday Showdown before Christmas.

With the increasing trend in dropping programmes, hopefully action will be taken soon by the new regulators to say, provide the programmes on an interactive service in their regular slot if they are dropped.

As I've said before, TV companies care more about the people not watching than they do about the people watching.

TO BE QUITE HONEST IS ANY OF US SURPRISED AT THE WAY ITV IS GOING . NOW THAT THE GOVERNMENT HAS ALLOWED THE MERGER OF CARLTON AND GRANADA IT CAN ONLY BE DOWN HILL ALL THE WAY.

WHAT WAS ONCE A NEWTWORK WITH REGIONAL IDENTITY HAS CEASED TO EXIST , AND AS EVERYONE NOTICES ALL THE NEW SERIES THEY AIR ARE SHOWN FOR ABOUT THREE WEEKS AND THEN MOVED TO GRAVEYARD SLOTS FOR NOT HAVING ENOUGH VIEWERS , THANK GOD TV DID NOT BEHAVE LIKE THIS IN THE PAST , OTHERWISE MABNY SERIES ON TV WOULD NEVER HAVE MADE IT LIKE ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES ETC ( I KNOW THATS BBC BUT ITS JUST AN EXAMPLE ). IT TAKES TIME FOR VIEWERSS TO GET INTO A SERIES AND MORE OFTEN THAN NOT ITS THE SECOND SERIES WHERE IT TAKES OFF. BUT NOW CARLTON AND GRANADA ARE OBVIOSULY DICTATED TO BY ADVERTISERS AND IF A SHOW FALLS BELOW A CERTAIN FIGURE THEN IT HAS TO GO.

BUT SURELY THEY SHOULD BE REALISTIC , THERE ARE SO MANY MORE CHANNELS THESE DAYS , SO VIEWING FIGURES WILL BE DOWN WITH MORE CHOICE . AND JUST LOOK AT WHAT PEOPLE CHOOSE TO WTACH , UK GOLD , UK DRAMA , GRANADA PLUS !! ALL CHANNELS SHOWING OLD SHOWS , A LOT OF WHICH ARE FAR MORE ENJOYABLE THAN TODAYS LOAD OF OLD RUBBISH THAT ITV SHOWS. BUT ITV DO NOT WANT TO LISTEN TO THE VIEWER , WHATEVER THEY DO THEY CANNOT LOSE NOW , EITHER THEY WILL MAKE A KILLING OR ONCE MERGED SELL OUT FOR A FORTUNE.

I HEARD THAT ITV HAVE TOLD THE BILL THEY MUST UP THE VIEWING FIGURES OR ELSE ? WHERE DO THEY STOP.

PERSONALLY I BELIEVE THAT EVENTUALLY ITV WILL HAVE THE OLD FAVOURITES LIKE EMMERDALE , CORRIE , THEN DRAMAS LIKE FROST , BAD GIRLS , MIDSUMMER MUREDERS ETC AND APART FROM THAT IT WILL ALL BE RELAITY SHOWS WHICH ARE CHEAP TO MAKE AS THEY ARE NOT PAYING ANY ACTORS ETC.

AND THE REASON THE GOVERNMENT DOESNT GIVE A DAMN , THEY KNOW THAT ONCE MERGED CARLTON AND GRANADA WILL BE ITV AND THE FEW INDEPENDENT REGIONS LEFT HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO TOW THE LINE. AND THEN THE COMPANY WILL BE TAKEN OVER BY SOME HUGE AMERICAN CHANNEL AND THE GOVERNMENT SEES BIG £ SIGNS , AS THEY PROBABLY THINK THEY WILL GET A LOT MORE REVENUE FOR THE LICENSES THIS WAY.

ONL;Y MY THOUGHTS BUT WHO KNOWS ?

PLEASE don't type all in capitals. It implies that you're shouting and many members (including me) don't like it.

I think it'd help ITV1 a lot if they at least gave their new schedules a chance, before deciding to change them. For example, Fortysomething, they only gave it two weeks, and then put it into the late night slots. Don't they realise that will only discourage people from watching it?

I do apologise for my message of the other day which was all in UPPER CASE it was not deliberate or meant to be shouting , my keyboard was stuck and would not let me switch to lower case. I have since purchased a new keyboard which appears to work just fine , so hopefully I won't offend anyone again.

Perhaps what they should try and do is test the water, and use itv2 much like channel 4 use e4. And then show new programmes in primetime on itv2 (with trailing on both channels) and see how audiences react to it there.

Depending on the result, it goes to a certain place on itv1, whether it be after the news in the week, or primetime on a saturday night.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,1088010,00.html

What a surprise...

ITV are not being patient with their new shows anymore; they want instant overnight success instead of giving shows time to grow a fanbase.

I think Family could have gone far and while I wasnt a fan of Sweet Medicine, I think there was a gap in the market for it. A Dynasty/Peak Practice mix was what I saw SM as. Shame about the title, though.

As for Single, a drama about a thirtysomething single woman would surely have been aimed at other thirtysomething single women and so putting it on late on a Saturday night when most of them would be out makes no sense to me.

And as for P.O.W, Friday nights are OWNED by Channel 4 and ITV needs to realize that. There's no point in ploughing millions into a drama if it's going to get it's floor wiped by some reruns of American imports on a minority channel.

And Crossroads, dear, sweet Crossroads. I bet ITV1 were kicking themselves when the ratings went up in the last 3 weeks due to the fantastic Flashback episodes, when the show was getting into it's stride.

Night and Day was not on at the right time for who it was aimed at and so that is why it failed.

I feel Emmerdale could be facing a similar fate as it seems to have lost something lately, and with the additional sixth episode I fear the plots will be stretched even thinner over the week which could lead to a huge loss in viewership. It needs a Corrie-style kick up the backside if you ask me.

And with Footballer's Wives having only 3 original cast members in its third series and a host of newbies coming into it, I don't see it lasting much longer, sadly.....

Well it seems ITV have realised that now, although now we'll get forum members ranting about what they are putting out on Fridays from this week - A Touch of Frost rerun series

The reason Sweet Medicine failed was because it wasnt as good as Peak Practice. Carlton are silly, they axe PP and replace it with a poorer show - they did the same with Crossroads, axing mk 2 and replacing it with mk 3

Thank goodness for Granada and YTV who make all of itv's best shows such as Emmerdale and Corrie.

ITV's POW get's more viewers than C4, it's BBC One that has ruled the roost on Friday nights with Ab Fab & HIGNFY.


The viewing figures for Emmerdale don't support this, figures in excess of 9-10m, winning it's slot every night. It seems that Emmerdale is buoyant.