Originally Posted by Brekkie:
“Interesting - not a single BBC drama in the top ten. Indeed apart from EastEnders really not a single BBC show in the top ten as the Royal Wedding, Comic Relief and Eurovision are just events the BBC broadcast - and they can't really take credit for coming up with the news.”
No, but they can take credit for people watching the Royal Wedding and the news on the BBC when they are also on ITV, clearly people prefer their coverage. And Comic Relief isn't just "an event the BBC broadcast", they mount the whole show and all the other spin-offs and the likes of Richard Curtis and Peter Benett-Jones are always quick to thank the Beeb for the time, effort and resources they plough into it. They certainly couldn't do it without them, same with the money they pump into Eurovision.
And if we're not counting 'stEnders as a drama, then we can't count Corrie and Emmerdale, so there's only one ITV drama in the top ten, and in the past drama has been ITV's trump card and they used to have loads of hit shows like Heartbeat, London's Burning, Peak Practice, Soldier Soldier and umpteen others. So one ITV drama in the top ten is pretty hopeless.
It takes a particularly bizarre leap of logic to suggest that a top twenty with more BBC1 programmes than ITV1 programmes in it is in reality a disaster for BBC1.
Originally Posted by
Pizzatheaction:
“And going back to the mid to late 1980s (
), most Saturday night shows only ran for six or eight weeks a year. I suppose Blind Date was one of the first to get a five or six-month run on ITV, and for the BBC, possibly The Late Late Breakfast Show (with Noel Edmonds), although I'm not sure. I know it was intended to run for about six months from Autumn 1986 through to spring 1987, because Noel announced it on the first show, but it ended in October because of the Whirly Wheel disaster.
I don't think there's been any Alright on the Night since the first couple Griff presented.”
No, just the two in 2008 and that's it. Probably hard to tell the difference between that and umpteen other clip shows these days.
I dunno if runs of Saturday night series are any shorter now than they were in the past, mind, in that more or less every series would run for at least thirteen weeks, even rubbish quizzes like One To Win. Things like Jim'll Fix It would go on for at least three months whereas nowadays you'd only get a six or eight part run of something like Tonight's The Night ot 101 Ways.
What is different, mind, is that so many shows these days are part of a series so have to be shown in a particular order, whereas in the past an entertainment show would more or less always be self-contained and they could shove episodes wherever, and series could run for as long as slots were needed. Big Break is the great example, how they used to show episodes of that years after recording. I dunno why we don't get more self-contained LE shows that can fill awkward gaps.
Originally Posted by RobbieSykes123:
“Thought Lee Mack's show would be mid-evening, not post-watershed. Interesting...”
Indeed, but a bit of a shame, I think, as Lee can do mainstream and it sounded like a concept that would have worked well pre-watershed. I hope people don't slag it off for being too family-friendly.
Of course, the stinking rating for John Bishop on Saturday wasn't helped by the fact its first screening was in exactly the same slot. I dunno what value that has.
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