Originally Posted by cylon6:
“Game For A Laugh burned brightly and was starting to wane before the Sunday move surely? I know I went off it. What did Aspel & Company face on Sundays? Lost some of its lustre in later years and let's not talk about that Planet Hollywood edition! Still makes me cringe.”
The point remains, you could list as many shows that collapsed with a move to Sunday as you can shows that succeeded by moving there. It all depends what the competition was, Birds of a Feather was doing brilliantly in the week but was pummelled on Sunday nights in the nineties by ITV big guns. David Renwick talks about the penultimate series of One Foot In The Grave where the Beeb were thinking of moving it to another night but Renwick wanted to keep it on Sundays, and in hindsight he says they should have moved it because it was up against A Touch Of Frost and the ratings went down. There is no hard and fast rule that says a show will automatically succeed on a Sunday or Monday night.
Originally Posted by cylon6:
“Problem is BBC1 think's that model is the way to go because it worked with Mrs Brown's Boys and use it for most sitcoms. Try them at a different time, see what happens. The arse backwards scheduling of Count Arthur Strong from early evening on BBC2 to late night on BBC1 show how dodgy their scheduling thinking is for comedy sometimes.”
But it's worked for Count Arthur Strong, they tried it on early evening BBC2 in the same slot Miranda had because they thought it had the potential to work there, but it didn't. So rather than abandon it they looked to a less exposed slot in 10.35 on BBC1 and it worked rather well, I think it's more a BBC1 show, the ratings went up and were consistent and it's coming back. It might be at 9.30 next time too.
What else could they have done with it? They clearly thought there was something in it but it didn't work on early evening BBC2. Late on BBC2 I think it would have looked totally out of place and early evening BBC1 would have seen it totally exposed. Late night BBC1 worked for it. I don't see what the problem is.
It may not be the best scheduling to put all new sitcoms at 10.35 but given the hideous response to all new sitcoms regardless of their merits I understand exactly why BBC1 are doing it. It's not like it's midnight either, there's very little competition so they're well placed for viewers stumbling across them.
Originally Posted by cylon6:
“Countdown is a boring show that used to rate well and is now a boring show that doesn't rate well. If Deal Or No Deal is long in the tooth what the hell is Countdown then? Get rid.”
The difference between Deal Or No Deal and Countdown is that Deal Or No Deal is not much of a format and it lives and dies entirely on its presentation, and obviously the novelty is going to wear off. Countdown is a format that can literally run forever. It's also a totally unfair comparison to look at the ratings for Countdown from ten or fifteen years ago when it was at 4.30 and facing kids shows on two channels, plus with high rating shows either side of it, to now when it's at 2pm, its umpteenth slot in recent years, facing strong schedules from BBC1 and ITV and surrounded by a load of rubbish. The "boring" comment is entirely subjective as well.
Originally Posted by cylon6:
“There have been several instances of shows that bosses think are uncool and can't stand but keep in the schedules because they rate well. Are You Being Served is one such example. Little & Large was on the verge of being axed in the nineties then it had a series that went up against ITV's flop sitcom Haggard. Little & Large got 12m opposite and got a stay of execution for a a couple of years.”
But that's not the best way to make television, is it? Little and Large were rubbish, as you admit their ratings went up because ITV were even worse, but even at the age of ten I could see they were running out of ideas and the show was a mess. If a show is not achieving things artistically, especially on the BBC it doesn't matter if it's getting high ratings. Do we continue New Tricks until the very last viewer has switched off, no matter how outlandish the plots and how often the cast changes, or do we try and keep a decent standard and ensure people have fond memories of it when it finishes?
Originally Posted by
NeilVW:
“Other rescheduling disasters include moving Clive James from Sundays to Mondays, and London's Burning from Sundays (I think) to Saturdays. Steve will correct me if I got anything wrong there. 
”
Well, the London's Burning one was indeed a mistake in that London's Burning's ratings plummeted, although the one-offs they showed in its place like Goodnight Mister Tom rated very well indeed. And Clive James' shows bounced around Saturday and Sunday in the nineties, and while the last series was indeed on a Monday, it probably would have ended anyway because it was getting a bit dull on Sundays anyway, and Clive said he'd always planned to pack it in after that series anyway.
Originally Posted by
cylon6:
“That's semantics Steve.
Sky Sports 5 was specifically launched as a dedicated European football channel and sold to Sky customers for that very reason. If it isn't it's because they lost a few big contracts. I saw no logic when they launched it after losing Champions League rights but luckily for them they still have La Liga.
http://www.skysports.com/football/ne...opean-football”
Well, that's how they launched it but they knew full well when they launched it that they were losing the Champions League rights and BT had most of the European leagues, so they were always going to do this after the first year. I don't know what you expected them to do otherwise? I know the answer is "not launch it" but they needed to come up with some gimmick. That's why they called it Sky Sports 5 and not Sky Sports Europe.
And in any case, BT have actually launched a channel called BT Sport Europe and on Sunday they're showing a domestic U21 game! Same problem, surely.
