The pilot for Cold Feet recieved low figures (for the time) and very little critical reception, but became a full series and look how popular that became. Funny Fortnight lets C4 test out new comedy and sort through the backlog of pilots the channel has. C4 is definitely my favourite channel at the moment.

I'd like to see them dip their toe back into the original scripted content waters but I'm not sure its likely to happen anytime soon unfortunately. Comedy imports is certainly something they should be looking at though with an eye to setting up a comedy block with new original shows further down the line. That seems like a viable goal.

There's a handful of new comedies from the US networks this year that have potential although its not the strongest year. Better than last year though I think.

I'm not sure Channel 4's best option is to judge 'funny fortnight' on the strength of ratings and they absolutely have to come out of this with a couple of new comedy series. So audience and critical response is probably the best way forward.

I think Jeff Ford mentioned earlier in the year, they liked to commision original comedy and drama in the long run but I imagine nothing will appear until late 2013/early 2014 due to the time it takes to develop, cast and shoot.

ITV2's commissions this afternoon from MGEITF:

- Plebs
- Ben and Kate (acquisition)
- 666 Park Avenue (acquisition)
- Animal Practice (acquisition from NBC)
- Up All Night (acquisition from NBC)

Recent ratings for Pointless and yesterday's ratings for Don't Blow the Inheritance?

It's popular with Sky viewers. More so than other BBC scripted shows it seems. That record timeshift episode had 2.7m out of the 4.1m timeshifting via Sky+. Viewers just put it on 'series link' and watch it from the planner. I don't suppose they're even aware of what its timeslot is.

The BBC very kindly work with Sky by putting a 'green button' prompt on promos which take you to the planner to set the recording/series link.

What about them?

Anyone have them?

It's not a particularly inspiring lineup of commissions. They are not exactly short of factual entertainment shows and the potential for some of those to become returning series seems limited. And talking of returning series, whilst it rated fine I'm not sure Big Body Squad really warranted another let alone its own spinoff. I fear they want this to become their own Embarrassing Bodies but actually it's just bad TV best left to Channel 4.

Great to see them working some more with Chris Terrill though, who is a terrific broadcaster, even if it's only a two-part series this time. Extreme Railways (awful name) is probably the strongest of the rest, although inevitably the people that normally lap up this kind of show on the BBC won't watch it. Great to have Chris Tarrant on board for it though.

The main problem is once again it's all factual. They do need to be branching out more than they currently are rather than sticking stubbornly to what they know works.

Any examples? I was thinking the other day that Ben & Kate looked promising and might work for 5. But today it's been announced it's going to ITV2.

Didn't like the look of anything else.

Has anyone found anywhere where you can listen to audio of the 'Meet the Controller' sessions at the TV Festival in full? I can't find anything this year, but they did put them all up last year.

YouTube does have (very) condensed highlights of Janice Hadlow but that's it: http://www.youtube.com/user/mgeitf/feed

I think The Mindy Project has potential as does Partners. The rest look a bit meh.

http://www.digitalspy.ie/tv/news/a40...channel-4.html

wrong thread

LOL at your last sentence Robbie. No probs.

You keep saying this, over and over again, but who says the BBC ISN'T addressing that, and asking why that might be?

Specifically for 5? Its difficult to really call that because that don't have a comedy identity as such and I remain somewhat unclear as to what they're looking for with their new acquisitions. I also haven't really been following where any of the new US broadcast shows have landed but Go On, Animal Practice, 1600 Penn, The Mindy Project, The New Normal (although I personally dislike this quite a lot) and Goodwin Games all have a lot of potential (Ben & Kate is fun to). CBS' Friend Me has an impressive cast. And whilst Save Me doesn't strike me as particularly hilarious its a good concept with a great cast.

To be honest I think this is a stronger batch of new comedies than last year. And taken as a whole probably a stronger batch than the year before that as well.

Really it depends what 5 are looking for though. If they want something younger skewing to pair with Big Brother for example I'd probably push them toward something like The Mindy Project or The New Normal. If they want something more broad than that then Go On or Goodwin Games is probably the route to take. Personally I'd recommend they pick up 1600 Penn regardless. That's a great concept and a great cast.

I suppose it also depends on whether they want single camera or multi-cam. Its not a great year for multi-cam. Partners (which is terrible), Friend Me, Guys with Kids and Malibu County are the only new multi-cams and they're not great.


Best decision Channel 4 have made in a long, long time.

But there are often long stretches when there isn't a lottery quiz at all, just the draws, and hence no quiz on Saturday night. And compare that to ITV's recent LE quizzes which have been, yes, mostly quizzes - The Exit List, High Stakes, Holding out For A Hero, all those.

One thing I dont understand with Channel5, is how can E4 and even now ITV2 be able to show new British comedies and drama but not Channel5 who have a much bigger budget? Even UKTV channels like Dave shows new comedies. I would like to see one comedy on Channel5, Im sure they could do it and if it was good, they would get a lot of kudos and would help improve the channels brand among some people who still dont give the channel a chance.

I haven't said the BBC isn't looking into it (although I doubt they are). The broader point is the dismissive way people deal with this issue in this thread and elsewhere rather than actually discussing it or engaging with it. Its just taken as read that this is how Doctor Who performs without anyone really seeming to wonder why one of the biggest dramas on television is seemingly incapable of getting around half of its audience to watch it on television on the night of broadcast. Case in point my bringing this point up leads people to defend Doctor Who's over nights and total audience rather than wonder why its over nights are so far removed from its final figures and total reach.

If Moffat's claim that when all types of viewing is taken into account every episode of Doctor Who is pulling in more than 10 million viewers how is the immediate follow-up to that not, why is so much of the shows audience opting to watch online or via timeshift or via other catch-up services? The Sky+ stat that was mentioned a few posts ago is an incredible one so why is not a serious point of discussion for the shows ratings?

And for all the 'the final numbers are what really matter' talk it seems people are amazingly unprepared to actually engage with those numbers or what they potentially mean for future viewing habits.


Unless I'm mistaken I don't think any of the ITV shows you mentioned actually aired on Saturday night so I'm not sure what relevance they have when discussing the Saturday night schedule. And I'm not entirely sure what relevance ITV's game shows have over discussing BBC1's Saturday night schedule. It seems to me this entire post essentially amounts to – yeah but the BBC1 quizzes aren't as bad as ITV's.

Out of interest though does anyone happen to know how many of the 53 Saturday's in 2011 featured a lottery branded quiz show on BBC1?

Just a hunch here, but what if Dr Who's audience are more likely to be technoligically savvy and use catch up more than others?

Or perhaps it's because it's a family show, and people record it and watch it a time when the family is all together?

What Channel 5 need is for Desmond to sell the channel to someone else, He isn't good at TV and would be better for Channel 5 if he was gone

Things to do if I was in charge:

Turn Five Star into a channel for E4 viewers

Turn Five USA into a channel for BBC4 viewers

Best of the shows on Five USA will end up on the main channel or the 16-34 channel

Axe supercasino and replace it with real porn/movies

Axe the shopping slots

Have 24/7 live feed on the website when BB is on

In 2011 we had

Two series of In It to Win It = 13 shows
One series of Who Dares Wins = 8 shows
Two series of Secret Fortune = 17 shows
Total = 38 shows.

The last lottery branded quiz of 2011 was aired on 8/10/2011

In 2012 we have

One series of Who Dares Wins = 8 shows
One series of In It to Win It = 12 shows
One series of Secret Fortune = 12 shows.
Total = 32 shows

The last lottery branded quiz of 2012 will air 13/10/2012

Why on earth wouldn't they be?


But everyone here has been discussing with it and engaging with it. That's what we've all been doing.