Top of the Pops needs to be produced as a light entertainment show for a mass audience- that's what hasn't happened in more than two decades.
There needs to be tension between the format and the acts for it to be a ratings success. Casual viewers won't bother with it if it's produced as a cutting edge music show.
I think the 2006 show used the usual set but the 2007 show didn't look much like the original show at all - the graphics were all completely different to the style the show used at the end of the run, and the theme didn't play in the background while the presenters were talking which made it all seem a bit flat. To be expected I suppose if you get a different team making it every year...
It was in fact the same production team making both years, but the 2007 show was recorded at Riverside Studios instead of TV Centre. There was also a big budget cut. The Pops set stayed up after the weekly show ended as they had TOTP2 weekly for six months with performances for that each week.
The old production team now make things like the BBC1 Sessions and so on.
I think the 2006 show used the usual set but the 2007 show didn't look much like the original show at all - the graphics were all completely different to the style the show used at the end of the run, and the theme didn't play in the background while the presenters were talking which made it all seem a bit flat. To be expected I suppose if you get a different team making it every year...
It was in fact the same production team making both years, but the 2007 show was recorded at Riverside Studios instead of TV Centre. There was also a big budget cut. The Pops set stayed up after the weekly show ended as they had TOTP2 weekly for six months with performances for that each week.
The old production team now make things like the BBC1 Sessions and so on.
Something else that was different in 07 was that they didn't have the weekly show to draw from for performances of the year's songs - so you had more videos and clips from other shows, presumably this was also a factor brought on by budget cuts.
Can I ask how many people liked Top of The Pops after the Andi Peter's rebrand? I was all in favour of it myself, it gave the programme a fresher edge, the music was a nice change, the set was spectacular, I still think that the set designers played around with the set plan like lego, overall I prefered it as it was live, and they changed the show.
Even though I will always hate the band, the Blazin' Squad performance at TVC was set up very well indeed.
I hated the "All New Top of the Pops" era - I can't think of anything positive to say about it. Too much focus on RnB/boyband-like music, too much time spent on news/interviews, not enough focus on the charts (for me, the whole point of TOTP), awful presenters (especially Tim Kash and Lynsey Brockney's voiceover) and using a remix of the "Year Zero" theme tune was a bit of a mistake.
The last era of weekly TOTP, after Andi Peters left as producer and Sally Wood took over, when the show was live on a Sunday after the Top 40 had finished on Radio 1, was an improvement - a better, more inclusive mix of music and it felt more relevant and fresh finding out what was Number 1 on the same day as the new Top 40 was announced rather than waiting until the following Friday.
A shame TOTP was demoted to BBC2 instead of BBC1, it could have still done well on the main channel on a Sunday evening slot, especially nowadays when it could have led into, or inherit from, the Strictly/Joseph etc. result shows.
Although people put the blame of TOTP's demise on MTV, YouTube and everything like that, the BBC didn't help themselves by scheduling it opposite Coronation Street, it did well on Thursday nights before Eastenders, why change?
People moan about the lack of TOTP on TV, but at the end of the day people knew where it was in the schedule , but it wasn't watched and the ratings got lower, simple as.
The biggest problem that I personally thought killed TOTP was the schedule changes. I don't know what effect it had when it moved to Friday because I only started watching when it moved then, but sticking it on a Sunday on BBC2 was a very stupid idea. At least Simon would have put some thought into THAT factor.
Small point to make, regarding the BBC's statement.
What the hell is the point of calling a show TOTP2 if there is no longer a "TOTP1"?!
Good point there. I suppose that TOTP2 has been a distinct brand from TOTP (in all the latter's guises), in that it always has been archive clips linked together by an unseen presenter (mostly Steve Shight).
Whereas when we see TOTP listed, we think a studio-based/live music fayre; rather than Roland Rat on helium making 'clever' remarks about the same archive thirty clips on rotation.
