What was the reason for him leaving Saturday Kitchen?
I think commercial opportunities played a part; almost immediately after leaving the BBC he appeared in a advertising campaign for Asda. There is a lot of money to be made outside of a golden handcuffs deal with the BBC.
He's also all over the first class menu on Virgin Trains East Coast. Must have been worth the money to get him to come up with a sausage roll and a muffin.
Standard class as well, I had one of his bacon rolls a few weeks ago!
I was just about to post about how I used to enjoy Ready Steady Cook, and found out there are now rumours around that James Martin is on about reviving it!
Although the revamp they did towards the end was a bit naff, Ainsley could no longer rig it with the '1 more greeeeen pepper card'!
Ratings
Saturday Kitchen - 1.00m
Saturday Morning with James Martin - 508k (including +1)
It looks like James Martin new show slightly dented Saturday Kitchen and 508k was good for a show with no promotion.
It'll be interesting to see how they compare in a month's time. The first show was bound to get a lot of people tuning in to see what it was like, and not all of them will have been impressed enough to become regular viewers. But, as you say, the lack of promotion means there are probably quite a few potential viewers who missed the first week.
It's the sort of show that could return for a second series with a completely different (aka more Saturday Kitchenesque) format and then possible develop.
The real hope though is the new CBBC show on BBC2 makes an impact and ITV are scared enough to poach their hosts and launch their own Saturday morning equivalent!
...and 508k was good for a show with no promotion.
That wasn't the case, as I definiately recall seeing trailers for the show. At a guess I'd seen them during one of the early weekday evening advert breaks (possibly on a +1 channel).
I didn't think this show would have much legs but interestingly I've noticed that, when I'm over, my parents have moved from watching Saturday Kitchen to watching this and finding the fun bits very funny… I wonder if James Martin is the exception to the rule that the format is more important than the host.