Originally Posted by rzt:
“Yeah, I like that idea. Sitcoms are cheaper than dramas, and if they commission three, one is surely bound to do well (unless they're all absolutely rubbish!) and whichever one sticks they can just increase the episode order for the next series which could air later in the year. I wonder though how British viewers would react to 18 episode series - I suppose split 9 episodes over 2 runs wouldn't be too bad. TV Burp could do decently there but I'm not certain ITV would place it there because it's quite late compared to the 7pm/7.30pm starts it usually has.”
I think a long run of 16-18 episodes per year would be fine so long as it was split into 2 smaller 8-9 episode blocks (plus an Xmas special). Alternatively I guess they could have 2 different sitcoms with 8-9 episodes per year. TV Burp meanwhile would do pretty well (5-7m) with a strong Emmerdale lead in. I don't think an 8:30pm start would pose a problem for it. *Therefore 32-34 weeks of the year in that slot would be covered, and once events like IAC/BGT are taken into account that rises to 36-38, so they could get away with factual or repeats or YBF for the rest of the year.
Quote:
“When I was looking at the breakdown for Long Lost Family, its ratings always increased over the hour suggesting without the Corrie lead-in it'd continue to do well. In theory, 71 Degrees North would rate better than the ~3.5m it achieved last Autumn when it had poor Tuesday 8pm lead-ins, BUT I'm not 100% sure yet that this is a format which will rate as well second time round, I guess we'll have to wait and see later in the year. As for The Biggest Loser, I'm still not sure on how it'd perform without the Corrie lead-in- 4m on a Monday night in the winter, suggests 3m in the Spring/Summer without that lead-in - is that good enough? The next series will be quite telling, it did rise quite a bit for the final, so perhaps there's potential there. As you say, a roster of solid factual entertainment would be the ideal situation: a bit like the BBC's Apprentice/MasterChef/Junior Apprentice/Celebrity MasterChef Wednesday combo, but on a (much) small ratings-scale!”
I think TBL has potential although you're right that it could just flop with 3m. The rating for the final does suggest there is a level of interest though. Interesting that LLF rose over the hour - there's definite potential there. As long as 71DN can change the challenges a bit each year then I think it has a future, and getting Paddy McGuinness to present it was a good move as he's more popular as an individual than either of the previous presenters and should add humour to it like Ant and Dec do on IAC. I think it'll get the Tuesday slot this year again unfortunately but I think it could do decently in a better slot.
[/quote]Yeah, I agree regarding Corrie, that 8.30pm would be better. I think Corrie fans would prefer it to be on at 7.30pm though because it's the "traditional" timeslot but 8.30pm has its advantages too - it'd help a lot in the summer when ratings are lower in the 7-8pm hour and of course, the lead-in would be useful for the 9pm dramas. I think ITV will stick with 7.30pm since they've actually announced it, but the idea of running Countrywise or a decent game-show between 7.30-8.30pm is decent - there'd be more variety and be capable of ~4m in a Emmerdale/Corrie sandwich slot. Nothing special as you say, but better than the current setup.[/quote]
I don't think tradition should come into it really, they need to do what's best for them now, and Corrie at 8:30pm with the cheaper stuff at 7:30pm rather than the other way around is best for both the 7:30pm and 9pm stuff, and therefore for the night overall. It also means that Waterloo Road wouldn't have to move, and I think it'd be worth ITV's while to let WR stay where it is rather than let BBC1 move it to another weak spot for ITV.*
Originally Posted by PJMillar:
“Harry Hill moving to Thursday nights would be an ingenius idea, a great lead-in for a post-watershed comedy/entertainment block.
Think...
8:00pm Emmerdale
8:30pm Harry Hill's TV Burp
9:00pm The Only Way Is Essex*
9:30pm Celebrity Juice
10:00pm News at Ten
Trashy, but would probably rate well - and TV Burp's the perfect advert for cheap-and-cheerful telly.
Instead of having one long series, would like to see TV Burp spread into two 10 episode series per year (=20 per year), with a few sitcoms alongside it (bear in mind that five weeks of the year would be taken up by I'm a Celebrity and Britain's Got Talent, and there's potential for 90 minute entertainment specials to fill in the gaps too.
As for Wednesdays, they could do it on the cheap, or realise that it's the BBC's weakest night and use Coronation Street as a launch pad for some real investment in that area - the home of pre-watershed and post-watershed scripted shows - comedy and entertainment - a real mix.
If ITV put their thinking caps on, we'd have some sitcom pilots premiering in the Wednesday 7.30pm slot in autumn 2011/winter 2012 (the turnaround might be difficult) - but I doubt this will happen. The pilot process led to Cold Feet, and could lead to the next great ITV comedy.”
I like the idea of TV Burp at 8:30pm leading in to something scripted at 9pm and a panel show at 9pm but TOWIE and Celebrity Juice aren't the right shows. Firstly I don't think they should be stripping ITV2 of its 2 biggest hits, but more importantly neither would be hits on ITV1. TOWIE would only get 2-3m tops. Celebrity Juice could get 3-4m (it does now in total) but they'd have to water it down significantly which I wouldn't like. Keith Lemon is working on a new ITV1 show called Keith Lemon's Bang Tidy Show which could go at 9:30pm, with a 'working class' sitcom at 9pm. I know ITV have said that they aren't doing 30 minute sitcoms before but they change their minds a lot (yesterday they were talking about 30 minute 8:30pm sitcoms!) and that's a stupid rule anyway as not all sitcoms would work in a 1 hour format.
I agree that the pilot process can be a great way to find new hits, and it's something I'd like to see ITV do. There won't be any massive investment, but I would really like to see them do more comedy as they just don't have anywhere near enough at the moment. Hopefully the money saved from the slightly cheaper football rights will mean that they can put more money into finding new comedy hits.
