so i was right that Christine would be off to ITV.
As soon as the 1st statement was released i knew she was.

Yeah, but at the same time what a waste. Investing all that money in two big names and only benefiting on one night of the week.

Getting Friday nights sorted won't help ITV on Tuesday or Thursday nights.

I cant believe how much discussion is being made over Christine Bleakley and ITV's Breakfast show. Christine is a decent enough presenter but shes definately not irreplacable and not worth the huge amount of money she is going to be paid.

Whatever people say about total reach, a breakast show where you have to be up at 5am each morning is a step down from a 7pm show each night.

They are a couple of big names for a Breakfast show, clearly ITV have a lot of ambition for the project. And just like the deal with Adrian who has the football to fall back on, the deal includes prime time entertainment shows.

The BBC can have nobody to blame but themselves though with this situation.

They tinkered with a succesful formula by bringing in Chris Evans, that's when it all unravelled. WIthout that, I doubt Adrian would be presenting now for ITV in South Africa, and Christine wouldn't have had this dilemma to follow him.

What NEW ZEALAND Watched

Friday 18th June

TVONE
0700 Breakfast 195,550
1200 ONE News 145,060
1230 Emmerdale 139,510
1400 Dickinsons Real Deal 99,550
1600 Te Karere 77,060
1800 ONE News 652,990
1900 Close Up 437,220
1930 Coronation Street 427,600
2030 Dancing on Ice 287,970

TV2
1700 The Nanny 89,670
1830 My Wife & Kids 140,460
1900 Shortland Street 513,400
1930 Two & A Half Men 385,860
2000 Gary Unmarried 312,690
2030 What a Girl Wants 391,010
2235 Chuck 188,620

TV3
1610 Sticky TV 102,050
1630 Entertainment Tonight 104,090
1730 Home & Away 303,600
1800 3 News 363,870
1930 Americas Next Top Model 259,820
2030 Glee 310,150
2130 Radiradirah 223,610

C4

1900 Family Guy 63,600
1930 Ninja Warrior 61,220
2000 Pimp My Ride 57,900
2030 24 54,370
2130 Americas Want Wanted 61,520

PRIME
1700 Deal or No Deal 142,250
1730 Prime NEWS 188,220
1930 WW2 in Colour 123,960
2035 Father Ted 139,880
2110 Black Books 99,460

Maori
2200 Hakinakina 82,630

SKYSPORT1
1830 Rugby 164,240


SKY Network: 26.6%
TV ONE: 25.9%
TV2: 17.5%
TV3: 14.6%
PRIME: 5.8%
Other TV Channels: 3.9%
C4: 2.8%
Maori TV: 2.7%

The thing is its Breakfast TV, its never going to get above a certain level. Even if they get near to BBC Breakfast or even overtake it I dont see how that is going to improve ITV's fortunes in any great way.

I keep hearing about these primetime shows, Ill wait to see what she gets lumbered with first.

You're right, it won't - but:

"Christine will also become a familiar face to ITV peak-time audiences. We can't wait to get started."

You'd assume all the names above will do other stuff with ITV.

And theoretically, audiences increase on Friday's, ad revenue increases, bigger money = better programmes.


Interesting - don't they get EastEnders?

I have to agree that it's all Chris Evan's fault!
Not that i dislike him at all!

Thanks Gary.

Dancing on Ice doesn't seem to be doing too well over there.

With Paul O'Grady's health problems, I don't think he'd want to do 4-5 nights per week anyway.

The £2m reported deal for Jonathan Ross could include production costs. If that's the case, then it wouldn't be an expensive show - cheaper than most 9pm entertainment shows these days.


I know, but it's a step forward in the right direction. What's the alternative? Try and persuade Jonathan Ross to do a weeknight show at 10:35pm? I doubt he'd want to do that.

What NEW ZEALAND watched

Saturday June 19

TVONE

1550 ANZ Netball 119,110
1730 World Cup Highlights 249,410
1800 One News 650,220
1900 National Bank Country Calendar 631,860
1930 The F W orld 212,400

TV2
0920 Cool Kids Cooking 146,760
1200 Shock Treatment 111,180
1600 Jones 107,070
1635 Americas Funniest HV 160,310
1707 The Bill Engvall Show 182,660
1735 According to Jim 222,660
1800 Fresh Prince 177,490
1930 Toy Story 359,090


TV3
1700 Ooutsoors 217,060
1730 Fishing Show 303,890
1800 3 NEWS 354,810
1900 The Simpsons 179,430
1930 Grand Dsigns 267,540
2030 Independence Day 197,730

C4
1800 NZ Top 40 33,310
1900 Simple Life 31,760

PRIME
1600 Bondi Rescue 66,530
1730 Prime News 118,850
1930 Perfect Disaster 78,460
2035 Rugby Pre Game 228,950
2100 Rugby 347,970
2250 Rugby Post Game 255,130


SKYSPORT1
1830 Rugby Pre 93,020
1935 Rugby 442,950
2115 Rugby Post 250,520
2155 Rugby Pre 116,220
2205 Rugby 93,970

SKYSPORT 2

0630 World Cup Live 72,850
0820 WorldCup Post 87,860
0835 World of Athletics 29,960
2130 NRL 38,320
2330 World Cup Live 3,260

SKY Network: 34.7%
TV ONE: 19.5%
TV2: 18%
TV3: 12.8%
PRIME: 8.4%
Other TV Channels: 3.6%
C4: 1.9%
Maori TV: 0.6%

An official BBC story about Bleakley leaving is up.

Christine Bleakley to leave BBC for ITV

you seem to be under the illusion that the BBC were in desperate way to keep him and are now in crisis. Its blatantly obvious they wanted rid of him, he had threatened for months he would move if Chris Evans got friday, did they care? No! and has the ratings have shown neither have the viewers.

Breakfast Television is virtually identical throughout the world, in America you have Today, The Early Show and Good Morning America and in Australia you have Sunrise and Today. When I was in Sydney a few weeks ago, I watched both and I preferred Sunrise to Today due to the presenters who could present serious topics like the Cumbria shooting but also have fun.

Either no, or the ratings are so low it doesn't make the Channels most watched evening or Daytime charts

Corrie seems to be consistently top 10. Neighbours struggling between 90,000-125,000

Yeah, if the £2m a year includes production costs (probably will as his BBC deal does) then at 16 episodes a year (sounds likely) it'll work out at £125,000 an episode which is very cheap. So 32 weeks a year at £125,000 an episode seems pretty good. Life Stories probably costs even less than that, as Piers gets £40,000 per episode, the guest probably gets £20,000 or so, so I doubt it even breaks £100,000 per episode. So Fridays are covered very cheaply, and if they used the plan you've suggested above then Benidorm will have to move to a new day as there is no room for it on Fridays with stripped stuff like I'm A Celebrity and BGT.

So if 71 Degrees North takes off in the Summer they'll have that, The Biggest Loser and Benidorm on another night, so that's 22 weeks covered. A weekly version of Hell's Kitchen makes sense but I don't know if they'd want that. Then they'd have 30 weeks covered, so with 4 weeks of IAC/BGT, 2 weeks for Christmas/New Year and that awkward 2 weeks between IAC and Christmas where they can't launch anything, they'll only have 14 weeks left. Comedy Rocks may well take up some of them, so they'd only need one more show (maybe none if that Davina thing does decently) and another night will be covered. So progress is being made.

Alright calm down. It is my belief that the BBC would rather have both Adrian & Christine on board than not. When the Chris Evans thing was first rumoured, they were offering Adrian lots to keep him sweet. He was highly regarded at the BBC.

They now have to rebuild a succesful formula around 3 new presenters. In my view, the BBC should have waited to get Christine's contract sorted out before hiring Jason Manford, as he was appointed clearly with working alongside her in mind.

Update: EastEnders was on PRIME which is the NZ version of FIVE during 2008. It not listed anymore

It was blatantly obvious from the tone of his media dealingsthat the one show was his priority and that he would leave the BBC if Evans got Friday and that any sweetners wouldn't change that.

Their not stupid they knew damn well what they were doing, when they released the press release about Evans while Chiles was on holiday

You can watch Today online in the UK for free via the Nine website. I was amazed it had no location blocking!

Nope, keep trying. I don't accept that the BBC cleverly engineered this turn of events. Why would they risk letting him go, knowing the connection that he had with Christine ?

Having lost Adrian, they started to do all they could to keep Christine, and build the show around her, increasing the contract, primetime, the olympics etc.

They had a really succesful partnership, no way have they ended up with a situation that they actually wanted.

Yeah a succesfull formula it took a weekend to get right after Chiles departure.

Its fairly obvious that they didnt care whether he left or didnt.I never said they engineered it.
I said they obviously weren't really fussed. If they really valued him, they wouldnt have dropped him from part of a show he was in from its inception. After numerous threats he would leave if it was done.


Im glad that the success of the one show is now being acknowledged by the ITV fans

Of course it's been a success. Obviously the most succesful thing they've put up against Emmerdale in recent times. Why wouldn't I acknowledge that ?

Unfortunate then that you, (I'm guessing as a BBC fan boy), seek then to rubbish the previous presenters on the basis that they have now left the broadcaster of your preference, and pretend the situation was of the BBC's own creation.

No i have said have in numerous posts on Ds that Chiles is a very decent presenter[not so much football wise] and that he is talented.

Christine is ten a penny imho.

What I keeping trying to say to you is that it really doesnt matter who hosts it as long as they have an ok relationship then it wont harm the show.

Chiles departure was supposed to see a ratings fall to the one show, it never materialised.

Their great chemistry was supposed to be the lifeblood of the show. It wasn't.

The vast majority of the one shows audience is inherited from its big regional news lead in, while the BBC continues to get stronger in the regions at ITVs expense then I dont see how the one show will get weaker as long as the core of the One show remains the same.