You are Michael Grade

You are now Michael Grade - magic! Now, though, you must decide what to do to sort out ITV.

Here are my ideas - feel free to tear them apart or criticise etc I'd like to hear your views.

* Innovate with some new ideas. New formats, fresh shows, experiment with pilots for things. Dabble. Take risks. Live a little - some will fail but they can be shelved when they finish. Others might prove a huge hit - that is what ITV need. Expand the genres of programming shown. Try some comedy.

* Commission more series. ITV does too many one-off dramas, it's pathetic. Make them decent 6-8 part series and ONE HOUR long like drama should be. Not just 9pm dramas, but 8pm dramas too every now and then. I'd like to see The Bill cut down to once a week and a new spin-off, set in a hospital, launched, to compete with Holby City.

* Sort out the late news. I would just put it back at 10 o'clock. This way at least something could start at 10.30PM and go on for an hour or longer. ITV would be praised for attempting to put news back in primetime and as long as they make an effort to compete with BBC One's Ten O'Clock News, they shouldn't get too slaughtered in the ratings. Advertise the news in the last quarter hour break beforehand to try and get viewers to hold on, and have no break between the end of the show and the news. Move the Lunchtime News back to 12.30pm. Make the 6.30pm bulletin the 'flagship'.

* Cut Emmerdale and Corrie back to 3 nights a week each. This will initially cause a decline but it is up to the management to stem this decline with some very good formats occupying the spaces (two and a half hours) freed up. This could be a trusted format like PokerFace or something new. After the first week of headlines like 'ITV's ratings fall 5% after soap cuts', things will start to improve. And ITV will be more respected for it. Also, I think soap ratings will increase due to increased quality and improved storylines, coupled with the lessened commitment to the viewer of watching 3 hours a week etc. If ITV want to boost figures for a certain week or programme, they can notify CS or Emmerdale bosses, who can script some extra episodes, for instance hour-long or double-episodes. This is of benefit to a viewer, who will be excited for an extra episode (on a special occasion) and to ITV.

An example primetime schedule for Monday (couldn't resist) would be:

6.00 Regional News
6.30 ITV Evening News
7.00 Emmerdale
7.30 Coronation Street
8.00 Factual (Tonight, South Bank Show)
8.30 Comedy
9.00 Drama Series
10.00 ITV News at Ten
10.25 Film / Adult Drama / Documentary

Not all together different to now, but you can see what I mean.

* Merge ITV4 and Men&Motors into one 24 hour channel and put ITV Play on a timeshift. Add ITV4+1 to Sky with free Men&Motors space. Remove all quiz TV from the other channels.

That's all I can think of for now, now let's hear your ideas.... what does ITV need?

Michael Grade doesn;t need any idea, He was the controler of LWT! HE Fixed the BBC in the 80's! He knows what he doing!

also Removing the Dam quizd form the other channel would be nice, but it bring into much MONEY for them

I wasn't saying he didn't... I'm saying IF YOU were him, what would you do, not "Michael Grade is inept so let's think of ideas"

In today's Broadcast, Grade has ruled out moving the news to 10 O'clock, saying there is still much mileage in providing new half hour series at 10pm

He also says that he will not be making changes to ITV's commissioning team under Simon Shaps. They haven't had chance to prove themselves yet and he will give them a year to see what happens before making changes. He says he is now hoping to get a year of stability at ITV. Where headlines will be about programmes rather than about people leaving and starting

ITV comedy's awful, that's not going to get viewers.

So it does: 'But he dismissed one idea that has been floated as a favourite of Grade's, of moving the flagship news bulletin back to 10pm. "We've got no plans to move the news. The message to suppliers is we continue to have a huge appetite for half-hour series to run at 10pm," he said.'

Like Harry hill said he the last Comediam on ITV!

Concentrate on childrens.I would use a mix of japanese and american footage to make our own power rangers series[Power Rangers uses footage from a japanese program called Super Sentai].

ITV made the best comedy of the year - The Royle Family.

Essentially ITV need to be commissioning the programmes they are making for other channels!

Disagree slightly: Granada may have MADE it, but the whole ETHOS of the Royle Family comes from Caroline Aherne, Craig Cash, Ricky Tomlinson et. al..., plus the input "Early Doors" man Phil Mealey had on this year's special, and it is still seen as a BBC programme because that is the network it aired on. It's like saying ITV can claim credit for University Challenge. So ITV can only claim a negligible slice of the Royle Family credit - and that's before the arguments start as to whether the Queen of Sheba was even any good...

If I was Michael Grade I would..
- Lunchtime News at 12:30pm and Late News back to 22:00pm
- Cut soaps to 4 episodes during week - Sun, Mon, Tue & Thu. (7pm-8pm).
- Merge ITV4 and M&M to a 24 hour mens channel.
- ITV Play 7pm until 7am and CITV Channel 7am until 7pm. No ITV Play during the night on ITV1+2.
- Have continual dramas e.g 8 week runs.
- The Bill would just be on Tuesdays at 8pm.
and more of my ideas soon!

A minor point, but your signature doesn't make much sense. Why have 'am' and 'pm' when your times are in the 24 hour system?