SM:TV Live to return for one off special?

I should be familiar with that CD:UK trailer, it's one of my videos

What's unusual now is that the rights to SM:TV and CD:UK are now totally separate, even though they were originally effectively the same show. With SM:TV owned by Ant & Dec's company, and CD:UK owned by Shout Factory in the US.

I didn't watch the early days, as I was a loyal BBC Saturday morning viewer, only ever watching ITV when they moved the Saturday morning summer show to Sunday's and just offers up CBBC programmes. It was a fully polished programme when I tuned in.

This set of circumstances probably helped as many shows would have been axed after one run

Those original titles always seem strange to me, as the music doesn't fit the visuals, yet the replacement theme that we all know and love, does fit the visuals. It's almost like those YouTube videos where people dub another theme on top of something else.

I've always wondered this too since the original theme is missing the sound effects that fit so perfectly on the theme we all know… a bit odd.

It may just be it seems to fit because it's what you're used to, so hearing it with the CD:UK theme seeems odd.

They actually lost the rights at one point but later got them back - I think they currently have the rights to Diamond and Pearl onwards (so Black and White, XY - which finishes tomorrow - and the upcoming Sun and Moon). So the Pokerap thing would need to be updated, as those newer episodes don't feature Misty (they used to cosplay Misty and Ash).



The other most common insert show was Sabrina the Teenage Witch, which also had a sketch attached to it (Dec professing his love for Melissa Joan Hart, Sabrina's actor). They don't have the rights to that show now.

It wouldn't be odd for the kids - they'd just need to simulcast it on the CITV channel.

Well thank you for the upload James.

Could it be something to do with Blaze/Zenith creating CD:USA?

The sound effects are completely absent from the first theme however which makes me think that the theme they ended up using (which was first introduced a few weeks later AFAIK) wasn't ready

I'm pretty sure that's the exact reason why.

I wonder if this is why episode 2 from series 3 of the Royal Family, which heavily features both shows, has all but disappeared?
It's never shown on Gold and is the only episode missing on Netflix.

I think the intention was to have a backstage at CD:UK feel, but when this didn't work for them they commissioned the recognisable theme. Strangely from episode 3 until it was replaced they removed the 'Saturday' and 'Get up' vocals from the original theme. This intro is from 3rd October 1998 and still features the original theme but as you get the glimpse of they had by that point started to include an audience.


As a random observation and an extra link between the two programmes, not only did both feature a colon in the logo but both original sets of titles featured a barking dog.

I'm sure it wasn't known as 'cosplaying' back in 1999

It won't be a kids show, nobody under the age of about 22 will be tuning in. Unlike say the CBBC Birthday show, there is no present day reference to incorporate.

Also you see the end of the original pre-titles bit, which had a montage of Ant, Dec and Cat getting ready for work, then ended with Ant waking up in a strange place and screaming (which was different every week- clearly that one was the back of a van, but I also remember him waking up in a boat, a field and on a roof).

Also the strange "control panel" at the top of the tower had clearly been ditched by then.

I seem to remember the characters from the SM:TV titles were on the backgrounds of the CD:UK stages at first as well, another close link between the two shows. The link clearly started to die after Ant & Dec left, then even more when Cat left SM:TV (but stayed on CD:UK) and obviously died entirely when SM:TV ended (and I personally felt CD:UK went downhill quite fast when the cord was cut entirely from the main Saturday show).