Oh right. How about a Sunday slot? ITV will have a 1 hour slot free now on Sundays because of the removal of soaps. It could do well on Sundays.

Yes, this was initially a plan for when there's an awards ceremony from 8pm on a Wednesday or UEFA Cup on Thursday to trial this out on Saturday evenings.

ITV wanted it to go out later, i.e. 9:30pm-10:30pm, but this wouldn't be so good because it airs at 8pm (a lot earlier) on Wednesday/Thursday.

I think something like Sun Hill General would work for ITV1 if they wanted to have The Bill once a week rather than twice a week. They pilot it in a Tuesday or Thursday like the BBC did with Waterloo Road and Holby Blue with 8-10 episodes and then it if is sucessful in the ratings, they can easily expand it.

I have read that Five are looking a high volume drama in their search for long running homegrown drama series in 2009, perhaps if Sun Hill General doesn't come off the grounds TalkbackThames could rework it as a new hospital drama.

Perhaps, though Talkback Thames would be sure more likely to attempt with another hospital drama on ITV.

Aye, 9.30-10.30 does seem late, considering right now they're showing it at 8pm on weeknights.

Perhaps in just over a year's time, when ITV show Wednesday champions league matches, they can show The Bill and Sun Hill General (on a initial trial period) like this:

Sunday 8-9: The Bill
Tuesday 8-9: The Bill or Tue 9-10 to avoid Holby
Thursday 8-9: Sun Hill General

The Bill could easily move to 9pm on one night, it's sort of crying out to be post-watershed.

Anyone got the ratings for one tree hill last night?

nevermind, i thought it was on but it seems E4 have delayed it YET AGAIN.

I think they should postpone them for September. Then ITV1 would have a lot stored up for the Autumn/Winter season. However, Summer is usually awful on television and I think we're seeing that earlier as already in late April some of the schedules are very uninspiring. When The Apprentice finishes, that should signify the beginning of the dross.

The Bill on Tuesday at 9pm isn't a bad shout at all.

it's simonshaps@itv.com by the way

Thanks. But I doubt he'd reply to a nobody like me... straight to junk!

Is there not a . inbetween his first and second name? When I sent him an email there was

Sorry, yes. Forgot the full stop.

I got a reply

a reply for The Bill at 9pm thing? what did he say?

I only think this would work if it was once a week, not twice. It doesn't make sense to have one episode contain post-watershed content and the other not.

Thanks for filling us in the Sun Hill General project. I always wondered what happened with that.

I remember ages ago reading that ITV wanted a teatime soap, so perhaps that's linked to this Sun Hill General project? Didn't they bid for Neighbours as well?

I was just thinking about the finals week for Britain's Got Talent. How will that work? Last year, they ran 9pm to 10.30pm every night (for the 3 semi finals) but now NaT will interfere on Thursday (and Wednesday if they add another semi which is possible). To get through the performances and give people time to vote and announce the result (a process that takes a few minutes longer now since the scandals) they need more than an hour. Wednesdays and Thursdays couldn't be moved to 8.30pm because that would shift The Bill. Friday would have to run from 9pm due to Corrie at 8.30pm although that's not such a problem with no NaT on a Friday.

They're having one more semi-final than last year, so I presume they'll have less acts in each one.

They could have the results at the start of the following day's show. So people who perform on Wednesday will find out who's through at the start of the Thursday show. 2 people from each semi final will go through to the final. The semis will run from Wednesday-Saturday. So there'll be 8 in the final. The results for the Saturday contestants will be revealed in a results show shown later on Saturday.

Sunday could be the Grand Final from 7-9. Or 2 final shows (performances and results): 7-8.30 and 9-9.30.

There are more semi finals this year so they could have the same number of contestants in the semi finals just spread out across more days so it fits into one hour.

He replied to me once!

He said thanks, with a "Sent from a Blueberry blah blah" at the bottom of the message.

Can I ask...why are people emailing Shaps about future scheduling when he's leaving? Wouldn't in be wiser if it's about changes in schedule to wait for Fincham to take over then email? It's not like Shaps is going to do a lot now, they're even delaying some of his commissioned shows, such as 'Affinity', until Fincham takes over.

He still has a month so still has the power to pass the comments on and bring them up in board meetings etc.

Ah right ok, thanks.

Did anyone email him about the future of Foyle's War?

ITV1
7.30pm Liverpool v Chelsea 8.1m (33% - 45% of Men) - match 9.1m; peak 10.2m 40%
10pm News at Ten 2.3m 12%

BBC1
8pm Holby City 5.4m 22%
9pm Waking The Dead 5.9m 24%
10pm BBC News at 10pm 5m 25%

Channel 4
8pm How To Look Good Naked 2.3m 9%
9pm The Diets That Time Forgot 1.5m 6%
10pm Heather Mills: What Really Happened 2.7m 16%

BBC2
8pm University Challenge – The Professionals 1.9m 8%
8.30pm The Hairy Bikers Come Home 1.6m
9pm The Age of Terror 900,000
10pm Later Live… with Jools Holland 600,000

Five
9pm CSI 1.7m

Ratings are in, 10 million peak for the football and News At Ten still couldn't hold onto the viewers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008...ngs.television