ITV Revamp Schedule

[DaVeyWaVey]

From Digital Spy:

ITV has confirmed that a radical overhaul of ITV1's schedule - including the return of iconic news bulletin News at Ten and a shakeup of soap timeslots - will launch on Monday, January 14.

News at Ten will run from Monday to Thursday on the new schedule, with a later news bulletin airing on Fridays and at weekends as part of a "renewed focus on new comedy, entertainment and drama". Friday nights will feature a mixture of comedy and entertainment, starting with Al Murray's Happy Hour, and Saturday nights will focus on family drama such as Primeval.

The network's Sunday night lineup will be noticeably reshaped, with Coronation Street and Emmerdale's weekend episodes moving to Tuesday and Friday respectively, in an effort to focus the night on entertainment programming such as Dancing on Ice.

ITV director of television Simon Shaps explained: "One of the principal ideas behind these changes is to make the weekends on ITV1 feel special. We have always been the home of Saturday night entertainment and we want to broaden that out to make the whole weekend on ITV1 something to look forward to. This has meant a wholesale spring clean for Friday nights with new comedy, drama and feature films to get the weekend started, and a much fresher look to Sunday evenings with entertainment shaking up the historically drama-led schedule."

The return of news to the 10pm slot for most of the week has resulted in an emphasis on hour-long drama for the 9pm slot. Among the shows to be launched in the time period this month are interlinked comedy and soap Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach, along with fictional Buckingham Palace drama The Palace and Amanda Redman's Honest.

Shaps explained: "The restructuring of the peak time schedule and the return of News at Ten means that we’ve got a great opportunity to recapture some lost ground at 9pm and we’ve responded to viewer feedback on Coronation Street and Emmerdale so that fans can catch up with their favourite soaps over fewer nights.

"The new shape allows greater freedom and flexibility to create new hits within the schedule. In all, these changes make for a more streamlined, user friendly schedule that plays to ITV1’s strengths as an entertainment powerhouse and the home of original drama."

[di marco]

yeh i saw this on ceefax. apparently emmerdale on tuesday is going to be an hour long so will always be clashing with ee which seems slightly silly to me

[Abigail]

Will there be any change to The Bill? I read on another forum that it was going to four 30min episodes per week.

[Bryan]

I suppose Emmerdale thing they're so bloody clever going up against Eastenders each week :rolleyes: if anything they should be cotting that tosh down to a minimum

[di marco]

I suppose Emmerdale thing they're so bloody clever going up against Eastenders each week :rolleyes: if anything they should be cotting that tosh down to a minimum

lol i agree. i think they are gonna lose out big time going up against ee, surely they cant think they are going to keep all their viewers for the whole hour each week?

[Chris_2k11]

ITV needed a revamp a long time ago

[CrazyLea]

I don't like Emmerdale.. but I dunno..

If you start watching a programme at say 7.. would you really want to turn over at hald past? Even if it is a bit of a rubbish episode.

I know for example if it was Corrie and EE... my parents wouldn't let me turn over at half 7, whether nothing is happening or not. I'd have to wait til 10 when the repeat is on..

[Katy]

It'll be interesting to see the outcome of this.

[DaVeyWaVey]

I don't like Emmerdale.. but I dunno..

If you start watching a programme at say 7.. would you really want to turn over at hald past? Even if it is a bit of a rubbish episode.

I know for example if it was Corrie and EE... my parents wouldn't let me turn over at half 7, whether nothing is happening or not. I'd have to wait til 10 when the repeat is on..

Good point, but...looking at the ratings, Eastenders is actually beating the Emmerdale hour long episodes frequently now, and Emmerdale is suffering as a result. There's only been an occasion when Emmerdale have actually beat Eastenders and had more viewers.

So, really...ITV are being very stupid about this. Putting on Emmerdale for an hour long episode on Tuesday is just going to damage Emmerdale, I think, as it has done before and they are going to end up losing viewers..

Why can't ITV just drop an episode of Corrie and Emmerdale instead of squeezing it into the weekly schedule? They are on far too much anyway, so losing an episode won't exactly harm the programmes. At this rate, the weekly schedule is going to become soap overkill. It's quality not quantity, but ITV don't seem to understand this it seems.

The only positive thing I see about the schedule are the amount of new dramas that will be seen in the 9pm - 10pm time slot, it's about time ITV shown more drama series on their channel.

[Abigail]

ITV are all about making money and beating the BBC in ratings.

Given the choice between watching Emmerdale and Eastenders I think most viewers will choose the latter.

ITV have long needed an overhaul of their whole schedule and choice of programs. I think the comedy will work well on a Friday. ITV has never been the home of entertainment on a Saturday night in my opinion. They copy a lot of program formats from the BBC such as Grease and Dancing on Ice.

[Abigail]

Emmerdale producers have insisted that they are "confident" about how the soap will perform when it goes head-to-head with EastEnders on Tuesday nights.

As announced earlier in the week, Emmerdale's Tuesday night episode will now be a one-hour special to compensate for the loss of Sunday's instalment.

The move means that the second half of Emmerdale's Tuesday episode will clash with EastEnders when the BBC One soap begins at 7.30pm.

Emmerdale and EastEnders have gone head-to-head 30 times since 2004 - and the Yorkshire-based show has picked up more viewers in 26 of the battles. Producers are convinced that the soap can maintain its success this year.

"The scheduling has been decided by ITV and has nothing to do with the people at Emmerdale," a spokesman for the soap told the Daily Star Sunday. "But we are confident we can keep up our good record against EastEnders.

"Each hour-long episode on Tuesday will be specially written and won't be two half-hour ones put together."

[Chris_2k11]

"But we are confident we can keep up our good record against EastEnders.they are becoming obsessed.

[DaVeyWaVey]

ITV are just getting competitive - watch this idea fall on its ****!

[Abigail]

Emmerdale and EastEnders have gone head-to-head 30 times since 2004 - and the Yorkshire-based show has picked up more viewers in 26 of the battles. Producers are convinced that the soap can maintain its success this year.


I seriously doubt people who watch both shows will want to miss a whole episode of EE every week.

Cut the number of episodes down and increase the quality of every program.

I also notice The Bill repeats on ITV3 on Monday and Tuesday at 8pm have been axed :thumbsdow