How many regions used to produce shows for the back half hour of the 6pm hours to. I know for a time Granada had shows at 6.30pm from Monday to Thursday, which I think included Crimefile (a local Crimewatch) and a cookery show with that woman who used to be on This Morning - and then Granada Tonight ran for an hour as Granada Weekend on Fridays before ultimately running for an hour every night.
Well, I can give you chapter and verse on Granada's early evening scheduling as my mum and sister were mad keen on Home and Away. In 1992 they moved Home and Away to 5.10 and showed regional programming at 6pm, including Families (which of course Granada used to only show as an omnibus), repeats of Stars In Their Eyes and, on Friday, an hour long Granada Tonight, which I recall was fronted from a sofa with Bob Greaves while the rest of the week was John Huntley behind a desk, before Greaves and the sofa became commonplace throughout the week.
That only lasted until the end of the year though and in 1993 Home and Away moved back to six. But in 1997 they moved Home and Away to 5.10 and Granada Tonight to six, leaving to regional shows at 6.30. The interesting ones from a modern perspective are Girls Who Shop, presented by Trinny and Susannah, and Schools Challenge, which was exactly the same as University Challenge, same set, same theme tune, but presented by Mark Radcliffe - while he was doing the Radio 1 breakfast show! And they said he was too low profile. However they clearly struggled to fill the slot because on Wednesday they showed High Road in that slot. Clearly it was all a bit too much like hard work too because in 1998 Granada Tonight became an hour long. I assume it was a combination of that brantub at 6.30 and the arrival of Gordon Burns that saw North West Tonight beat Granada Tonight for the first time.
When I went to university I was now in the Central region and I have said here before that they seemed very big on Australian soaps, and when the national news moved from 5.40 to 6.30, and the regional hour began at 5.30, Central showed Shortland Street at 5.30 every day - a better slot than Home and Away, and opposite Neighbours! I think they were also the only region to show Echo Point, and also were one of the few regions to keep showing Home and Away at lunchtime when other regions dropped that screening towards the end of its life on ITV when they were trying to drag the audience down before they lost the rights.
They did loads of local programmes as well, of course. I think It's Your Shout was the current affairs show you might be thinking of, on Sunday afternoons. I only remember watching that before an FA Cup match one Sunday when they kept on losing the link and eventually abandoned it. And of course as Granada and LWT shared regional shows, so did Carlton and Central, I remember watching the second ever MOBO Awards on Central.
I've probably said this before but Carlton did a regional pop show for a while called Videotech and in late 1997 they did a special which I think was networked, it was certainly the only episode I ever saw on Central at 10.40 one night and I think they showed it in most regions as well over the course of a few weeks, presumably as a pilot for a potential networked series, but it never happened. And then nine months later CDUK arrived. Seems amazing now to think of regional pop shows and indeed, with London Bridge, a regional drama. These day ITV barely seem to be able to afford national drama.
Family Pride, the Asian soap, was on Central on Tuesdays at 8.30, usually opting out of a networked game show, I know they moved Wheel of Fortune to Sunday afternoons for it. But it ended in 1991, I think.
