Today with Des and Mel Axed

And a very inconsistent policy as I recall. Other shows plodded on for ages, and were left to do so.

Not that "looking stale" rulings shouldn't be made. Look at Heartbeat - set in 1964 when it began 14 years ago - and has managed to stay in 1969 for the past eight years! It might be popular but the unnatural timewarp is fast losing it credibility. Signs of ageing by the longer serving actors are all too apparent. If ITV won't move the series into the 70s, they should call it a day.

What concerns me about the proposed axe wielding is the wrong shows will go. Rosemary and Thyme - one of the channel's better shows, has been named as facing the chop, while Midsomer Murders will no doubt run and run. And there'll be extra helpings of soap if they can get away with it.

I'm not going to believe any overhaul of ITV1 until I see it; and whatever happens, anything commercially viable won't go no matter how tired it's looking.

See it's all very well have a clause IV moment and totally throwing things out the window but if you want it to be a success you need to carefully consider its replacement, and given current form, ITV Play, it worries me.

Heartbeat did reach 1970 for 1 series (about 3 years ago) but then went back to 1969 and is still stuck in 1969!

BTW does this overhaul mean another new logo from ITV to depict the SHAPS era?

Though this is nothing more than Simon Shaps' Comissiong Dream Team doing their mark on ITV, I personally welcome the move to axe some popular shows and that they aren't afraid to do so, such as Celebrity Fit Club, Footballers Wives, Rosemary and Thyme, Today with Des and Mel and It'll Be Alright on The Night ( The full RTS speech is available on MediaGuardian, and Simon Shaps has said that the show will be retiring aswell as Denis Norden) and I think overall this a move in the right direction, and it shows that they are keen to comission new programming and accept new ideas.

If you have read the full speech then to summarise, basically it is Simon Shaps making his mark, within the next 18 months in ITV I would expect to see some form of change in terms of output, mainly due to the fact that most of the hierarchy at Network Centre have been replaced with a complete new team of people. Though I hope he lives up to his word, he knows they've made mistakes, they seem to be keen to try on new ideas and try new Dramas and invest more into Comedy. Plus I was rather surprised it was his idea to show the recent 'Wilson' programme which apparently had been lying on the shelf for sometime now, hopefully this might be a good sign for ITV that some more documentaries might also be comissioned.

Though for now this may all be aload pipe dreams, but hopefully the ITV1 we have in 2008 could be damn right better if things go to plan and if they accept their faults.

Let's hope so, he can start by getting rid of ITV1's awful ident!

What! No Rosemary & Thyme! I love that show, i hope someone else picks up the production rights (like the BBC)

Rosemary and Thyme was awful - well thats my own opinion, i'm not into stuff like that.

Today with Des and Mel - ok, it was good for digging out those old club comedians as guests every now and again but unfortunately Mel laughing at Des trying to be funny is....well...totally not funny. So long as ITV replace it with something fresh, it will be an improvement.

Anyway, I totally agree with what has been said. My biggest worry is - AXE Celebrity Fit Club KEEP Celebrity Love Island. Tacky.

As for Heartbeat, its becoming stale in my view and the stories remind me of The Two Ronnies' Charley Farley and Piggy Malone the more the series goes on! Move it on and update it a bit otherwise ditch it, same goes for Midsomer Murders.

Heartbeat should go - or at least be restricted to a 6 week run or something, give some room for something different in that slot. The number of police based stuff should be cut right back, it all becomes so samey.

I liked Rosemary & Thyme for it's completely transparent corny plots, Felicity Kendall, and the fact that it was an hour of completely unchallenging relaxing pap! So I can understand why it's been axed, but I'll miss it!

I just hope ITV1 starts to look beyond reliance on celebrity based reality stuff; there's no sign of it this summer though from what I've read.

Shaps does need to be a bit more braver though if he thinks he is going to be the saviour of ITV.

He needs top lose one of the 3 soaps in preimetime. My candidate would be to finish The BIll. It has long gone past its prime and nowadays its all about ggos cops, bad cops and the coppers lives in and outside the station - there is no crime, no punishment no reality in drama nowadays.

I would also drop Emmerdale from 6 days a week to 4 (removing both the Sunday and Wednesday episodes. I would also drop Coronations Street from 5 episodes to 3 and show them in their near original timeslots (Monday and Wednesday at 730pm - the original time slots - and Friday at 730pm)- this would then free up more airtime for more risky, adventurous, imaginatiove and innovative programming that Shaps and his Dream Team are hoping for.

With the Daytime I would, if I was Shaps, be completely brave and completely re-do it. I would...

0925 - extend GMTV by 5 minutes
0930 Gameshows
1000 New British Daytime Soap
1030 The Jeremy Kyle Show, other British Talk Shows
1130 British Factual Series'
1215 ITV Regional News; ITV Regional Weather
1230 ITV News; ITV National Weather
1300 The 1 O'Clock Show with Richard Hammond, Loose Women, Bradley Walsh, Today with Des and Mel
1400 Gameshows
1430 British Factual Series'
1500 British Factual Series'
1530 Shortland Street
1600 CITV Pre-school Series f/b BIrthday Greetings
1615 CITV Pre-school SEries'
1635 CITV Animation
1700 CITV
Monday
1700 British Factual Series'
1730 British Drama Series'
Tuesday and Thursday
1700 British Gameshows
1730 Magpie, Splash, Freetime
Wednesday
1700 Mad For It, Bad Influence, The Go-Getters, other British Entertainment Series'
1730 Docurama, Fly-on-the-wall Series', Reality Series', Up2U, Skillz (all British)
Friday
1700 Brtiish Factual Series'
1730 British Comedy Series'

Rosemary and Thyme would be good on BBC1 on Sunday evenings

Des and Mel would be good for daytime television on Channel 5 (possibly the 5pm slot - only competing with C4 there as there are children's programmes on BBC1, constant repeats showing of Weakest Link/Ready Steady Cook on BBC2, absolutely nothing on ITV and only Paul O'Grady/Richard & Judy on 4)

Celebrity Fit Club would be good on primetime on Channel 5

It would be quite amusing if five picked up Des and Mel. I am pretty sure hands down that it would beat Sharon Osbourne and her new million pound show, which itv are currently lineing up, that would teach itv a lesson comming bottom of the terrestrial networks at 5pm. Of course Channel 4 could also pick the show up in a bid to bolster the ratings for lunchtime, after all, daytime seems to be the place were channel 4 are concentrating there efforts at the moment, then Des' phrase 'all the fun at one' could live again.

I find that Today with Des and Mel was pretty much superseded by The Paul O'Grady Show.

We saw this when Des and Mel moved to the 5pm slot and everyone slagged it off. The show we used to like suddenly seemed very safe and predictable. It never seemed to pick up again once it moved back to daytime. It's had a good run anyway

Celebrity Fit Club has also had a good run, with about 4 series. I find it strange that people on here seemingly dislike celebrity reality shows and never mentioned the show when it was on air are now complaining about it being axed!