Very interesting. I wonder if Monday's show could be 2 hours in total - with the rest of the week one and a half hours? I really can't see ITV running a film premiere starting at 21:30.

The only other suggestion would be a 1 x 90 drama from 21:30 to 23:00. My next question therefore is: Do ITV have any 1 x 90 dramas on the shelf? That'd be an extremely stacked night:

19:00 - Emmerdale
19:30 - Britain's Got Talent
21:00 - Coronation Street
21:30 - Drama Premiere
23:00 - ITV News

How about a repeat of the Susan Boyle special at 9.30?

No she didn't, she didn't arrive as BBC1 Controller until 2000, all of those programmes came under Michael Jackson and Peter Salmon.

That won't happen because ITV would use up all their ads by 10pm. They wouldn't air an hour of drama with no adverts.


This is more likely.

I'd do

7pm - Emmerdale
7.30pm - BGT
9pm - Corrie
9.30pm - Celebrity Juice (does well on ITV2, see how it does on ITV1)

A repeat would be quite frankly a waste of the slot, really where a one off drama could go. (providing there are 1 x 90 dramas on the shelf)

They've got U Be Dead and Albert's Memorial on the shelf, but I'm not sure either will fit in with the feel of the night. Dubsj says it'll be a film premiere, but I can't think of any films ITV have to premiere.

They can't launch any new series that week though as the World Cup will shunt them all over the schedules in the following few weeks, which is no way to find a loyal audience. What they seem to be trying to do is get Coronation Street back on track by giving it maximum exposure during a big storyline and to set it up for the Summer, which seems a decent enough idea as it hasn't been in great shape lately.

There's no way this is making space for Drama premieres or anything like that. This is ITV's big week. They're interested in nothing more than making as much money out of BGT as physically possible.

Pretty sure it'll just be 2 hours of BGT, split around Corrie at 9pm. 2.5hrs a night of 10m plus - and ITV are rolling in the ad money. BGT's raw numbers for the performance show might take a knock, but it works better for them financially.

EastEnders is going to get battered for BBC One, but they'll just ignore it and plough on. Plenty of worthy stuff like 'Child of Our Time' can be sacrificed and at least they can claim to be providing an alternative.

Susan Boyle doc is being repeated on the Saturday (29th May) off the back of the last 90' audition show (2000-2130)

The Bourne Ultimatum must be due soon. (#151 in IMDB's top 250 movies of all-time)

Hmm, seems a bit of a waste, as I thought they'd put that This Morning vs Radio One episode of Celebrity Juice there but I guess they are against Eurovision so it wouldn't be the best time to show it.

Any idea what the film premiere on the Monday could be Dubsj?


Oh yeah, I forgot about that, which is surprising considering what a brilliant film it is. I think that would do well in that slot.

Great a weeks worth of corrie and BGT to look forward to.

Hopefully the BBC will just keep the shows in their normal slots(which i think they will) and of EastEnders gets a poor rating then so be it but it will recover.
will corrie after being moved around all the time?

From what i can see there's no need to move shows around like they do on ITV

Have corrie Run Mon,Wed,Fri at 7:30pm, and a double bill Sunday (7:00-8:00pm) just to make up missed slots
and have BGT run from 8;00pm

Fair enough, regarding the World Cup. But they could've stripped a new show in the sandwich across or something. I wouldn't expect ITV to do, but I'm just suggesting an alternative.

Corrie is on track ratings-wise at least, with this year's ratings up from last year. I'm not sure what the big storyline is, but even if it gets big ratings throughout the week, I'd expect figures to fall back to normal within the following couple of weeks, especially since it'll be facing the World Cup.


Nothing wrong with 2hrs of BGT and 0.5 of Corrie, but I personally think the following would be better suited to maximise ratings/ad revenue: 19:30- Corrie, 20:00- [filler], 20:30-22:30: BGT. At least that way BGT fulfils its full potential. Corrie would rate no better than usual, but with the other schedule BGT loses viewers. So they might as well just go with last year's sort of schedule IMO as BGT week only happens once a year so they might as well maxmise BGT's figures.

ITV have an audience at 7.30pm and people won't switch off BGT midway through to watch EE - but might skip the first half hour if BGT began at 8pm.

Wait and see is best I think - I highly doubt they'll split the show as it's stripping an internal ad break out of their most profitable show - a break between Corrie and BGT would be worth considerably less than a break completely within BGT.


Now, personally I'd end all soaps next week and give BGT the 7-9pm slot for the week, and then rest the soaps until after the World Cup - but heck, ITV haven't got the balls to do that and the viewers of Britain are too stupid to realise it would actually be a good thing for "their" soaps to take such a break every once in a while.

Will be interesting to see what happens at 2100 on the Tuesday to Friday as More Talent on itv2 will do quite well - possibly harming the Corrie numbers...

At the end of the day there is nothing the BBC can do other than avoid starting expensive new drama in that week. Then its a case of que sera sera.

You mean like The Prisoner? They took a risk, it failed, and some have been crowing on about it for weeks

With the World Cup coming up and ITV's tight finances I doubt they have many new shows coming up to launch, so you can't blame them taking the safe easy option.

I agree. How many 'shows' do ITV have to launch?

They're in the business of making money not taking expensive risks that may not even pay off.

The Prisoner was a failure before it even made it to air. Hell, when it was commissioned even. Sky1 passed on it for a reason.

Maybe you should make that suggestion in the soaps forum?

As the BBC have nothing to lose, maybe they should go first with EastEnders and Holby?

With it being a Bank Holiday, EastEnders could do 7.30pm on the Monday, if there's no Coronation St in the slot.

I would say their proposed schedule is also a risk, in that BGT could be quite a bit lower than what would be expected at the usual 8.30/9pm time and Corrie might not be boosted by much.


The BBC will leave EE as it is. They hardly ever mess around with its scheduling and I think in the long-term it pays off.

That would be a good slot but i really don't see the BBC moving EastEnders around.

What week is this happening anyway?

I think we could see record highs for EastEnders on BBC3
so really the BBC are not loosing out

That doesn't surprise me as BGT is up against Eurovision.

Any idea what the film is at 2130 on 31st May?