Off The Beaten Track could sum up Christine Bleakley's career. Having a particularly bad time at ITV.

If I were them I would consider letting her go. She got some good money 4million for 4 years so has plenty to live on.

Four years from now, and it'll be Susanna Reid in the same position as Bleakley. Her career has nose-dived since she left the Beeb. Potentially could've been one of the hosts of the Olympics but now relegated to hosting lame soon to be axed shows.

True.

Perhaps nowadays the Agatha Christie tag is as much a hindrance as a help, especially for ITV. With two-hour detective shows ten a penny on the network they're probably better off launching one without that baggage - and with ITV studios as much a focus as the ITV network if they can create something that they'll keep the rights too they're going down that route.

And could someone please provide me with a list of all of Bill Turnbill's and Sian Williams successful primetime BBC projects, and those of Alex Jones, Matt Baker and Chris Evans while we're at it. All Alex has done is taken over a once thriving celebrity dancing show, hosting for three series as viewing figures plummeted and the show got axed. Matt Baker has his gymnastics work and the BBC being as imaginative as they are I'd be amazed if he wasn't involved in the Let's Get Ready to Tumble show. Chris Evans was once one of the brightest talents on TV (both on and off screen), but other than his radio show all he's doing at the BBC is acting as a stand in on The One Show and hosting a few weeks of the lottery.


It's highly unlikely Christine Bleakley would have had any more opportunities at the BBC than she's had at ITV - and if she had there is no reason to think they'd have been any more successful.

Good point. I do wonder why Susannah Reid wasn't given more projects. Maybe she wasn't interested but she could have been on a primetime show. It was a pity to waste talent. I haven't even seen her on panel shows

One of my favourite quotes from this thread



Probably best not to go too far, the BBC would need to be mindful of much bigger forced cut-backs or even being broken up if it ever does get to that stage.

Even though you know the facts better than the tabloids, you still post this rubbish.

The article reckons it was a 'massive new show to rival Countryfile' - no it wasn't it was a nice light factual to go against EastEnders, like the other two dozen shows that ITV have to do the same.

The article says it got 'barely 3m viewers' - isn't that the average for the slot, on a Friday opposite EastEnders?

The show has been 'axed' - typical tabloid sensationalism. It is hardly a long running show, who's to say it was ever going to come back. Many factual shows run to one series, are they all 'sensationally axed'?

It was also hardly a massive project for Bleakley, it as just something she hosted for 6 weeks. Not exactly on a par with Daybreak.

I have never seen such a fuss over a 30 min opposite EastEnders factual. Typical tabloid nonsense that some feel the need to propagate across this thread.

The big difference with Reid is that if it doesn't work out on Daybreak, she can easily end up as part of the ITV News roster of presenters. Natasha Kaplinsky ended up out of favour but has ended up as regular ITV News cover. That would still be high profile work.

And talking about Bleakley again, 'career has nose-dived'? What would she be doing had she stayed at the BBC? Still on The One Show many years later? Hosted a range of bad Saturday night LE formats that all get axed after one series? Possibly a host of one of those 'Isn't Britain great' midweek factual shows? None is much better than what she got at ITV.

And another clash on Tuesday. I think EastEnders will come off second best due to Emmerdale goibi against the whole episode.

I liked Jonathan Creek, would have preferred the big reveal at the end though with Joey getting shown up as useless. Renwick made a mistake there, but for hour of TV it was funny, entertaining and smart.

With The Voice being trailed heavily this week, I expect we should see a rise compared to last week, the weak competition for the second half should also result in this result. Remember this is the series where the usual decline isn't going to happen.

Yep. Very difficult for EastEnders when the whole episode is swallowed up by the clash.

I'm glad someone else enjoyed Creek!

The last series of Live & Kicking was the final throw of the dice after the dreadful duo of Emma Ledden and Steve Wilson. No chemistry which is vital for presenting teams. But then they made it even worse. They wanted to make it super cool with Ortis Deeley, Sarah Cawood , Katy Hill and Trey Farley. It was about as cool as a Chelsea pensioner putting on a leather jacket and pretending to be The Fonz.

The Saturday Show was just a mess. The BBC lost the plot on Saturday mornings until Dock & Dom In Da Bungalow.

Did you watch it Andy?

The extra length for The Voice might have put people off. Thought they could have trimmed 15-30 minutes off but enjoyed it a lot. Takeaway was good too but it usually is.

Bill was BBC Washington correspondent before joining Breakfast. He also presents editions of Songs of Praise and has written books on beekeeping.
Matt Baker is, of course, a regular presenter on Countryfile, one of the BBC's top-rated programmes.
Alex Jones was (apparently) very successful on Welsh language TV.
Sian Williams is no longer with the BBC and is pursuing a different career.
Chris Evans ? His success has always mystified me, sneering at guests, gurning to the camera, trying to direct the show from the studio floor,often rudely cutting-off his fellow presenter. He has the perfect face for radio.

I have never understood what Christine Bleakley would have done as an Olympics presenter. She is not a journalist or former sports person and has the on-screen warmth of an iceberg. The BBC were probably glad to be rid of her.

ITV doesn't seem to treat their news commitments with the same degree of importance as the BBC though


She was being quoted as being offered a high-profile role in the BBC's Olympics coverage (as the face of the Olympic coverage), as well as an involvement with Countryfile and other programmes. Who knows what she would have gone on to after that.

Linda Robson tells The Sun ITV have commissioned a second series of Birds of a Feather and contracts are about to be signed.

Well I am suprised with the poor ratings it got.

Alex is also going to climb a rock in Utah for Sports relief and they will cover it on the One Show over 3 days. This is why they didn't mention Davinas challenge on the One Show. Sorry, but the list of progression projects for those presenters you mentioned(apart from Matt) is not very encouraging. What is Sian's new career?

Seeing as Sian Williams chose to leave her BBC Breakfast role when it moved to Salford, she has been lucky in that the BBC had other things for her, such as presenting the One O'Clock News, a couple of daytime spots, Watchdog, and hosting Your Money, Their Tricks. She also presented on Radio Four.

Otherwise she would have been classed as redundant.


She is now studying for a Psychology degree

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ariel/23960626

I believe it's to do with psychology and mental health charities

Tabloids report don't equal fact though and I suspect any role there was overstated - and even so it's two weeks, not a long term career move. According to The Sun last week Davina McCall will get the plum role of fronting the cycling for the BBC at the Olympics in 2016 despite having no experience in sports broadcasting and not having had a show on the BBC for the best part of a decade.


And back to Samuel's world where the BBC crushes everything and ITV's biggest shows all end up failing. That would be the quickest way to kill off the BBC as a strong ITV means a strong BBC. If the BBC were to be constantly crushing the commercial competition it would be seen as anti-competitive and have it's wings clipped even more than they are now - with ultimately the viewer being the biggest loser. What the BBC actually needs is ITV to be at least on a part with BBC1 every night. Every time an ITV show flops essentially a bit of the BBC is dying with it.

Davina McCall fronting cycling for the BBC reminds me of Chris Evans' disastrous attempts to cover golf for 5Live - on one day he actually forgot to turn up for the broadcast such was his knowledge and expertise.

The Voice won :

Rajiv Nathwani ‏@rajivnathwani 8s
7m average, 7.9m peak for #TheVoiceUK last night - most watched programme of the night.

Only 0.3million down from last week, smallest ever drop between final blind audition show and battle show! Another excellent rating for the show.

I'm really shocked The Voice fell given it had a free run for a lot of it.

Did SNT win head to head?

UK TV Ratings ‏@TVRatingsUK 22s
#TheVoiceUK dropped to 6.95m/30.4%, its lowest rating this series. It just got the better of #SaturdayNightTakeaway though (6.87m/29.8%).