ITV Programming Thread

What a stupid argument. Axing many of the things which ITV "do not need to do" has already caused huge problems across the schedules, especially at weekends where they haven't got a clue what to air now during daytime. It took them the best part of a decade as well to really revamp their daytime schedule following the removal of CITV content.

It might not require it by law but it's commercially more viable than many of the other shows that play in primetime - hence they opt to put ads in the news rather than the anti-EastEnders filler or some of the hour-long factual content. It also gives them the flexibility with News at Ten to move it when they need to as the commitment is already done and dusted by 6.30pm.

You have a point with 'You've Been Framed' I admit (I don't think anyone hates it, I just feel the programme needs a long break). I'm sure a Harry Hill remake of 'Beadles About' is just around the corner...***shudders***


As for Kyle, I actually think he's a decent presenter. That's the only positive I can think of about the show.

I agree with Emmerdale being dropped down to 5 episodes per week between Sunday - Thursday at 7pm btw. As for Corrie I'd continue with 5 episodes a week but get rid of the two episodes a night madness. I'm sure ITV can fill the 8-9pm space with other types of more diverse programming if they'd like to try.

Apart from the fact it's not a "legal" issue as such (it's a commitment in the granting of the licences to ITV as decreed by Ofcom, who "vary" the requirements as needed), the viability of the news is key, since they don't have a news channel and there's no other news output anywhere across the rest of the ITV channels (I don't count that Entertainment update segment thing that turns up randomly on ITV2), as opposed to the BBC which has bulletins on the two main channels, 60 Seconds for BBC Three, Newsround for CBBC and the World News for BBC Four and a news channel too.

What we really need back is a Grandstand/World of Sport sort of feature, that sat on Saturday afternoons for many years and easily filled up hours on end. The BBC quite often airs sport on Saturdays albeit not under the Grandstand umbrella, though what ITV would show in, for argument's sake, a revived World of Sport, may be slime or niche pickings, now we have the likes of Sky Sports having the lion's share.

With regards to the rest of the schedule, the increased reliance on soap in the evenings stems from many years ago, to the point where the gameshows that would have aired in a 7/8/8:30pm slot don't exist now. ITV's main gameshows now are relegated to either daytime or summer weekend filler when BGT/X-Factor isn't on, and even then are celebrity "specials". Specials imply one-offs or special occasions. A series of celebrity Tipping Point that runs for eight episodes isn't "special".

Two episodes of Coronation Street became silly when it first started, and now smacks of laziness. If you must, just string them together and present it as one, not sandwich it in between some cheap filler.

Lots of people saying ITV should axe an episode of Emmerdale, and stop double Corrie on Monday & Friday...

Just look at the state the channel is in during primetime for most of the week - I know we're now into summer, but rating have been somewhat shocking for a while!

All primetime programmes watched by less than 2 million viewers in the last 7 days:

Tuesday (16th June)
20:00 Me and My Guide Dog- 1.91m (10.5%)
21:00 The Enforcers - 1.67m (8.2%)

Friday (19th)
21:00 Doc Martin [R] - 1.72 (9.4%)

Monday (22nd)
21:30 It's A Funny Old Week - 1.32m (6.5%)

Tuesday (23rd)
19:30 A Great Welsh Adventure with Griff Rhys Jones - 1.71m (9.8%)
21:00 Don't Blame the Council - 1.58m (8.0%)

It's only going to get worse over the next couple of months.
The Sunday night schedule of soaps and Heartbeat/The Royal was originally ripped up to give Dancing on Ice a new home, alongside Wild at Heart. With both programmes no longer on air, I'm sure many think that was a massive mistake - especially since ITV didn't have anything to replace DoI with on Saturdays.
I kind of agree that double Corrie and Emmerdale is a bit of a chore, but what other choice do ITV have at the moment? They can't get it right on the days they don't air, so how would they fill the gaps if they were moved about?
Relying on a handful of shows over the years has come back to bite ITV in the proverbial ar$e!

It's also about cost. I'd love nothing more than Emmerdale and Corrie to be stripped in the 7pm hour then the rest of primetime being opened up for a great variety of programming, but sadly they probably wouldn't get the return of it and we'd end up with shows like Neil has highlighted rather than a great mix of comedy, drama and entertainment. At the moment the way the soaps are scheduled mean they dominate 8 hours of primetime each week, compared to 5 or 6 if they were scaled back.

It's A Funny Old Week, really should be on at 8.30, with a proper drama or Documentary at 9pm, the double soaps are problems in the first place.

It's not so much a question of scaling them back because, as I said, there's only one more episode of both Corrie and Emmerdale now than there was in 2000 - an hour a week. Did it look like the soaps dominated the schedules to this extent in 2000? I would argue they didn't. OK, so some of that was because ITV invested more in all aspects of the schedules and they had new stuff after 10pm and on weekends before 7pm, but also it was because they were scheduled better and you didn't get traffic jams of soaps on one night.

The argument is not that if you moved (not even dropped any episode of) the soaps you'd automatically get more exciting programmes but it would give ITV a bit more flexibility to try new things. One of the big problems with ITV now is that, because pre-watershed is mostly stuffed with soaps and they don't invest after 10pm, every other programme more or less has to go at 9pm, regardless of its suitability. So you get things like It's A Funny Old Week which might thrive either as a family-friendly half hour at 8pm or at 10.35 when it'll have less competition, but instead it's shoved right in the middle of primetime and it dies on its arse.

Similarly on a Sunday, you get shows like Get Your Act Together getting no viewers because people simply aren't bothering to switch over to ITV on that night because there's no reason for them to do so, which you would have if Emmerdale and/or Corrie was on there. It wouldn't give you a captive audience but at least a few more people might know these things are on.

At the moment, the soaps aren't offering any kind of benefit for the rest of the schedule, because they all seem pretty much self-contained on Monday and Friday. Shift them about a bit (you don't have to drop any of them) and you get more flexibility, their audience is spread throughout the week and you get new opportunities. Indeed you could argue that the soaps themselves are losing viewers because BBC1 now has to put big shows opposite the soaps. Used to be BBC1 would make only token effort opposite Corrie but now they put shows like WILTY and Masterchef opposite them (because they're unavoidable) which are far more appealing.

I'm not sure any channel wants to 'free up the schedule', they want the schedule as full as possible with regular shows.

Hence why BBC1 who show less soaps than ITV, make it for it by filling the schedule with The One Show every day including hour long editions when required, Holby, Countryfile, Antiques Roadshow pretty much 52 weeks a year, Waterloo Road used to be 30 weeks a year, vast swathes of the year taken up by various Masterchef formats shown two or three times a week etc.

It's quite notable that the most freed up days are ITV on Tuesday's and BBC1 on Wednesdays and both those days tend to be when they perform the worst.

I would agree to move Friday's second Corrie to Sunday though. I wouldn't necessarily move Emmerdale with it as it became a bit of a chore when both were on on a Sunday, and I think it works well that they have one day a week where the dramatic stuff happens with a double episode.

I'm afraid I've never bought this argument because the difference with BBC1's staples is that they're all in different genres. No viewer watches them all but most viewers probably watch one of them. So the schedule is varied throughout the week and there's something for everyone - and it's not really that different to the past when you had dramas running thirteen or 26 episodes a year every year, plus Nationwide until seven o'clock every night (which given people now come home from work later and go to bed later, and there's more new stuff after 10.30, is more or less the same as The One Show going to 7.30).

ITV's staples are soaps. So if you don't like soaps, you don't watch. Again. the argument is not that there should be fewer soaps but they should be scheduled better. Surely with the double episode of Emmerdale it becomes an incredibly mechanical process, viewers know that Thursdays are the only episodes worth bothering with. It would be more interesting if there was a double episode only when the plot demanded it, it would stand out more and confirm to casual viewers it was worth looking in.

ITV need a pre-watershed non-soap drama for Sunday. Heartbeat & The Royal did that job and the recent success of Call the Midwife on BBC One indicates there is a big audience for that kind of show. Maybe time for a Heartbeat reboot.

Call T' Fire Brigade, set in the extremely flammable Yorkshire village of Humston in the 1960s. I'd watch it.

Just do a Grown up version of Postman pat then if thats the were going. Im sure there alot you could do there. post office robbies, lost sheep, etc