I don't understand why what order they go in actually matters, no matter what both will probably get under 5m against either Doc Martin or I'm a Celebrity...

I can't see it moving from the Monday slot.

Perhaps Tonight is moving to an hourly format some time in the week?

I wonder if 2010 will bring about more primetime schedule changes on ITV1. What's all this about a Friday DOI?

I think Score's idea of Tuesday 8-9pm sounds good. The article makes it sound as if it'll be a 1 hour episode per week in a new slot.

If it remains as two 30 min episodes, I'd keep the Monday episode but move the Friday one to Tuesday 7.30pm where they're having a lot of problems at the moment.

Broadcast seems to say that the episodes will remain at 30 minutes in length.


ITV are cutting the number they're making i.e. from next year it will only be going out once a week rather than twice. So I can't really see it moving from its current Monday slot.

I think the BBC agree with you that Dannii's life story will do well hence why they've moved the schedue forward so that X Factor viewers don't automatically stay with Piers andnow come across for the news rather than half way through Casualty as was originally planned.


So it will finish on the 23rd December, probably one of the reasons it is on Wednesday rather than Thursday which would have seen it finish on XMas eve. Wednesday nights have suddenly gone from having nothing on worth watching to having Spooks and Andrew Marr's making of modern Britain both on. Also interesting is that it looks like the Restaurant is only going to be on for 6 episodes this year once a week rather than 15 episodes with 2 episodes a week.


Also its nice to see SKY1 investing peoples subscriptions in quality programming http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a1829...d-britain.html

Every digital channel seems to air this exact same programme in some format at some point in their lifetime.

Stuart Murphy is a bit annoying. He seems to thrive on commissioning crap and scheduling it in the most stupid and confusing way possible.

He was everything that was wrong with BBC3 and I have no idea why Sky1 ever gave him a job.


I mean, what kind of wacko scheduling is that? Why even commission a 3 episode documentary series on this? It's just bizarre.

The only time I've watched SKY1 this year is for Martina Cole's The Take, and I saw Skellig the other week on SKY3. My Dad subscribes to SKY for the Sport but there are no programmes that SKY have that I see as being worth the subscription fee and find Freeview (or more precisely 1-5 + BBC4 and ITV2) are enough.

Some ofStuart Murphys commissioning is appalling, Just Dance is going to get squashed by SYTYCD and apart from popular American programming which any other station would buy if SKY wasn't around, the channel adds no value to British Television.

Some of the Sky1 commissioning are really odd, first the Michael Jackson Seance and now this documentary on Naked people which has been done numerous times. Thank goodness that they have the US shows and a very good upcoming slate of homegrown drama.

Wednesdays are going to become good again with Spooks on BBC One, Andrew Marr on BBC Two and I think Paul Merton in Europe on Five will air in November on Wednesdays as well.

Scrap that, they've scheduled something called The Impression Show with Culshaw and Stephenson from 21:45 to 22:15. Also worth noting that Thursday 5th November @ 21:00 on BBC One sees the New Tricks 'repeat' series continuing. Not sure if they are going to have New Tricks repeat's on Thursdays all the way until Xmas.

Ant and Dec's new show to be aired in Q1 next year:

Ant and Dec's “Push the Button” [Working Title]

There are 6 x 75 minute episodes.

Also The Bill has at least 34 episodes next year, which should take them up to about August/September. Difficult to see ITV ordering more episodes if ratings stay at the current level.

Sounds good to me. Sounds like they took their time to make sure they had a really good format.

Most of his commissions seem a bit ITV Lite. Something you'd expect them to order on the cheap for a Tuesday night. Add to that the ridiculous daytime commission 'Angela and Friends' - surely he doesn't expect that to do well?

He should be playing to Sky 1's strengths and not turning it into something it's not.

18:05 Merlin
18:50 Strictly Come Dancing
20:45 Lottery
20:55 Casualty

The retreat has begun, as Brucie waves the white flag and reverses his tank off the lawn.

XF will be starting just as the SCD filler begins, but it gives them a longer period of time in which to reach it's peak. I take it we won't be seeing Who Dares Wins this side of Christmas ?

Interesting about the new Ant & Dec show. Presumably this is the Sunday show they were reportedly working on ? It says it will go out Q1, but I can't see it starting until after DoI.

ITV do seem to be going heavy on light entertainment for 2010. Both Mr & Mrs and Take Me Out start recording in November (Take Me Out in Manchester).

If there is to be a DoI Friday show, it seems unlikely that they will move the show to a Saturday / Sunday results split.

Although as it contains no ads itself, it doesn't really bring in it's own ad revenue.


ITV might be better off putting it at 7.30pm straight after Emmerdale, grabbing the audience who don't watch EastEnders and hopefully keeping them against the first half of Holby.


Tuesday at 7.30pm could be a possibility, but keeping it Monday at 8pm makes sense.


Not particularly original, but sounded OK - up until that last bit. So basically it's going to be Takeaway, but with the ad stuff scrapped and replaced with this new game instead.


Or ITV could also choose to take it off air and bring in back in blocks of episodes. I could see it going off air in May in time for Britain's Got Talent and the World Cup, with the remaining three months or so worth of episodes held back until the autumn.

Personally I'd have moved it to Friday by now, but looks like Paul O'Grady is set for that slot.

No, it hasn't. That's only 10 minutes earlier than this Saturday and allows them to fit in The Impression Show before MOTD which, as has been pointed out time and time time again(), has to start no later than 10.30. (And they have to put comedy out on a Saturday night cos they've go nowhere else to bloody well put it)

ITV has always been heavy on the light entertainment. They used to have quite a lot on Sunday night before they went drama crazy with the soaps and Heartbeat (Catchphrase, Child's Play, Surprise Surprise, Live From Her Majesty's) so the current line-up of Family Fortunes and X Factor harks back to a bygone era. (X Factor probably making the same sort of impact now as Sunday Night At The London Palladium made in the 50s and 60s - although X Factor's ratings are shit in comparison.) As for Saturday nights... For as long as there has been television, owning a brain on a Saturday whilst watching ITV, or even BBC1, has been positively dangerous.

Ant & Dec's new show will probably go out on Saturdays replacing Pop Star To Opera Star from Mid-February - like last year when Takeaway replaced Demons and was then replaced by Primeval. That's why they need so much light entertainment - now they've given up on pre-watershed drama (or they had done until the Primeval producers made them an offer they couldn't refuse) Saturday nights will be nothing but light entertainment.


Normally when NT repeats replace a new series they only run for 3 or 4 weeks and then get replaced with something new. Clearly BBC1 have deicded that as the repeats are easily beating The Bill they might as well show the whole of last year's series in one go (very nearly. There was a 2 week break for Secret Life Of Twins and Criminal Justice). the repeats would finish on Nov 12th. They will probably be replaced by Paradox which is only 5 parts. That would finish on 17th December, just in time for Christmas.

Right-and who was it who presented Sunday Night at the London Palladium? Yes it was good old Brucie. A different world entirely and old BF was making even bigger waves than now. Astonishing really.

Well, that's OK, because the ad stuff's always been the worst part of Takeaway, the game is really boring, the contestants can fluke their way to winning and we don't know or care who they are anyway. The rest of Takeaway's still alright.

Possibly needs to be post-watershed, but seems stupid not to schedule it immediately after Strictly to give it a fighting chance.

Given that ITV put Robbie Williams smack bang into the middle of X Factor, it does seem strange that the BBC chose to put the guys first comeback concert in an almost death slot on BBC2 at 11.20. I still maintain the BBC are latterly naive when it comes to entertainment-or at least promoting something that has flavour of the month appeal.

Surprised at Around the World's ratings - whilst ep 1 wasn't exactly riveting (despite having Skinner and Mack on it), I thought last night's was entertaining - Hewer and Khan made a good pairing and it had a Palinesque feel to it with the travelling hiccups (and a bit of cheating which pretty damned near fatally holed the whole enterprise). The 4.2m last week was a bit disappointing but 3.6m is poor - and it's not as if it was heavily beaten by anything else.


Not quite as well as the recent BBC1 show it blatantly ripped off did though...


Well, the Tuesday 9pm outcome won't officially be known until two weeks today when the figures are released by BARB - with a margin of 0.12m in the overnights, I wouldn't bet against ATW winning the slot.


Did TXF get a noticeable ratings boost last year from the Festival of Remembrance? Can BGT-TXF really win any new viewers now, surely anyone who has held out by now will continue to do so? And its ratings declined week on week for both shows anyway.

BBC1 might hold up better against TXF with FoR than Casualty, in the same way that Antiques Roadshow or Countryfile get bigger numbers on Sunday despite TXF's larger audience.


Wouldn't bank on it. I don't expect it still to be on air next September.


10 minutes sooner...

Finally, a quiz question - which one of these 3 shows is the odd one out, and why:

1 - Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
2 - Piers Morgan's Life Stories
3 - The Graham Norton Show

He did look like he was on something didn't he...?

duplicate post

Even to an untrained eye like mine.