Originally Posted by Andy23:
“Do advertisers target Saturday afternoon? Who watches TV on Saturday afternoons?
If you aren't watching Soccer Saturday or live sport, surely the only audience is the type who would find a repeat of Murder She Wrote perfectly acceptable.”
Classic Catch 22 though - although of course you have priorities in the schedules considering ITV are running ads every hour during the day you'd think they'd want to get the most out of advertisers. Run of the mill films and 30 year old dramas isn't going to do that.
Originally Posted by Glenn A:
“Don't forget that in the seventies and eighties the US of A was ITV's biggest schedule filler. American shows went out of fashion in the late nineties and the noughties on ITV1, but seem to have made a comeback. It's cheap, dependable and someone will always be watching. Mind you please don't give me nightmares by showing repeats of Highway to Heaven.”
The problem is though that ITV are showing exactly the same US shows that were around in the seventies and eighties, not new(ish) content.
Originally Posted by rzt:
“Sounds like to me there'll be six semi-finals, meaning possibly 12 contestants in the final if 2 contestants from each semi go through. Not sure how they'll schedule the final, what with The Voice being around now. With 10-contestants in the final in previous years, they've normally had 2 hours for performances and 30 mins for the results. They'd probably require 2 hours and 15 minutes for the final performance show this time, as well as the results, if they drag it out a similar duration proportionally.”
I think rather than the final on the Friday they'll have a wildcard round instead. The five losing acts from the judges vote, plus more wildcards picked by the judges, return to compete for 1-2 places in the final.
Personally though if ITV1 did want seven nights out of it I'd simply air the final over two nights (Sat/Sun), with all 10 performing on Saturday and encore performances for the top three on the Sunday (so the likes of Susan Boyle would need to do a new performance on the Saturday).
If airing Sun-Sat I'd make it four heats, with the top 3/4 in each through to two semi-finals, then a final with 6-8 acts. Cutting down the total number of contestants to 36 or 32 is preferable to raising it to 45 IMO.
Originally Posted by Fudd:
“But why would they hold the final on a Friday night? It's the lowest rating night of the week. I think I agree with rzt - they may drop the Friday episode and have it over Saturday and Sunday. That'll give the Thursday semi finalists time to draw up a new act as well; the lack of time to create something new has been one of the main criticisms of previous series.”
Yes, a day between the semi and the final would be preferable in that case - but on the other hand really all acts should have their semi final and potential final routine sorted before the live shows begin.
on Twitter after a truly average rating for Sob Stories, given the star name, the Corrie lead in and Piers' ramping up expectations for one of his biggest ratings and questioning whether it might outrate The Apprentice. I did think it might beat HIGNFY and certainly NGO, but it was miles off.
