C4's F1 plan reminds me of their cricket plan, and we all know what happened to that: they dropped some of the county cricket they had rights to, they took the Horse Racing interruptions to new levels, they halved the running time of their cricket magazine show, they abandoned highlights of overseas tours, they started cutting away from Tests before the close of play (to make room for other programmes), and they even got the ECB to bring Test Match start times forward by thirty minutes, meaning late August/early September games were starting on dewy pitches.

Looks like the Red or Black trailer will be airing on TV from tomorrow, trailer has been put on website: http://www.itv.com/redorblack/about-the-show/

That could suggest a launch of Saturday 27th August, however everything I've seen points to it launching the week after on 3rd September.

I still don't Understand what Red or Black is?

How can you get more live hours of racing free-to-air than what they already have? And what's "hidden away" on the red button? Practice? It's practice! Who wants to watch that apart from a tiny band of F1 anoraks? And what's the point of more re-runs, who would want to watch a European race in primetime who hadn't already seen it live? Especially now more and more people have PVRs. That would get no viewers.

And what's F1 entertainment, putting Jenson Button on 8 Out Of 10 Cats or something? It reminds me of when the Boat Race went to ITV, and the organisers tried to pretend it wasn't about the money but because ITV were promising "a documentary" about the race, which they did, at one o'clock in the afternoon which nobody watched, and it was just a long version of the reports they do in the build-up.

And of course it shouldn't have been on Channel Four anyway because it's a massive commercial event that rakes in millions of pounds, no matter how they try and sell an "F1 academy", which presumably would give away free F1 cars.

This is rubbish, if this had happened then Channel Four would have been a laughing stock.

What annoys me about this F1 stuff is F1 fans whinging despite the fact there'll be loads live on the BBC and full reruns of everything that isn't, whereas fans of every other sport have had to get Sky for years, football fans don't moan about no highlights of the second leg of a Champions League semi-final at all and cricket fans get absolutely nothing. I'm guessing that many F1 fans aren't fans of any other sport, hence why they're moaning longer and louder about stuff with fans of other sports have long since accepted.

There's an overview based on what is known so far here - http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Red_or_Black

It would sense for ITV1 to launch ROB with an X Factor lead in, they say it live over 7 days but it looks like some of it is prerecorded.

Probably a silly question but is £1m the maximum that can be won on a gameshow as I'm surprised it's never been upped to say £5m.

Shafted offered a top prize of £2.5m, however this was actually an artificial cap, as if one player answered every question correctly, doubled throughout the whole game, and managed to be the last person standing, it was theoretically possible to win £102m without the cap.

Thanks for that, I imagine the reason they never offer more than £1m is because it would be too expensive for a network and production to dish out if someone actually won it but then again back in 1998, ITV1 were reluctant to commision WWTBAM as they thought they would lose money if people kept winning the £1m top prize even though its its 13 year run, it's only been handed out 5 or 6 times.

16 episodes remain unaired? Ouch.

05/11/01 - 6.92m
12/11/01 - 5.95m
19/11/01 - 5.79m
26/11/01 - under 5.47m

That would be known as a hit nowadays.... although why Kilroy is presenting a show in primetime I have no idea.

Isn't it supose to be going against EastEnders?
That week EastEnders has a huge storyline (well 3 weeks worth of storylines) which the BBC started to trail tonight.
Cancer storyline,Murder,Exit,Miscarriage,Suicide/attempted murder all happening around the same weeks

Endemol have planning permission for their "production village" of portacabins for a year (expire Aug 14th next year) - so should C5 realise why C4 axed it and axe it themselves I do think they'll get the next series in next May-July, ending the week before the Olympics.


Haven't they swapped a few times anyway.


Thank god C4 didn't get it then - the less thing TV needs is more footage of cars driving around in circles. C4 much better off going for homegrown events where they can make an impact as they did with cricket if they've got that much cash to spare. Six Nations, the cricket and Wimbledon all up for grabs in coming years.

In times of social and economic unrest, it's good to have Eastenders to keep spirits high.

EastEnders has been too light hearted of late and has had to many humor storylines.
It's nice that they are doing what they do best once again

I agree with everything else you say, Steve, but that's a bit of a sweeping generalisation. With F1 attracting regular 5-6m race ratings, that's a hell of a lot of people to tar with that particular brush. FWIW, I've been a big fan of F1 and football for years, and also enjoy watching a variety of other sports on a less committed basis.

We're not all anoraked car geek saddoes...!

Thanks for the summary, btw, Jake...

If i remember correctly, Shafted was pulled due to the format of the final part of the game*, as opposed to viewing figures.

* Although Goldenballs had exactly the same format end game and that went on for years,

Ah, Shafted....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzZ86GYoxE0

Details now on Digiguide of C4's coverage of the World Athletics Champs. Live overnight coverage of the morning sessions in Daegu (including the walking events), then generally morning coverage beginning around 10am with a round up of the overnight action then finals.

Evening highlights with Rick Edward - an hour at 7pm at the weekend, but disapointingly just a 30-minute slot at 7.30pm on weeknights. Surely if C4 are trying to make their mark they could spare the hour at 8pm for a week (they'd have too if the event was in Europe) - and it would certainly rate better too.

I guess they dont want to shaft Channel 4 News although unlike Channel 5 News at 7pm, it rates okay. Think the Athletics will probably get 1m at best.

Channel 5 have done well with the cricket and have proved doubters wrong with 1 hour of highlights. Kind of surprised they didn't bid for live cricket or least more highlights of Twenty20 but I guess they know the England matches are a draw.

Like Corrie is a barrel of laughs with its brain tumour story.

Looks like ITV will have a Poirot/Marple on Bank Holiday Monday 29th August, 9pm to 11pm. BBC1's schedule looks normal barring the usual gaps.

I do however spot an unusual 105 minute TBA on ITV1 on Thursday 1st September at 9pm - any guesses? I was thinking the debut of Red or Black, but I'm not sure.

Surely they won't air Red and Black until 10.45pm at anytime, let alone on a weeknight? They're not that stupid...are they?

Stars in a Spin? That Stephen Mulhern thing? Still doesn't quite seem right - would have to be something big to move the news surely?

Incidentally - I notice Applause Store is offering tickets to the press launch of The X Factor at The O2 Arena on Wednesday.

Show Me The Funny is moving it on 25th August.

How odd - the poster you quoted didn't even mention Coronation Street.

There are no more Marple's left, it must be Poirot-The Clocks, which is the only Poirot on the shelf at the moment iirc.
I thought ITV might air the Fred West Drama that weekend.