Originally Posted by Pizzatheaction:
“I remember one series of Takeover Bid airing on Monday nights at 8pm. I can't remember if it was the first series or the second, though. I seem to recall it getting around 6.5m viewers.Thinking about it, it must have been in 1991. Blankety Blank had died in that slot early in 1990, with around 4m viewers, and that was in January and February.”
“I remember one series of Takeover Bid airing on Monday nights at 8pm. I can't remember if it was the first series or the second, though. I seem to recall it getting around 6.5m viewers.Thinking about it, it must have been in 1991. Blankety Blank had died in that slot early in 1990, with around 4m viewers, and that was in January and February.”
The first series of Takeover Bid was in 1990 on Saturday nights, it was being shown during the World Cup when the schedules went mental as BBC1 and ITV ended up simulcasting everything so the TV guides were useless. There was that, That's Showbusiness and Les Dennis on Saturdays at the time and they shuffled around all over the place, I'm sure That's Showbusiness ended up around 4.30 one week.
The second series, as you say, was on Monday nights in 1991. Brucie didn't much care for it, his autobiography only gives it about three lines. But I did love his bit of business trying to throw the hat on the hat stand at the start.
It was one of the last pile-'em-high BBC quizzes where they'd record a million episodes and didn't have enough money for good prizes, I remember most weeks the star prize was a holiday, but not always, sometimes it was a fitted kitchen. Within a few years, though, we only had Big Break of that style, and it always felt like the Beeb were making them for the sake of it, compared to the glitzy and brash likes of Family Fortunes.
The last series of Blankety Blank I remember being shown during the 1990 Commonwealth Games, where there was an hour-long highlights show every night and they dropped Wogan, with everything else shuffling around, so Blank ended up on Monday at 7pm and Top of the Pops on Friday at 8pm. Course, Les did another quiz the following year, Fast Friends, which was a big flop, alas.
Originally Posted by WLB:
“Its a real shame about the Tuesday ITV flop zone. Especially when you consider that tuesday at 9pm used to be the home of some of ITVs highest rated dramas, Soldier, Soldier, Peak Practice etc.”
“Its a real shame about the Tuesday ITV flop zone. Especially when you consider that tuesday at 9pm used to be the home of some of ITVs highest rated dramas, Soldier, Soldier, Peak Practice etc.”
Indeed, I am forever amazed at how badly it does, I know there's no Corrie but surely Holby City's not that much of a draw. I was going to say the Beeb doesn't sag so badly on Wednesday when there's no 'stEnders, but then there's no Corrie there, is there?
What's disappointing, though, is that in terms of the lead-in, Tuesday at eight is BBC1's best slot, but sadly it's forever booked up with Holby City. Thursdays at eight used to be a great slot for new drama but now of course it goes up against Emmerdale and Corrie. It's a shame pre-watershed slots are now so limited.
