The Ministry of Mayhem

My dear Forumers...you may be interested to know that ITV1Saturday mornings is about to undergo a re-vamp. Our old favorite The Maidstone Studios in Kent (ex TVS) at Vinters Park will possibly be home to a new 'LIVE' show ( It was home to old ratings winners, Motormouth, No73 and Whats Up Doc in the 80's & 90's)
It'll be lead by three presenters, still to be finalised, but of course Nigel Pickard (ITV1 Director of Progs) is an old stalwart of the Maidstone Studios and still has strong links with the place and the people who work there.
So watch out for something fresh and new in the near future. As they say, can't tell you much more at the moment!

Also, what's this I hear about the South Bank being sold off??!!

It seems that Stephen Mulhern (fingers crossed there will be no more magic ) and Holly Willoughby (the new Cat Deeley? ) have been confirmed as presenters of the new (as yet un-named) saturday morning show! Lots of speculation about whether it will be just the two of them or whether there'll be another presenter.

Maybe they'll snatch another CBBC presenter? Angellica, Jake, Barney?

Stephen hasnt done magic on sm:tv for weeks now. And why cant stephen do magic, dom still does magic now he's in da bungalow. I'm a bit concerned about how well holly & stephen will work together, mind you, saying that fearne & simon didnt know each other last september, and have worked well together from show one.

Interesting to see if they go the saturday show route and stick with two. I think sm:tv only had three as ant & dec came together and they felt that a female was needed. Four was a bit too many for me on sm:tv, though the last three of stephen, des & tess worked well.

Its a case of another presenter coming along who seeks attention. Like Stephen and Jake I feel couldnt work together as they would both be thinking themselves as main host.

The show could work if it is very basic, viewers interact, emails, phone calls, letters, they show programmes, perhaps introducing a viewers vote to see what programmes people want to see, have guests, use the audience for games along with phone callers, and the celebs, it could work well.

Ive been re watching the first ep of the saturday show back in sept 2001, and the actual show with little gimmicks and competitions everywhere was a good formula. The little words that were used in the titles were used through out the show, which made the titles look wierd when they got rid of the use of them. I also liked the idea of the pods, as the audience could at least sit down, and they used the pods to vote and play games with, quite clever really. I wonder why they changed it to the audience on balconey set?

What name can you think of for the new saturday morning show.

Here's one, how about what the show will be. The show will be a series of links at the weekend, therefore calll it 'weekend link' (obviously it would be refered to as THE weekend link, but graphics and logo would simply be weekend link).

Any ideas on the title? What format would you like to see?

I think for exactly that reason, it's all a bit 'done to death'! They 'crow bar' magic into the bungalow, to keep Dom happy probably, when there isn't any real need for it. You have to admit, on the whole, magic is getting a bit old hat! Either that or I'm just psycologically scarred from watching too much Paul Daniels when I was younger!

It's going to be tricky to find someone to compliment Stephen and Holly but my money is on them getting another male presenter. For reason two girls never seems to work...Eureka TV anyone!!

I was thinking they could try and be a bit clever with the name and incorporate the number 6 somewhere in it, as Saturday is the sixth day of the week. Haven't got any further than that though...yet!

I agree that the format needs to be a bit more basic, although I would like to see items like the best bits of Noel's House Party and Don't Forget Your Toothbrush used to have.

By the time the new show arrives next year I reckon people will be gagging for a new saturday morning show as the Dick and Dom novelty will have worn off.

Anyone agree?

In my opinion, the Dick & Dom novelty had already worn off before the programme even started.

You obviously don't work for the BBC

Good point! Although let's face it they are pulling in the 4-15 yrs audience at the moment, 38% share last weekend!

Having said that, because of the rugby, SMTV Gold has been shifted to the afternoons, so the bungalow doesn't have any competition!

[quote="Brand X"]
How many people is 38%?

When TSS comes back I hope they go for something slightly different, like the original show. If they just do a show the same as on ITV, people will get fed up quickly and will be driven onto satallite channels.

Judging by the producers of hte new shows previous shows (Globo Loco), they might be heading for audience participation games, but will have celebrities involved. This could turn into a celeb type bungalow with an audience and colourful set!!

In the same breath as I heard the above rumour mentioned, Michael Underwood was mentioned as a possible third presenter...

Underwood and Mulhern... over-used.

I heard that Michael was being considered ages ago. I doubt that it will be true as he is being used for CiTV at the moment, losing him on CiTV will be wrong, especially until they have another strong male presenter.

Im not sure how busy Michael will be in the new year though, he's done jungle run, starfinder has been taken off for a while, he will be filming a new series of big bang for the summer i suppose.

Stephen will most probably be doing a new series of fingertips (unless he's recorded these now!), a new series of brilliant creatures, a new series of globoloco, and the new show too.

They should be developing new talent though. The lack of new faces on ITV as a whole and also CITV is becoming embarrassing. You just have to watch when Michael links programmes featuring himself, which happens quite a lot now.

That being said I think he's a really good and natural kids presenter though