The One Show

It's always live. They've never pre-recorded an episode.

They must be some of the only hosts who've done 5 days a week pretty much constantly since the summer last year, with only a break over Christmas. Both presenters have missed shows due to travel issues (Adrian got stuck in the US when his flight was delayed, and Christine couldn't get back to the UK when the English airports were shut due to snow)

Adrian had a couple of stand-ins when he was doing European football and went out to Beijing before the Olympics. Christine has had only missed two shows since she started.

However - many of us work a 5 day week after all...

Yep - The One Show gets higher audiences in the winter than the summer (weather related I guess) - but is still getting a decent share against Emmerdale. Much higher share and audiences than pretty much all of the shows that it replaced at 7pm on BBC One.

The hour-long shows held up their audience very well against Coronation Street - and nibbled away a bit at Corrie's share. They did better than many other shows previously scheduled in the 1930-2000 slot on BBC One.

The format may be an easy target for the critics, but it's found a decent and loyal audience.

There's been some controversy over this, is 'The One Show' deemed to be entertainment or current affairs? It's genre always seems to be difficult to categorise.

I'd consider current affairs.

It has a distinctly 'Daytime' feel to it I'd say.

If it needs to be categorized, "Factual Entertainment" is probably where it would fall.

There has, where?



Why does it need to be categorised?

There was some discussion (MG) when it was planned as to whether it would be a Current Affairs programme or have an entertainment slant. The issue as to whether resources from News and CA were being diverted to a lighter touch programme was mentioned.

It's'hybrid' nature has always confused me (and I suspect others), it was clear that Nationwide and Sixty Minutes clearly had a News slant and rightly were N & CA productions. The One Show is much more difficult to label with it's agenda being less defined.

It doesn't have a genre category in the BBC - though it is housed in the "Factual" department of BBC Vision, but in its own area because it has such a wide scope.

Because The One Show commissions items from multiple bits of the BBC, and indies, it doesn't have a specific genre, and is slightly separate. It is also technically not a "BBC Productions" production though it commissions some content from them, and its live studio production probably comes undere that umbrella. It commissions content from Manchester Current Affairs (which is part of BBC Journalism not BBC Vision AIUI), Bristol Natural History and Factual, Cardiff Consumer and Factual, Glasgow and Belfast Factual departments, and some London Specialist Factual depts (like History, Arts and Science). It also commissions from a number of independents.

This is partially because it replaced in-house and independent productions, from both London and other bits of the BBC, including shows from BBC Current Affairs. Across the year, The One Show has to mirror pretty much what it replaced in minutes and spend terms. Rather than having 1 show a week natural history, and one show a week current affairs, you might find that five shows in a week are 1/5th natural history and 1/5th current affairs, though it is probably averaged over a longer period.

AIUI The One Show inherited the output from Manchester Current Affairs that was lost when Real Story was axed. So less diverted away, more retained. The Current Affairs output on The One Show is certainly not always that "light" - though the show around it can include much lighter content. However the audiences for the show are massively higher than the solely current affairs output in the same time slot - so it has worked in bringing a wider audience to that output.



They were both, like Breakfast Time originally, produced entirely by the Current Affairs department at Lime Grove (which was sometimes also described as the Topical Programmes Unit I believe) and had NOTHING to do with the News department at TV Centre. You'd have been shot for describing the departments as "N& CA" - that didn't happen until Birt became Deputy DG around 1987 and merged News with Current Affairs (and Breakfast Time moved from Lime Grove to TV Centre as a result ISTR?)

The Current Affairs bits were entirely Current Affairs shows - though with quite a wide remit. They were also both, ISTR, 20-20-20 shows - 20 mins News (produced by the News dept separately - and sometimes branded separately), 20 mins of Regional News and 20 mins of Current Affairs. They created spin offs which literally span off - Watchdog (originally a strand on Nationwide) moved from CA to Factual for instance.

The current set-up is 30-30-30 (give or take a few mins) and branded such that The One Show is quite separate from the BBC News output (which includes the English regions) and the Nations News.

To be honest, the "hybrid" nature only really confuses telly types. Audiences don't massively care if the inserts are produced by one BBC dept. or another, or by one independent or another, as long as the quality is high and they are interesting to watch.

The wide variety of topics - arguably much wider than Nationwide and 60 Minutes - is confusing to some, but part of the appeal to others. It really is a magazine show. Science sits with Art, History with Current Affairs, Natural History with Consumer. You never quite know what you'll get in any given show - which also keeps the audience hooked. You don't have to sit down and watch the entire show with your full attention - you can do other things and pause when something that interests you pops up.

So after a week of Gethin Jones and Gloria Hunniford fronting the program, this week is the turn of Myleen Klass and Jogn Sergeant; an unusual pairng at the best of times but as stated earlier, it will be interesting to see how Myleen fits into her old job!!

Gloria Hunniford seemed out of place to me. The Myleen and John pairing works well in my opinion.