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Old 09-04-2004, 14:22
Coronation St
 
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EVER since Crossroads was axed last year, ITV has promised a replacement and to learn from past mistakes. The as yet unnamed soap, will broadcast in a new-look ITV evening schedule, reports the Sun.
“One of the problems we had with NightandDay and Crossroads was the timeslot,” says a spokesperson. “We are keen to learn from past mistakes, and make the new soap a fixed part of the schedule.”

ITV’s new look evening schedule involves rearranging soaps and drama’s to new fixed times.

“The ITV Regional and National News will broadcast from 5:30PM-6:30PM daily. The new soap will air from 6:30-7PM on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday,” continues the spokesperson.

”Coronation Street, Emmerdale, and The Bill also have slightly changed slots.

Emmerdale, currently showing six times a week, will be broadcast at a reduced four, but will include one 60 minute episode a week. Emmerdale will be shown on Sunday from 7-7:30PM, Monday from 7-7:30PM, and Friday from 7-7:30PM. On Wednesday, there will be an hour-long episode from 6:30-7:30PM.

Coronation Street will show one less episode, losing the extra one on a Monday. All the other times and days will stay the same. The Monday episode at 8:30PM will be used only in sensational episodes that require this.

The Bill will broadcast on Tuesday and Wednesday from 8-9PM.”

With this new schedule under way, Monday nights will now look like this:

5:30 Regional News 6:00 National News 6:30 New Soap 7:00 Emmerdale 7:30 Coronation Street

The changes are expected to take place on the launch of the new ITV soap.
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Old 09-04-2004, 16:43
Drifter
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What the hell?? Is this really true?

Not sure I like the sound of it, apart from Emmerdale's 6 episodes being reduced, but the hour one sounds dodgy. Why not just put it back to 5 a week if they're going to do that?
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Old 09-04-2004, 16:56
M/\TT
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I'd would be interested in seeing this new soap if it didn't clash with Hollyoaks which i've watched for a few years now.

Shame.
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Old 09-04-2004, 17:50
Adam14
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That is so unfair!

So they are doing all this for this so-called "new" soap that will probably be nothing new at all, but never bothered doing it for Crossroads and Night & Day.

I would have loved to have seen Crossroads in a 6.30 slot. It would have been great, and I'm sure the viewing figures would have been a lot better especially for Mark 3. It's funny how ITV are admitting these mistakes now, even though they never gave these 2 soaps a chance.

The fact is, I don't think they even wanted to.

Instead of launching yet another new soap, I personally think they should just bring back Crossroads. Either that or launch a new soap that actually is NEW!

Not an Emmerdale rip-off set in a nearby police station, that was rumoured. Doesn't that sound exciting? lol. Not! Or one like Corrie or EastEnders. Something actually new and original. Again, like Crossroads.

Something with a bit of glamour to it, I say!
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Old 09-04-2004, 18:09
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Originally Posted by Adam14
That is so unfair!

So they are doing all this for this so-called "new" soap that will probably be nothing new at all, but never bothered doing it for Crossroads and Night & Day.

I would have loved to have seen Crossroads in a 6.30 slot. It would have been great, and I'm sure the viewing figures would have been a lot better especially for Mark 3. It's funny how ITV are admitting these mistakes now, even though they never gave these 2 soaps a chance.

The fact is, I don't think they even wanted to.

Instead of launching yet another new soap, I personally think they should just bring back Crossroads. Either that or launch a new soap that actually is NEW!

Not an Emmerdale rip-off set in a nearby police station, that was rumoured. Doesn't that sound exciting? lol. Not! Or one like Corrie or EastEnders. Something actually new and original. Again, like Crossroads.

Something with a bit of glamour to it, I say!
Im not sure if its true, its all pure speculation at the moment.

But I do think a new soap would stand a better chance at 6.30pm as there is a higher audience at this time than for example 5pm or 5.30pm. And there is competition from The Weakest Link and Richard and Judy if it went out at 5pm. Then again there is big competition from Hollyoaks at 6.30pm too

Im not sure if this will be a spin off from Emmerdale or whether it will be a brand new soap.

And yes I agree about Crossroads, it would have been great if they had shown it at 6.30pm and picked up a bigger audience but I wasn’t too keen on Mk 3, I preferred Mk 2!
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Old 09-04-2004, 18:27
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Hmmm I thought it would be a matter of time before they stopped the Corrie 8:30pm episode. Eventually they're going to run out of steam storywise for a while so they won't need the 8:30 slot. Sounds interesting though.
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Old 09-04-2004, 21:16
Adam14
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I loved both Mark 2 and 3!

If ITV make a new soap, what should it be like?

I still like the idea of a soap set in a hotel. I often wonder if the so called "failure" of Crossroads was just because it was called Crossroads. If it had been called something else then it maybe would have had an easier time.

I also think one perhaps set in a law firm or something would be good like LA Law.

Or better still one revolving around a big family that have a big business and them all living under one roof. Sound familair? lol.

But it would still be good!
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Old 09-04-2004, 21:27
philengland
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Originally Posted by Coronation St
“The ITV Regional and National News will broadcast from 5:30PM-6:30PM ”.
or in UTV's case news startting at 5pm - as their UTV Live news programme is on for 1hr
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Old 09-04-2004, 21:36
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Yea i agree about Crossroads! Instead of just axeing it they should have moved that to the 6:30 slot and if it didn't pick up viewers from this slot, Then axe it! Same with NightAnDay, if they wanted just One episode a week, they should have shown it at 10pm as a late night soap.
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Old 09-04-2004, 22:16
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But if they want the news on at 5.30 to 6.30 then ITV will have to change something in their licensing agreement, which states that they must show so many hours of news in primetime per week. Also a new soap would clash with Hollyoaks and Family Affairs at 6.30. The new soap would have to work too hard to achieve this.

I'd rather have either a new five days a week soap, on in the daytime, that was a spin off of Emmerdale or Coronation Street, as long as it wasn't a vet's practice, doctors practice (we've already got Doctors, BBC1 2.05pm daily) or a hospital (Holby, Casualty, ER, No Angels, etc. all cover that enough in primetime).

I like the idea of a law firm though.

But another idea is to have a new soap on twice a week, at maybe 10pm or 11pm. It could be a lot more saucy than the other soaps, and would have a lead in audience from News @ 10.30 or shows likes Footballer's Wives, Bad Girls, Murder City etc. A soap at 6.30 would also be a soap overkill.

And an hour of Emmerdale on a Wednesday sounds stupid. Three or four half hour episodes of that would be enough, rather than drawing out plots any further. It would also give the actors more time to rehearse, meaning better acting = better storylines = better ratings = more money for ITV from advertising.

Less (episodes) is more (ratings)!
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Old 10-04-2004, 01:46
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Emmerdale should be cut back to three 30-minute episodes a week. It's never been a great soap but occasionally was worth watching - these days it's just pretty awful.

And yes, it is true that there are already 2 soaps in the 6.30pm slot. I can't see another soap doing well at that time. I guess ITV has still not worked out to do with its early evenings since losing Home and Away (quite a long time ago now).

I agree Crossroads should have been given more of a chance - so should Night and Day!
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Old 10-04-2004, 11:21
garymonc
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Originally Posted by youngpassion
But if they want the news on at 5.30 to 6.30 then ITV will have to change something in their licensing agreement, which states that they must show so many hours of news in primetime per week. Also a new soap would clash with Hollyoaks and Family Affairs at 6.30. The new soap would have to work too hard to achieve this.

I'd rather have either a new five days a week soap, on in the daytime, that was a spin off of Emmerdale or Coronation Street, as long as it wasn't a vet's practice, doctors practice (we've already got Doctors, BBC1 2.05pm daily) or a hospital (Holby, Casualty, ER, No Angels, etc. all cover that enough in primetime).

I like the idea of a law firm though.

But another idea is to have a new soap on twice a week, at maybe 10pm or 11pm. It could be a lot more saucy than the other soaps, and would have a lead in audience from News @ 10.30 or shows likes Footballer's Wives, Bad Girls, Murder City etc. A soap at 6.30 would also be a soap overkill.

And an hour of Emmerdale on a Wednesday sounds stupid. Three or four half hour episodes of that would be enough, rather than drawing out plots any further. It would also give the actors more time to rehearse, meaning better acting = better storylines = better ratings = more money for ITV from advertising.

Less (episodes) is more (ratings)!
WTF.....not another soap

I dont think itv1 are scared of FAMILY AFFAIRS it only gets 1.1 million viewers, and HOLLYOAKS only gets 1.9 million.

The news @ 6.30pm allready gets 4 million viewers, so a new soap would probally get more viewers, maybe even 6 million.
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Old 10-04-2004, 11:52
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Originally Posted by Adam14
I loved both Mark 2 and 3!

If ITV make a new soap, what should it be like?

I still like the idea of a soap set in a hotel. I often wonder if the so called "failure" of Crossroads was just because it was called Crossroads. If it had been called something else then it maybe would have had an easier time.

I also think one perhaps set in a law firm or something would be good like LA Law.

Or better still one revolving around a big family that have a big business and them all living under one roof. Sound familair? lol.

But it would still be good!
Yes, I like the idea of a soap being set in a hotel, which was why I liked Crossroads as it was a different setting to so many other soaps and dramas.

I think it would have been better if they had named it something other than Crossroads
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Old 10-04-2004, 15:00
allanc
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Oh great, as if there aren't already TWO great soaps on at that time, that ITV know they will crush. DAMN YOU!!!!!!!!!
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Old 10-04-2004, 23:56
RandomUser101
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Originally Posted by youngpassion
But another idea is to have a new soap on twice a week, at maybe 10pm or 11pm. It could be a lot more saucy than the other soaps, and would have a lead in audience from News @ 10.30 or shows likes Footballer's Wives, Bad Girls, Murder City etc. A soap at 6.30 would also be a soap overkill.
I totally agree. A more saucy soap maybe even at 9 / 9.30 would be good as ITV know they can get the viewers for things like that e.g. Footballers' Wives, Between the Sheets both pulled in quite a few viewers. And obviously with a soap being on all the time, providing the storylines are reasonable I think they would get much better ratings with that than a toned-down soap at 6.30 especially with so much competition from other channels at this time. At 9 the programmes on other channels begin to decline whereas at 6.30 the programmes aren't bad.
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Old 11-04-2004, 11:46
garymonc
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Dont be stupid, the 9pm time-slot is for drama series.

a soap needs a fixed time slot preferabally early evening, so 6.30pm sounds about right!
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Old 11-04-2004, 15:02
msim
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If this is true, then im really just disgusted with ITV. They had TWO new soaps in 2001, and within six months Night and Day was dumped to midnight hours, and Crossroads was destroyed into a farce (mk3). If ITV now suddenly realise they want a soap at 6.30, why the hell did they axe both of these soaps? Surely it would be better to move an existing soap to a better slot, rather than run the risj of launching yet another one! If ITV does launch this new soap, I'll give it six months. In the past soaps have always started off with poor viewing figures that gradually build up, but in todays multi-channel world, if a programme isnt a immediate success, its axed. Just consider the number of dramas ITV1 dumped to the sunday graveyard last year (family, single, fortysomething etc). Peak time is important to ITV, and i dont think theyll risk moving the news again!
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Old 11-04-2004, 15:17
Neily N
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Why not revive Crossroads, from where it left off? It'd be interesting, and I'm sure with that new time slot it would work.

Such a shame it was axed, because it would have had potential, plus its was the only UK one worth watching.
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Old 11-04-2004, 15:30
Drifter
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The thing is, when Home & Away was in the 5pm (or 5.10) slot for ITV, it was a success for years. Crossroads suffered more because of the name, and Night & Day was probably too confusing to a lot of people because it wasn't the easiest of things to get into, so very few gave it a chance. So it's not as if the 5pm slot is a BAD one for soaps as that's been proved well enough in the past. Of course, because of the failure of the last two they'll never try it again in the near future because they probably think it was the timeslot that was the problem . Neighbours does fine (if not quite as well as it once did, but still okay) at 5.30, and like I said, Home & Away did very well at 5.10. For YEARS. Sure, they won't get Corrie/Emmerdale/Eastenders ratings, but decent enough.

Frankly one at 6.30 (and changing a lot of the rest of the schedule because of it), is absurd and complete overkill. ITV does NOT need another soap at primetime - even if it works, that's still too much soap. And in fairness, much as I hate Hollyoaks and have never watched Family Affairs, I wouldn't like to see them killed off by ITV. The latter especially is meant to be quite good at the moment and I'm intrigued to start watching - the way fans go on reminds me of Emmerdale fans ( like me) who go on about certain actors and stories being underrated at award shows.

An hour of Emmerdale is stupid as well, especially starting it at 6.30 one night, even though they've reduced one episode so it's collectively 5 a week - if this is all true of course.

I agree that a latenight soap would be good. 10pm two or three times a week to start with. Perhaps set on a rough council estate or something like Shameless, only more soap-like and not so much a comedy. That or try the 5pm slot once again. But the fact is, Emmerdale and Corrie (coupled with EE on BBC1) are all we need for primetime, they should concentrate on those two rather than putting a new one in the same time period...
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Old 11-04-2004, 20:39
RandomUser101
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Originally Posted by garymonc
Dont be stupid, the 9pm time-slot is for drama series.
Don't you dare call me stupid. Putting the soap there 2 or 3 nights a week could improve ratings at the time, still leaving room for drama series. I was making the point that the drama series got good ratings and if a soap were fixed there it could achieve that too. No need to put it every night of the week.
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Old 11-04-2004, 22:39
Chris E
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I really doubt this is true. Although ITV are looking at a new soap, its likely to be an afternoon soap, and likely to be a spin-off from Emmerdale or Corrie.

The article quoted just doesn't sound right for publication either.
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Old 11-04-2004, 22:52
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If ITV1 puts it at 6:30pm and its a ratings hit - I think FIVE would need to put Family Affairs at 5:00pm and perhaps Channel 4 could put Hollyoaks at 9pm or 9:30pm and see how it works there?
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Old 11-04-2004, 23:25
Matthew W
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To be honest I doubt its true.

Surley ITV wouldn't be to stupid it rearrange all of its evening timeslots just for one half-hour soap, which could be a flop.

Corrie is running great in its 2-monday night episode. the ratings have always been strong for both episodes.

Emmerdale is easy at the moment for viewers, 7pm every night apart from saturday, starting it one night from 6:30 is just ridiculous. The soap does need episode losses, but I don't agree a one hour episode to replace the current format is really necersary..it hasnt even been on that long on the 7-7:30pm sunday slot...

I mean...why would they add an extra episode then take it away..its seems rather stupid way of doing things.

Also why move the Bill from wed/thu to tue/wed? whats the point in that?.

The whole thing is just too messy, its very complicated...theres too many shows changing times, and that isn't going to be popular with the viewers.

I can't help but think this is untrue.

A new soap should not effect the entire the episode...A new soap isnt needed for ITV1...if they want to add a new soap...they should place it on ITV1 for a few weeks, then if popular perhaps move it to ITV2...to gain some ratings.
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Old 11-04-2004, 23:27
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I think ITV would be better off putting the soap idea on hold for a while. Let's face it, they looked pretty stupid after the huge launch of Crossroads mk 2 and Night and Day flopped, then even more stupid on the launch of Crossroads mk 3, another flop for the Titanic of soaps.

To schedule yet another soap in that kind of slot could be potential suicide. Yeah, there's lots of great ideas they could have, but how long before it's competing with similar storylines to Corrie, Eastenders, or maybe to a lesser extent Hollyoaks and Family Affairs.

It's turning into continous nights of very closely related drival, how many more affairs before viewers get bored? Some better quality drama's or comedies could do a lot better. Imagine this? coming in from a hard day at work and watching something funny! Who would have thought it?

I'm not saying never launch another soap, but give it a few years to die down over the recent fiasco's. In just a couple of years we've had the great soap cull. Brookie, Crossroads, Night & Day, with axes looming dangerously of Family Affairs.

And if you need proof about soap overkill? Take a glance at Emmerdale going six nights a week. A couple of really good storylines to draw us in, then one or two storylines drawn out painfully as writers don't know what to do!

Matt
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Old 12-04-2004, 00:18
Hayden
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I hate confusing threads like this, which are more than likely idle speculation and will probably never happen.
Is ITV really going to drop episodes of Emmerdale and Corrie when they both pull in massive viewing figures.
I think not.
They won't move The Bill to Tuesday's because it will clash with Champions League coverage.
Not very well thought out idle speculation either.
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