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I would argue the format completely changed with The Saturday Show though. The classic BBC format was phoning in to ask guests questions, reviews of music/films, viewers' letters, etc. Obviously this was tweaked heavily along the way but the final series of L&K and then The Saturday Show onwards pretty much abandoned all of this in favour of more studio games, sketches and live performances. Not that there hadn't been any of this previously but the balance tipped quite heavily and after the awful Steve and Emma series that format was pretty much binned. .
Spot on imo. I would agree with all of this.
The irony of the situation was that in the 20th anniversary documentary Chris Bellinger said "it has to keep evolving to stay fresh", or words to that effect. In the event that was exactly what they didn't do and for a good four years or so ITV won the ratings battle.
Yeah according to the following it took 3 years and 3 months for the BBC to win the slot back with The Saturday Show.
New blow to ITV as BBC's Saturday Show beats SM:TV
Monday, 10 February 2003
ITV has lost its Saturday morning children's TV supremacy as the BBC's 'The Saturday Show' celebrates toppling rival 'SM:TV' in overall individual audience figures.
'The Saturday Show' attracted an audience of 1.1m on February to 'SM:TV''s 1m and marks the first time that the BBC has beaten ITV in the overall figures since November 1999 when 'The Saturday Show''s predecessor, 'Live & Kicking', was on air.
According to the BBC, 'The Saturday Show' attracted a 29.3% share among children's figures -- almost double 'SM:TV''s 16% share.
Annette Williams, executive producer of 'The Saturday Show', said: "We are thrilled with the news and will definitely be popping the champagne to celebrate. New presenters Fearne Cotton and Simon Grant are obviously proving to be very popular."
While the overall averages were close, its interesting to note the big difference in Children.
IIRC when Ministry of Mayhem launched its target audience was solely under 12's in order to close the big gap among this audience.
I would argue the format completely changed with The Saturday Show though. The classic BBC format was phoning in to ask guests questions, reviews of music/films, viewers' letters, etc. Obviously this was tweaked heavily along the way but the final series of L&K and then The Saturday Show onwards pretty much abandoned all of this in favour of more studio games, sketches and live performances. Not that there hadn't been any of this previously but the balance tipped quite heavily and after the awful Steve and Emma series that format was pretty much binned. .
Spot on imo. I would agree with all of this.
The irony of the situation was that in the 20th anniversary documentary Chris Bellinger said "it has to keep evolving to stay fresh", or words to that effect. In the event that was exactly what they didn't do and for a good four years or so ITV won the ratings battle.
Yeah according to the following it took 3 years and 3 months for the BBC to win the slot back with The Saturday Show.
Quote:
New blow to ITV as BBC's Saturday Show beats SM:TV
Monday, 10 February 2003
ITV has lost its Saturday morning children's TV supremacy as the BBC's 'The Saturday Show' celebrates toppling rival 'SM:TV' in overall individual audience figures.
'The Saturday Show' attracted an audience of 1.1m on February to 'SM:TV''s 1m and marks the first time that the BBC has beaten ITV in the overall figures since November 1999 when 'The Saturday Show''s predecessor, 'Live & Kicking', was on air.
According to the BBC, 'The Saturday Show' attracted a 29.3% share among children's figures -- almost double 'SM:TV''s 16% share.
Annette Williams, executive producer of 'The Saturday Show', said: "We are thrilled with the news and will definitely be popping the champagne to celebrate. New presenters Fearne Cotton and Simon Grant are obviously proving to be very popular."
While the overall averages were close, its interesting to note the big difference in Children.
IIRC when Ministry of Mayhem launched its target audience was solely under 12's in order to close the big gap among this audience.
