Dull footage??? No further comment required.

PS BBC is funded from a licence fee and not taxpayers. I bet you would have loved it, if it was in Sky.

ITV is too stale and conservative, they seemed scared to drop shows that are underperfoming or have been around too long. You look at a typical weekday schedule and you have five shows that debuted in the last century( This Morning, Loose Women, Emmerdale, CS and YBF) and entertainment shows like The Jeremy Kyle Show, TXF and IAC that are at least ten years old. While some of these like IAC continue to do very well, surely YBF, which struggles to get 2 million viewers, should be dropped.

Possibly. If X Factor ends next year it will have done 13 years which is pretty damn good. I think Strictly could potentially get there, it certainly still looks healthy right now. Same goes for BGT although that's a bit younger (only 9 years at this point!). Speaking of which, I wonder if they'll do anything special for BGT's 10th season next year?

Will they? The knives were out for The X Factor when it dropped to a meagre 12m. Reading 'The Axe Factor' is as dull and repetitive as some perceive the show itself to be now. Maybe even the tabloids have moved on now.

!3 years is a very good run - after all of which the public may have decided that they've had enough (as we've posted) of the stories, tears, panel changes, format, boot camp etc.. etc... - don't think there's any shame in admitting the glory days are behind it, it's just no longer the "hot ticket" it once was (especially I think with that crucial younger audience that as said has possibly already started to move on now) - no amount of changing, tinkering, twittering or hashtagging can entice your core audience if they've already made up their mind about it.

Will be interesting to see how Strictly does this year, BGT has done well too.

To be fair Brucie only just left...

Maybe there will be changes in the management at ITV anyway, they've all been there a long while now. New people like axing things even if they're doing fairly well so XF could be in danger from the off.

Brucie did the right thing leaving - his jokes were pathetic, but then again to be fair to the man he was only reading off an autocue and doing what he was paid to do. Last year I never watched SCD as I can't be bothered (and I know I'm probably in the minority) with Winkleman wittering on under her fringe - I might give it a go this year though and fast forward the CW chatter!

I agree - it depends on the same shows over and over. Adding to that as well, stopping overusing CS/ED and hiring all these celeb gameshows. Use the money to produce dramas which put ITV on the map in the 1980s and 1990s! Forget all this cheap docu crap that gets less than 2m which is more suited to UKIPCH5 or an obscure Sky Channel, take risks! Win the viewers back with a fresh approach!

When I referred to Cowell being deluded, it was less about the shelf life of TXF (which I agree with you he must be aware of) but more about the kind of acts it generates, which can't really be called 'artists' in the true sense of the word. Witness him pressuring for 1D to be given a Brit Award. He craves credibility, yet doesn't realise that what he fronts will never give him that.

People are getting bored of these shows, every year it's the same. Why is UK TV so dull? Ok we have some great TV but there is an over reliance on formats that have been going for years and years. I get that with soaps but surely they can come up with new entertainment shows. No wonder people are switching off and looking for content on other platforms.

Weeks and weeks of the same old stuff. BBC drama either come up with middle class Sunday dramas or the likes of Holby and Casualty. Surely it's time to come up with something new or at least give these shows a rest for part of the year.

X Factor needs a rest, it can't go on forever surely. Broadchurch was great event TV but another example of something that they will run into the ground rather than recognise it's ok to have one off successes.

Also dragging up old formats like Family Fortunes and Celebrity Squares, which date back to the ATV era, isn't working well. The whole network is tired, dull and losing viewers.
Mind you, BBC One continue to flog Pointless like it's going out of fashion every night and they have plenty of stale, cheap and repetitive property and lifestyle shows, so ITV isn't totally to blame, and Channel 5 seem to let BB rumble on to worse ratings every year.

I think you have just written tomorrow's The Sun headline better register it in fast.

I think a cull is needed of tired shows. Casualty first aired in 1986 and was only on for three months of the year, now it's on non stop, and tedious old Holby City is the same, though not quite as old.
TXF still gets its tabloid headlines, so is reasonably popular, but it is becoming tired out. We'll know it's done for when The Sun turns on it, in the same way they started to trash BB in its last two years on Channel 4.

I agree. Shows like Jeremy Kyle are still pulling in the numbers. Its shows like This Morning that continue to drop, yet they still keep it. I bet This Morning makes them money though, and fills two hours, so I bet it will still be here when it drops to 500k.

YBF only continues because its a cheap filler that continues to pull in viewers, however these viewers continue to drop each year.

As someone else said, staying level is the new increase in ratings.

Theres no sense of ITV wanting to be number 1 in any slots these days. It like they given up and are happy with second best.

Casually and Holby are cheap as dramas costing £600k against other drama at £1m per episode. With a year round " filler" it's worth it. And nearly beats XF

Trouble today is they don't realise less is more. Take a show like Faulty towers, there's no way the BBC would only commission 12 episodes.


Talking of shows that have been flogged to death, what's happened to Million Pound Drop, has it been axed?

Well, I'd still prefer more Luther, personally

BBC1 had the most impressive, once in a lifetime chance to see live pictures of an actual blue whale! It was an image that was so jaw droppingly brilliant, no natural history programme, no matter how good, will top it. If the Licence fee Is used to bring viewers chances to see things like this, then who can argue about paying it? Why would anyone want to watch another Animal Mums programme ( which has been done many times before) when you can get a chance to see a blue whale on the other side?

I'm starting to think they need a change at ITV - Peter Fincham has been there long enough and the channel is looking tired. The influx of new drama has come at least a year too late if not more.


And yet a lot of 'cheap docu crap' does well for BBC One - Pound Shop Wars, Britain's Spending Habits, Traffic Cops. There is a place in the schedules for factual but it has to have the right approach to strike at the public's heart, scheduled well and promoted. BBC One know all this; seemingly ITV do not.


Opportunity Knocks ran for 13 years and was only axed because Hughie Green couldn't help being controversial. It looks like Strictly and possibly Britain's Got Talent will overtake that. But in general, you're right - light entertainment shows in general cannot sustain an audience for that length of time. The issue is there's nothing coming through - and not for the want of trying.


Too late - they already used it about four years ago.

The BBC commission short runs of comedy series all the time, eg Inside No. 9 , Up the Women and Psychoville. Many of these had just 6 episodes a series

As for Fawlty Towers it wasn't a BBC decision to only have 12 (I'm sure they would've loved endless series of it) but the writers refused to do anymore.

There've only been six episodes of Still Open All Hours and no word of a re-commission (unless I've missed it).Most BBC comedies only ran to six episodes per series back in the ''golden days'' of TV.MBB is only doing two Christmas specials a year up to 2020.

It has been recommissioned. It was confirmed in Welsh Newspaper.

X Factor needs adding onto Pop Idol / Pop Stars the Rivals in terms of life span. These were the starter shows that built up the audience for ITV singing shows. Asking an audience to buy into a contestant on a tv show and a million pound recording contract was only going to work so long. The audience accepts that not everyone makes it beyond first album but for it to be almost every act that disappears then it becomes a false premise. The youngsters with a memory span of a gnat and / or those who just see it as a Saturday night karaoke show it is fine but there are so many now who have seen their preferred act dealt with badly that the show carries negativity amongst a once faithful audience. In particular the older audience I suspect. BGT on the other hand doesn't sell the 'future' for the winner like XF does. Same with Masterchef / GBBO. They are what they are. Winner wins. Next.

I remember reading it on here but cant see anything that confirms it anywhere.