Oh Dear ITV

I am glad that ITV have seen sense and dropped The Block, who actually wants so stay in and watch this on a Tuesday Night at 9pm??? When will ITV learn that mixing one format with Reality doesn't work! I am sorry to see that they are dropping The Vault, that is a good programme which I believe they should have given another chance, Tuesday IMO is not a good night, they should have put on a Wednesday after Corrie where it would have got a better chance of succeding.

The ITV schedule is poor at 9pm most nights, it's either just Drama or Reality! How about a good comedy or a documentary, not the same old tripe (is putting nicely) every night.

I am very suprised that ITV haven't pulled Simply The Best, as that's been only getting 3 million.

Interesting point. Will there even be a network centre for much longer, with ITV plc owning so much of the network. Admittedly Charles Allen can't just ged rid of Network Centre, the post of Nigel Pickard is protected, but at some point that could change - the Network Centre after all is a relatively new invention. Suppose it depends how long UTV and SMG can hold out for. Ted Childs raised this question in a piece he wrote for The Guardian this week.

I didn't see The Block but from what I read about it, it was very similar to Design Wars and Trouble In Paradise (and a daytime show which was nearly exactly the same at TinP).

I think the problem with the shows is that they were/are just to complex, the reason C4 property shows do so well is that they are very very simply and although the reality bits are there - in that they follow real people - its not as overt as these ITV shows.

Yes, Design Wars, Trouble in Paradise, Building the Dream, The Block all property shows with a "reality" twist, its all too much and frankly people are bored.

ITV have jumped on the property bandwagon far too late, just as people are getting fed up of this particular genre.

Well five's new show with Justin Ryan and Colin whatsit is also late in the day bandwagon-wise, but is enjoyable. I will admit that its mostly saved by that brilliantly sardonic voice-over, but my point really is that ITV's shows have been plain lousy.

Although I can't stand Justin and Colin (one needs a good slapping), the show has been fairly sucessful, but, its a very simple format. It'll standout a bit cos of the fact that Justin, or is it Colin, is a drama queen and the sardonic voice-over, as you put it,

The problem with ITV property shows is that they are just too complex and not about property at all but the reality aspect (which isn't that great ) so it looses out on both counts.

The problem for ITV is that they've become obsessed with the idea that all their shows should feature either people shouting at each other a lot, or people's lives/dreams being ruined... they've seen a small number of these shows being successful on other networks and have decided to chase these. Problem is, it blows up in ITV's face because those viewers actually capable of sentient thought are switching over... Yes ITV is dead but to be honest the death certificate was signed for me on January 1st 1993...