ITV Reshuffles Saturday Nights

As of 11th November 2006, the Saturday night schedule is as follows:

5:05pm All New You've Been Framed!
5:35pm Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
6:35pm The X Factor
8:05pm All Star Family Fortunes
8:55pm The X Factor - The Result
9:30pm Afterlife
10:30pm Parkinson

Compared with the BBC:

5:45- SCD
7:00- Robin Hood
7:45- 1 vs 100
8:30- SCD Results
8:55- Casualty
10:00- Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance

This was discussed in the X Factor thread, however im glad they have a better schedule on Saturday's and WWTBAM is in an earlier slot.

agreed far better!

Missed the bit about them switching Family Fortunes and Millionaire!

FF deserves a better slot than 4.55pm - but in this case it's not worthy of Millionaire's slot.

And do you think that they are effectively pushing Millionaire into a graveyard slot means it might not be around much longer!

I'm surprised the Daily Star haven't picked up on that actually after their amazing "Russell Brand axed" cover story this morning!

Finally they have had the sense to drop millionare from the 8pm slot, but like has already been said above, is this the end of millionare, or just its overkill on sat nights.

I am delighted that "WWTBAM" has finally been moved to a more appropriate slot.

It is tired and past it's sell-by date.

ITV need to make more decisions like this. These old stagers need to be moved on to allow for fresh programming. Whilst a relaunch of Central's "Family Fortunes" (DOB c1981) is not exactly what I was hoping, it is, at least, a fresh approach on an old favourite.

New programming is desperately needed, even if it means short-term viewer loss.

This story was in MediaGuardian on Wednesday and was also discussed at length in The X Factor thread

The X Factor is bowing out of its head-to-head ratings battle with Strictly Come Dancing, after coming off second best for the past few Saturday nights.

But this is likely to be bad news for BBC1's Robin Hood - by shifting back nearly an hour to a 6.35pm start time from Saturday November 11 and running through till just after 8pm, The X Factor will go up against the corporation's medieval drama instead.

ITV1's peak time schedule will be bolstered further from Monday November 12, when I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! returns for a new series, launching with a 90-minute show from 9pm.

ITV1 is shifting around its early Saturday evening schedule by swapping The X Factor with Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, which is currently broadcast against Robin Hood from 7.15pm.

From Saturday November 11, Millionaire is to be scheduled for an hour from 5.35pm, pitching it against Strictly Come Dancing.

On the same night All Star Family Fortunes, fronted by Vernon Kay, is in the ITV1 lineup following The X Factor at 8.05pm.

BBC1's early Saturday evening lineup remains Strictly Come Dancing from 5.45pm, with Robin Hood taking over at 7pm and The National Lottery - 1 vs 100 scheduled at 7.45pm.

What's funny is that many people came up with a mock schedule like this on this forum on Monday. Maybe ITV schedulers are amongst us

In a strange turn of fate, the BBC are showing "Robin Hood" early Saturday evenings, some 20 years after ITV did the same.

Perhaps we can look forward to the BBC launching "Game for a Laugh" and "Punchlines" to front the Autumn 2007 season?

I don't understand why they don't do this:

5:00pm All New You've Been Framed!
5:30pm Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
6:30pm The X Factor
8:00pm All Star Family Fortunes
8:50pm The X Factor - The Result
9:25pm Afterlife
10:25pm Parkinson

Then, just make a few minnor changes to the programming before that.

That does raise a good point, why is it that Saturday nights are the only night that don't run to the :30 and :00 past each hour?

Because they dont have programmes like Emmerdale, Corrie, The Bill, Heartbeat and news bulletins that all fit into regular slots.

It's always been the case for some reason.


A few years ago I put it down to the BBC screening the Lottery draws at 8pm, with the programme ending around ten past - with ITV therefore adjusting their programmes around it, but now I don't know!


In someways it's nice to have a bit more flexibility in the Saturday schedule - but as pointed out abot it seems stupid when all programmes start at 5 past or 35 mins past.