Yep- especially as he's Marmite anyway. He needs Mel, Sue and Mary around to soften him a bit- or take the mick when he needs it

If Paul and Mary go to Channel 4 (which is looking inevitable, I feel), does this preclude them from appearing on the BBC? Are these golden handcuff deals with the channel?

mine:
Hollywood to C4 where the new Bake Off flops
Mary gets free reign on BBC
Mel and Sue can ask for (and get) any format they want on the Beeb

The BBC had a hand in developing Bake Off. I remember one of the execs (possibly Charlotte Moore?) talking about it once. If you go back and watch the first series it's quite different to the current show with a male voiceover and the tent visiting different locations and doesn't flow anywhere near as well.

As someone said on here the other day or yesterday, Love doesn't own the rights to all competition formats involving a skill.

I would like to see the BBC do their own version and I think after the way Love Productions/Jay Hunt have behaved most would get behind it.

Why did Food Glorious Food flop? What was wrong with it?
That BBQ one, did that flop too and if so again why?

Genuinely curious.

I don't think Mel & Sue will do well away from GBBO. We've seen the chat show they did on ITV flop (though that could just be because they are on ITV). But anything that seems them solely presenting I just can't see working.

They are slightly annoying at the best of times. On Bake-Off they are bearable.

Mary Berry will rate well on BBC1 and BBC2. Paul Hollywood not so much. He would do ok on Ch4 though.

But his BBC daytime series I don't think have done that well.

The audience are not used to Food shows on ITV (much like fantasy drama) so threfore dont even launch well. Both food shows though were bland.

If ITV want to find a popular food show, i think they need to start launching some consumer shows to get the audience used to watching food on ITV.

Well that's another good example of my trope of them needing to convert itv2 in to a feeder channel. Why not give them second seasons? Give them a chance to build and get past the GBBO rip-off meme.

What amazes me is that this isn't like cancelling Survivor (another mistake), this is cancelling shows that probably do better than some of their 8pm offerings.

Negotiations seem to be over again now.

I'd guess at:

Paul going to Channel 4
Mary, Mel and Sue on the BBC
Bake Off flopping and Paul having to turn up in any old tripe to fulfil his contracted hours.

Having said that, nothing is set in stone.

I think Mel and Sue could be good if they find the right format for them - Bake Off proved that, and they were pretty good on Light Lunch back in the day. I could see them doing well hosting a quiz or variety show, but I'd love to see them back to straight comedy. They always wrote hilarious stuff for French and Saunders, so a sketch show could do well for them.

Sue seems to have done well with Insert Name Here, which is coming back for a 2nd series, and "Now You See It" has been a consistent rater with Mel narrating.

I think, like everyone else said, Mary will do well on primetime BBC1. She'll definitely draw viewers in because she has such a lovely personality and her recipes are genuinely good and she's very smart. She's prime BBC1 material really, taps into a lot of demographics. I could see her hosting 3 shows in the run up to Christmas (maybe formatted like Starters, Christmas Dinner, Christmas Pudding) showing you how to make different versions of the three dishes. That could be a monster rating if they scheduled it right in the week leading up to Christmas when people will have time to go out and buy the ingredients.

I agree with Sunbeam. ITV2 does need its own identity but ITV should be looking at moving more shows from there to ITV like BBC do with BBC2 shows going to BBC1 or BBC3 going to BBC2.

For example - shows like The Xtra Factor. Why is that languishing on ITV2 when, after Newzoids, there's going to be repeats post-X Factor? Xtra Factor could easily match Newzoids' ratings. Another one is Plebs. Why the bloody hell hasn't that been promoted by now? They could rerun the series until the new one starts to get people up to speed. I'd be tempted to reformat Benidorm into 30 minute episodes (easily done, most shows have two plots anyway, and it would only need minor re-editing, and you'd double the amount of episodes available) and pair it with Plebs on a Monday night after Corrie.

The thing is, The Xtra Factor would do no better than 2m on ITV. With Rylan on it, it is not mass rating material. And here is enough XF on ITV than to bring The Xtra Factor on as well.

Plebs I agree. But although it was consolidating over 1m for series 3, it hasn't really become a smash hit for ITV2 and would not be mass appeal mlike Benidorm. If it started to rate over 1.5m, perhaps 2m on ITV2, they might consider bringing it over to ITV. But as it is, it was rating between 600-700k overnights.

I think though, ITV should try (if there is another series of Plebs) to rpt it after the news on Sunday.

When do you think we'll know for sure what's happening? Days or weeks?

I can really see Mel and Sue doing a great job of hosting a revamped Generation Game.

I think the Mirror have gone nuts according to them Channel 4 dream presenting duo for Bake off would be Davina mcCall and Clare Balding ... they also want Claudia Winkleman but she is not expected to want to leave the BBC

There is too big a gap between ITV2 and ITV. Even if a show moved and doubled its audience it'd still be considered a flop on ITV.

It's better to be a hit on ITV2 than a flop that gets axed on ITV

Plebs has been repeated on ITV. I can't recall it doing much.

Is Alexander Armstrong going to be the next presenter of The Great British Bake Off ?

The presenter of BBC quiz Pointless - who GBBO's Mary Berry once said shocked her with his language when she appeared on the show - has revealed he has a big announcement for fans, which will happen tomorrow, Friday.

Following the news that Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins will no longer be presenting the cooking show when it controversially moves BBC One to Channel 4, viewers have been waiting for an update and now fans are thinking Armstrong is about to make it.

Taking to Twitter he told his 350,000+ followers, Alexander said: "A very special announcement happening tomorrow..."

Crumbs. Would he actually be good in Bake Off? He wouldn't be terrible, that's for sure, but would Mary want to work with him?

He wont go and do that as that would be the end of Pointless cant see BBC execx being happy having their talent doing it

Im betting on him saying there will be another Hall of fame at Christmas

Is that a "big" announcement though? Maybe he's leaving Pointless.

Is Xander pulling a tawdry This Morning stunt?

Those who don't learn from (recent) history are destined to repeat the mistakes of dicks on ITV.

Hes releasing a CD

https://www.instagram.com/alexander.armstrong.official/

Woopee-doo. Very miniscule news rather than big news. He'll sell a couple of copies bless him!

His debut album last year reached number 6 in the UK Album Charts and number 1 in the Classical Music Charts.

It's got to run and run on itv2 until it's got a strong, hardcore following. Celebrity Juice has. And then you bring it up to the bigs. Yes you repeat on itv.

There's a few busts recently that may have grown on 2. You may turn 1m on itv2 to 3.5m on itv. And then it may grow more. Whether that's a comedy, quiz or drama. Or a reality show.

All that is happening now is that they're ending up with lots of one and done shows.

There is another part to this, you grow itv2. In time you might double the audiences of some shows on there. Those shows that never switch should still be the core of itv2; their Dragon's Den, Top Gear or The Fall.

We need a Ratings Thread Album to raise funds for the store cupboard.

CD1

1. Man in the Mirror. Ian Hyland.
2. 5-4-3-2-1. Dancc.
3. Touch the Sky. Derek500
4. He Ain't Heavy, He's My {Big] Brother. Salv.
5. GeorgeS on My Mind. RobbieSykes123.
6. We're Going Down the Pub. Glenn A.
7. I've Been Rating For a Girl Like You. Ray Tings.
8. Black{burn} Magic. H of De Vil.

CD2

1. Little Saint Nick [Knowles]. Chris1964.
2. Wrexhaming Ball. Steve Williams.
3. To Servalan With Love. Servalan.
4. Neil and Pray. NeilVW and Neil_N
5. Cyloned, Sealed, Delivered. cylon6
6. The Sun Always Shines on Teevee. Mike Teevee.
7. A Rolling Stone Gathers No Mossy. mossy2103.
8. Fudd, Fudd, Glorious Fudd. Roscoe Barnes.