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Nigel Pickard fights back

Another two shows axed! (June 2005)

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MA
mattlock
Andrew posted:
That's a very simplistic way of looking at it, as if to say that no other channel is allowed to have high rating programmes. It's the way that if BBC1 or Channel 4 have a popular programme, the ITV1 programme as a result is therefore unpopular and is therefore axed that I just can't understand.
If every programme that doesn't win it's slot is a flop, which it seems to be according to the likes of Media Guardian then surely every channel may as well close down and be replaced by one single channel.

Surely even in the 70s, BBC1 lost out to half of the time to ITV and vica versa yet shows wern't announced as a flop straightaway.


Well, quite, but that's not my point. I'm not too concerned about an ITV programme losing a particular slot, but the overall picture which is emerging about the way Pickard runs ITV. He is a lazy scheduler, who can't be bothered to take risks, seek out new exciting formats, or even admit he's wrong. Did you read Victor Lewis Smith on ITV the other day in the Evening Standard? He used one show (and to be honest I can't even remember which piece of rubbish it was now, could well have been CLI) to make the point that the whole of ITV's schedule is derivitive, lazy, and pretty much unwatchable. And who is going to argue with that?
MA
mattlock
[quote="tvarksouthwest"]
It's more pitiful when you consider the iconic programmes Nigel used to work on, such as Worzel Gummidge. But perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on him. After all, he is only the lapdog dancing to Charles Allen's tune.[quote]
He's a grown lad isn't he? If he doesn't like what he's doing, there are plenty of other jobs in telly land for failed controllers.


Quote:
Sticking Corrie on for an hour directly before Celebrity Love Island achieved what it deserved to - a big fat nothing.

Quite the reverse, according to Teletext. CLI beat Big Borether in the ratings.[quote]

Well, again I wasn't talking about an individual episode but the fact that the tactic was used to draw people in to start watching it regularly. Which they are not.
AN
Andrew Founding member
mattlock posted:
He is a lazy scheduler, who can't be bothered to take risks, seek out new exciting formats,

But how can they possibly take risks when they are in a situation where unless it wins its slot after episode 1 it gets pulled. We've all seen on this forum many times where people have made a decision on a new programme 5 minutes after the first episode started and won't change their minds. If it underperforms the papers start having a go, less people tune in, the advertisers are on the case etc.

For example we don't know what this "The Big Call" is going to be about, it could be the next Millionaire or a completly new exciting format, yet people have already said that 'it sounds rubbish'
MA
mattlock
Good point, but we would all back him if he took risks and some of them failed, as they inevitably would. Where he is getting slated is where he simply pumps out more and more variations of the same stale themes (celebrity, ...from Hell, dramas which must be contractually obliged to use Robson Green and that bloke from Clocking Off) and so on. Nobody slags off Monkey Trousers, which the great Pickard himself admitted was a flop, because it was an brave effort. But there's so little else.
BB
Brig Bother
Brekkie Boy posted:
I think the resurrection of Survivor could show that ITV can do reailty shows well - and I know many reality fans have a high regard for Survivor - as long as it's original format remains intact, and ITV don't try to turn it into a money spinning version of Big Brother.


Press Ganged (dubbed "Survivor 3: On A Ship" by those in the know) is apparently still pencilled in for Autumn, which I'm quite looking forward to.
DO
dodrade
ITV have got to learn to hold their nerve. TV history is full of shows which didn't hit their stride until the second series, OFAH, Backadder, Cheers etc. A couple of recent ITV shows I enjoyed were POW and Island at war, neither of which were ratings disasters, but didnt get recommissioned. How about giving one of them another go?
SE
Square Eyes Founding member
Alarmingly Mr Pickard is even angering the Coronation Street scriptwriters.

It's not going terribly well is it ?

Quote:
Coronation Street scriptwriters have voiced their concerns over ITV's decision to merge their two Monday night episodes.

The scheduling change has seen the 7.30pm edition amalgamated with the later show for the past two weeks, creating an hour-long special starting at 8.30pm.

The writers have arranged a meeting with ITV's programming director Nigel Pickard, as they believe that the move is an attempt to boost Celebrity Love Island's flagging ratings.

Last Monday's episode (6th June) which aired at 8.30pm gained 9.97-million viewers with a 43.2% audience share. Emmerdale, which aired an hour earlier in Corrie's standard 7.30pm slot, achieved 9.25-million viewers - a 49.1% share.

A month earlier, however, Coronation Street pulled 10.91-million viewers when aired at its usual time - equating to 53.7% of the audience.

Chief writer John Fay told Broadcast magazine: "Moving Monday's episode is the straw that broke the camel's back. It's madness to hobble a tried and tested thoroughbred by tying it to something heading for the knackers' yard."

He added: "Many of us have worked on the show for years. We feel we are the custodians of its future and we feel that it risks being damaged."

His co-writer, Daran Little, also commented: "Coronation Street is a joy to work on and the awards prove it's a joy to watch. It's a national treasure and as such sometimes needs defending from those who undervalue it or are prepared to mortgage it in the short term without a view to the long term."
JE
Jez Founding member
Square Eyes posted:
Alarmingly Mr Pickard is even angering the Coronation Street scriptwriters.

It's not going terribly well is it ?

Quote:
Coronation Street scriptwriters have voiced their concerns over ITV's decision to merge their two Monday night episodes.

The scheduling change has seen the 7.30pm edition amalgamated with the later show for the past two weeks, creating an hour-long special starting at 8.30pm.

The writers have arranged a meeting with ITV's programming director Nigel Pickard, as they believe that the move is an attempt to boost Celebrity Love Island's flagging ratings.

Last Monday's episode (6th June) which aired at 8.30pm gained 9.97-million viewers with a 43.2% audience share. Emmerdale, which aired an hour earlier in Corrie's standard 7.30pm slot, achieved 9.25-million viewers - a 49.1% share.

A month earlier, however, Coronation Street pulled 10.91-million viewers when aired at its usual time - equating to 53.7% of the audience.

Chief writer John Fay told Broadcast magazine: "Moving Monday's episode is the straw that broke the camel's back. It's madness to hobble a tried and tested thoroughbred by tying it to something heading for the knackers' yard."

He added: "Many of us have worked on the show for years. We feel we are the custodians of its future and we feel that it risks being damaged."

His co-writer, Daran Little, also commented: "Coronation Street is a joy to work on and the awards prove it's a joy to watch. It's a national treasure and as such sometimes needs defending from those who undervalue it or are prepared to mortgage it in the short term without a view to the long term."


Im glad the staff at Corrie are making their voices heard over this. What an appalling way for ITV to treat their flagship series.
MA
mattlock
The man is clearly more talented than I thought - he's managed to pick a fight with the one programme on his channel that's guaranteed a good audience. How does he do it? Bigger and better things await for Mr Pickard I reckon.
TV
tvarksouthwest
Square Eyes posted:
The writers have arranged a meeting with ITV's programming director Nigel Pickard, as they believe that the move is an attempt to boost Celebrity Love Island's flagging ratings.

How lame, and how doomed to failure. Staunch Corrie fans will always tune in no matter what time it goes out, and when the programme finishes many will have no cause to stay with ITV.

Much as I disapprove of ITV pulling programmes at a moment's notice, the fact that CLI hasn't been (and is unlikely to be) makes ITV's management look like the Mafia. Rather like our local council, who gave the Quay a facelift no-one wanted.
AN
Andrew Founding member
mattlock posted:
Good point, but we would all back him if he took risks and some of them failed, as they inevitably would. Where he is getting slated is where he simply pumps out more and more variations of the same stale themes (celebrity, ...from Hell, dramas which must be contractually obliged to use Robson Green and that bloke from Clocking Off) and so on. Nobody slags off Monkey Trousers, which the great Pickard himself admitted was a flop, because it was an brave effort. But there's so little else.

That's where you are wrong, it's all about ratings. Nobody ever reports 'Such and such a channel had their lowest ever audience but it's ok because they were providing quality public service television'
TV
tvarksouthwest
Andrew posted:
That's where you are wrong, it's all about ratings. Nobody ever reports 'Such and such a channel had their lowest ever audience but it's ok because they were providing quality public service television'

And that's why ITV is so crap! Too safe and unwilling to take risks. The latest bombshell is that Ofcom has given the go-ahead for FURTHER reductions in regional non-news, allowing just one half-hour a week once each region goes digital.

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