Scheduling Michael McIntyre after SCD is nowhere near 'risky'. Its basically garunteed 4m+ in that slot, and will probably attract a figure around 5m+ simply because its following on from SCD. This is where ITV need to look at trying to recreate with BGT.

Planet Earth is an expesive programme. But again this is not risky scheduling to air it against TXF on Sunday, a traditionally strong night for the BBC. Its simply good scheduling. Now if ITV commissioned an expensive nature series for Sunday nights, against the older skewing line-up on BBC1, that would be risky, because ITV don't have the advtantges the BBC have.

Also, the BBC is able to look like they freshen up a schedule, but adding in, new, but safe shows. Most of the year the BBC's Saturday night schedule will consist of Pointless, Casualty and rpt of MBB and the Lottery. All which they know will rate well, and rate well due to their demographic.

The more ITV chase after younger viewers (Meet The Parents), the more they alienate huge areas of the audience.

Fair points.

So Episode 2 may rate higher than last week, by word of mouth.

Everyone was talking those snakes last week. Everyone!

You're not David Liddiment in disguise are you?

We know older viewers are stuck in their ways, and older viewers are the ones watching the news, I'm not sure they'd take to waiting until 7pm for the main evening news. Also The Chase at 6pm would increase the rating of that show, but then what? Same as what happened with News at Ten when all the ideas ran out, so you move it back, and nobody cares as everyone has turned to the BBC News.

Moving ITV Regional News to 5:30 would kill off the programmes as a viable option to many viewers, as many are not home from work in time. Again you'd end up in some sort of News at Ten/GMB style situation where rather than a close second you are a very distant second. Plus regional news is expensive and probably isn't financially viable now let alone with half the viewers.

What James said.

At least you make some fine counter points.

It was just an idea that News against News might not be ideal. And TV news especially on ITV is a dying breed.

It would also open 6pm up for new formats going forward.

I have enjoyed James thoughts tonight.

This thread is often, ratings, scheduling, and TV news, often there are posts on new shows and cancelled shows.

And soon the

Fantasy Christmas scheduling posts.

Now you can have that drink!

That snake clip went all over the world. 5m views on You Tube, Ellen DeGeneres tweeting about it and playing it on her show. It went everywhere. Could Planet Earth 2 go up tomorrow? That's the question.

It was fantastic, well deserved, thoise who missed PE2 last week, and went on catch up, may watch live this week.

Not a fan I'm afraid, why would you put an hour of Corrie on the lowest rating night, and running until 9:30?

At the end of the day, I don't think there is much wrong with the weeknight scheduling as it is. The only issue I have is the Friday 2nd Corrie. Monday's double works really well, and has done for years now. Emmerdale's double on a Thursday is a bit out of place, but seems to work as well.

Obviously Tuesday's are weak but the scheduling isn't the issue there, you'd still have hour long programmes at 8pm and 9pm even if they were dramas.

With EastEnders airing an equally messy schedule, you won't be able to 'tidy up' the ITV soaps schedule to any level that will be seen as acceptable.

At the risk of banging the same drum, I think it would work well for the following reasons:

- 6pm slot opens up for The Chase to thrive in and a world of new shows (gameshows) that stand to do a lot better there against the BBC News than Pointless at 5pm.

- Guaranteed 6m+ audiences at 7.30pm and 8.30pm every single night of the week in primetime

- Soap doubles eliminated, which is good for those shows' viewers (ridding of contrived cliffhangers and arduous gaps between episodes). Also consistent start times for the programmes through the week.

- Emmerdale, riding high at the moment, standing to increase in numbers in 7.30pm slot

- Ending News vs News for good, both early evening and late

- 7pm news bulletin making up for the late bulletin moving later

Downsides are obviously lack of variety in the 8pm hour (but we don't have any anyway on ITV, nor do I think they care). The new show at 10pm and quiz at 6pm would offer more variety to the overall evening anyway. And it leaves 9pm for quality programmes which have decent budgets across genres.

Re: Corrie hour on Friday, the demos for the show would suggest its viewers would be around for it and it'd do a damn sight better than anything else they put out at 9 on Friday - plus could hook them into comedy at 9.30 like Birds of a Feather etc.

Likewise

I thnk the way ITV schedule the soaps at present is fine. If you move the soaps too early or too late, BBC1 will clean up.

No other channel can pull in large audiences for bland/basic factual - The One Show, Eat Well For Less? than the BBC. The only thing that supports ITV's schedule is the soaps. Remove them and ITV will struggle. When the soaps are strong, ITV schedule can look so much more healthy as the ratings increase, and so does the programming around it. Remember when factual series Caroline Quentin's Corwall could pull in 4.6m in between eps of Corrie. When the soaps are poor, they stink up the schedule, and the opposition can clean up. This is basically what happened with TXF.

Viewers will mostly aways turn to the BBC if there is little on TV because they are ad free, and the best of a bad bunch.

Of everyone on the thread tonight, your contribution has been the least.

You've actually offered nothing other than an attempt at being the thread police, which multiple posters have all agreed is not how we do things here.

Greater men have tried and failed to police the thread, so I'd advise you to stop.

Shows like Caroline Quentin's Cornwall or POG's Dogs would still air at 8pm in this idea, sandwiched between Emmerdale at 7.30pm and Coronation Street at 8.30pm. The bland/basic factual slot would be there Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri at 8pm.

As I said earlier all this would be doing would be rearranging the furniture a little bit.

How can you say the 3 doubles a week is good for the soaps? The cliffhangers are contrived and from a narrative perspective it's very wearing for viewers of those shows to commit 90 minutes to 60 minutes worth of material.

The only person trying to police the thread is you.

Another one who isn't contributing to the discussion and is just resorting to weak ad hominem.

I'm not trying to police the thread, I never have and never will. You're the one who got the knives out...

ITV scheduling wise in spoilers so people can scan past:

An interesting idea here Fudd but I really think it's too confusing with the different time slots.

It requires 8.30pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to be filled with something decent enough to bridge the gap between Corrie and the 9pm offering; makes 7pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday hour-long slots - to fill with what?

It's not that much messier than now but in some ways it is, for example Emmerdale starting at different times is messier than now, and I think not airing Corrie on Friday at all would be odd.

All in all I can't see what would fill those new 60 minute slots at 7 on Tue/Wed/Thu or, more worryingly, the 30 minute slots at 8.30pm those nights.

Also the 6th Corrie IS happening so under your plan of that going 8.30 on Friday, Corrie would have 3 different start times in the week.

The cliffhangers are contrived because of a poor producer/writer in charge. I don't remember the cliffhangers being that bad under Collinson as they were under Blackburn. But I agree, I do find some of the cliffhangers terrible.

I agree in what you are saying in re-arranging the furniture, but the BBC is in such a strong position, if ITV have any weak spaces the BBC will usually clean up.

I think ITV just first need to concentrate on finding some strong, solid returning factual hits. At the moment in reality, all they have is POG Dogs, LLF and Martin Lewis.

The problem ITV have is very few solid, dependable hits.

I just can't see any downsides to Emmerdale taking 7.30pm (if anything its audience would increase) and a fixed 8.30pm slot all week for Corrie would be very habit-forming for its audience - and of overall benefit to ITV's schedule through every single day of the week IMO.

The cliffhangers have been awful always, unless major plots are running. When Corrie first did the 8.30pm episode it was for a major Corrie storyline and viewers were literally begging the 30 minutes to pass because they were so excited. The concept is now wrung out and exacerbates the feeling of "soap overload" on Mon, Thu and Fri on ITV, whilst (IMO) winding up the viewers of those programmes.

I agree the strong, solid returning factual should be focused on - and that would go at 8pm if 30 mins, or 9pm if 60. In fact I don't disagree with ANYONE saying ITV should be investing in new programmes. What I am actually talking about is not the programmes themselves, but the primetime schedule and where existing shows are slotted.

I have never seen a positive, thoughtful, interesting or fact-based contribution on this thread appear under your name.


James- I agree with your ideas for ITV. I think their schedule is in dire need of a shakeup. But I think The Chase has found it's groove in the 5pm slot and I don't know if it would work as well at 6pm. One of the main reasons it does so well is because it's a teatime quiz, which it would sort of stop being if it went to 6pm.

Look again, James - Emmerdale's got the 8.30pm between Tuesday and Thursday so they won't need to find anything for that slot.

The 7pm slot, with The One Show and EastEnders in opposition, offers enough of an opportunity for ITV to build shows leading into the soaps - bringing back gameshows would be a good start, some mentioned earlier such as Family Fortunes, Price is Right, Family Fortunes... then some established factual like For the Love of Dogs and Tonight... comedies like Birds of a Feather and (hopefully if they agree to it) Goodnight Sweetheart. The 7pm offers more room in terms of experimentation without harming the evening, as the soaps are there to pick up an audience.

I do understand what the argument is with the different start times but I would say there's a mirror pattern to them which would help; Monday and Friday are similar whilst Tuesday to Thursday copy each other.

I think Emmerdale works fine at 7pm. Its clean and its audience knows when its on. We saw last night, when Emmerdale is slighty displaced viewers automatically turn to BBC1 for The One Show. I garntuee is ITV moved Emmerdale to 7pm, with ITV News at 7pm, The One Show would skyrocket to 5m+ every night. ITV news I don't think would do that well at 7pm, because viewers will think - I can't be bothered to wait for ITV News, we'll just watch BBC News.

Do you not think Emmerdale and Corrie both starting in the middle of the hour, with a strong BBC schedule (when EE is not on), both would struggle to get a foot hold