Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, The Tribe

This thread is full of ignorant elitist nonsense from people who clearly don't watch Channel 5.
Dirty Desmond doesn't own it.
Big Brother came to C5 before all the Benefits shows and both those things were on Channel 4 first.
If the home grown stuff is bad, why put the US stuff on a different channel? that would make Channel 5 even worse.
TV is full of archive channels showing old stuff, what would be the point of C5 being another one?

People obviously watch Big Brother, the benefits shows, baliffs enjoying ruining people's lives and things like that. It gets dubbed trash TV and is to a certain extent, but if it didn't bring in viewers or money from ads they wouldn't show it. Channel 5 do tend to axe US shows quickly if they're not police procedurals, but keep buying things like X Files and Heroes Reborn, despite dumping the likes of Under the Dome post-midnight so they can cram in more Can't Pay We'll Take it Away repeats.

With things like Lip Sync Battle now popular, it's surprising that C5 don't go back to their roots a bit. Night Fever was something unique at the time. It wasn't exactly good, but it was different. 100% and Whittle were good quiz shows at a time when the other channels had all but abandoned them in favour of fly-on-the-wall stuff and makeover shows. The Jack Docherty Show was a bit rubbish until Graham Norton started hosting it, but it was an attempt at late-night chat which never really works here.

The rebrand as Five was supposed to give the channel more class, but even though it got a slightly better reputation and started showing National Geographic documentaries (which are still some of the best things it shows), it lost a little bit of what made it unique and became just another channel with an increasing dependence on US imports over the home grown shows it started out with.

Richard Desmond obviously wanted the channel skewed a little bit more toward the target market for his newspapers, but the change wasn't that drastic, Benefits Street was popular on Channel 4, baliffs were popular on BBC1, Big Brother was still popular enough to be worth the money spent on it, so it wasn't just dumbing down for the sake of it.

Viacom haven't really done anything different so far, a bit of MTV and Comedy Central has seeped through in places, Spike was launched and they've commissioned UK versions of Lip Sync Battle and Impractical Jokers to be shown on the main channel, the rest of Channel 5 mostly goes on as it has since the late RTL years.

Dirty Desmond only owned the Channel for 4 years and sold it to Viacom in 2004.

I've watched bits on C5 over the years, but it was perhaps the odd film or some cheesy Top 50/100 list show, I really can't remember anything they've done that was worthwhile.

I think most people will remember the very early years with those bargain basement quizzes, Naked Jungle with Keith Chegwin and late night T&A films (I do)

You might want to try reading exactly what I said.

Let's not attempt to build Channel 5 into more than it is ay. It's share is 4.37%, ending Jan 17th, 2016. It is not a quality network let's be honest about it.

To repeat, what has Channel 5 given the UK during the last 20 years of notable quality?

It gave Britain all those 'Cops and Criminals Caught On Camera' shows that the BBC ripped off for their daytime lineup on BBC1.

I was only 7 when it launched but I do remember it. They sent out flyers to households telling people how to tune in their TVs. I used to watch Whittle and their kids segment Milkshake in the 90s. I remember making yellow 'Whittle masks' and I had to wear it while watching the show

I used to watch Channel 5 quite a bit back in the day, when they showed alot of good shows such as Fort Boyard, Nightfever, 100%, Whittle, Swag, Dumber and Dumber, aswell as the imports.. Xena, Charmed, Prisoner Cell Block H. And never tired of watching Nancy Lamb battering meat so aggresively

I hope they make more UK shows like that again, or even bring back some.

I think you mean 2014..?

I liked their game show 'The Mole' - teams of people trying to win money, but one of the contestants was trying to sabotage them, without getting caught. Even the viewers at home didn't know who the mole was (until the end of the series), although clues (and red herrings) were littered throughout each of the shows - the last episode of each series was entirely devoted to pointing these out. Really really well done.

Hosted by Glenn Hugill, best known nowadays as the enigmatic (and invisible) 'Banker' in Deal Or No Deal.

It's a Knockout was great too with Frank Bruno and i also liked the revived Going For Gold with John Suchet

I did sorry. I only just noticed I posted 2004.

They had some good chat shows over the years; Terry and Gaby, Open House with Gloria Hunniford and that infamous, Chris Evans produced, Chris Moyles in a pub chat show

I used to like Channel 5. I remember the excitement when I was little about a fifth channel coming on TV! I enjoyed the early days when shows like Fort Boyard, 100%, Whittle, Xena and Hercules were on. I vaguely remember Wishbone being on there too. In my teenage years the five era was pretty strong, I remember getting into their various US imports and that their film showings were very strong then there were shows like Fifth Gear which I enjoyed. Then Desmond took over and very quickly, I lost interest in even looking at what was on the channel. The last time I had a look was when I watched the odd episode of Big Brother on there and I hated what both that show and the channel had become. As far as I can see, Viacom have done nothing to undo any of the Daily Star-ification of the channel. Still, I'm glad the channel exists. As long as it does, it serves as competition to the other mainstream channels.

Can't believe everyone has forgotten that classic soap it had...

Family Affairs

Thanks for reminding me, I used to watch 100%, Whittle & Brainteaser!


Yes, I think you're right.


It's nothing to do with being ignorant or elitist - the programmes are mainly rubbish aimed at the lowest common denominator! Have you thought that people who "clearly don't watch Channel 5" don't watch it because the programming is so poor?

Quite a lot of the programming now is lowest common denominator stuff, but a lot of what people say about Channel 5 is ignorant and elitist as the same people would happily watch programmes on the exact same subjects on Channel 4. They just see the title of a few programmes, never watch any of them and dismiss the whole channel as worthless. Every channel has poor programming on it, but Channel 5 has had, and still occasionally does have, some good shows on it.

Britain's Bloody Crown about the Wars of the Roses was surprisingly well done recently.

BIB, you're right about that!

I still don't think people are being elitist or ignorant about C5 - the majority IS rubbish, more so than C4, which can have its fair share - although I would admit that is my personal opinion only!

I guess it is just a matter of taste

There's quite a lot of elitism on this thread, now if you'd all kindly take off your s**t coloured glasses and look at Channel 5 in full glorious colour, you'd might realise there are some very well hidden gems on the channel.

And I might add, a lot of shows that they've picked up from other broadcasters have gone on to last longer with them. Look at Home And Away, ran on ITV for 12 years, been with Channel 5 for 15. A Mind To Kill ran on Channel 4 for just 1 series. IIRC, it ran for 5 on Channel 5.

My main memory of Channel 5 is desperately trying to get a good enough picture for Chelsea's Cup Winners Cup games. It would require a lot of different aerial placements! The first time I got Channel 5 with a decent picture at my parents was on my first digital box.

I also fondly remember 'Back to Reality' - a show which brought together all of the main reality tv stars of the time and put them back in one house. It was awful but amazing at the same time

Hosted by Richard Bacon and a pre-Strictly Tess Daly. I attended a couple of the eviction shows for that

Does anybody remember a TV panel review show on Channel 5 in the early 00s called Vicious Circle, produced by Victor Lewis-Smith? It was really distinctive - it was on Sunday nights quite late, possibly live, and was filmed really grainily and in a fly-on-the-wall style almost as if it was on CCTV. The panel would just sit discussing the week's TV, and the show would start with them mid-conversation a bit like After Dark on Channel 4, and end that way too I think.

It had a really interesting mix of guests - Trevor Beattie (the Wonderbra ad man), Keith Allen, Kathy Burke, Lauren Booth (Cherie's sister), Richard Bacon, plus a posh elderly critic type (not Brian Sewell!) who claimed to not own a TV. I think they even drank and smoked!

The commercial breaks used to be heralded with the caption "P@ss Break"! I'm not making any of this up, I used to really like it and it seemed quite an un-Channel 5 show. Just the one series as I recall. I don't think any of it's on YouTube sadly.

One thing I think Ch5 does deserve recognition for is it's pre-school programming strand Milkshake.

It is now the only one of the 5 'main' channels to have any children's programming as a regular strand, since BBC and ITV hived theirs off to CBeebies / CBBC / CITV and Channel 4 has never done anything in that space.

And whilst much of it is animated - it's worth observing that much of it is domestic content ~ Thomas & Friends, Peppa Pig, Ben & Holly etc.

Whilst both of my children have now grown out of it, they used to thoroughly enjoy it.