Media
ITV1 unveils new schedule
Published Wednesday, Jan 2 2008, 14:48 GMT | By James Welsh | 4 comments

ITV's Simon Shaps
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."
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Dan, Grimsby, on January 4th, 2008
I am sick of ITV clashing with EastEnders, no ones a winner, everyones a loser! I'll give Emmerdale 2 years, before its axed due to low raitings.
I am sick of ITV clashing with EastEnders, no ones a winner, everyones a loser! I'll give Emmerdale 2 years, before its axed due to low raitings.
Alan, Wickford, Essex, on January 2nd, 2008
For a number of years ITV and other channels have lost what has made them watchable for the public, with them playing time slots of shows. With time spit with work, family, friends and others, people can only make time for a show at a time not moved all over the place. I then past we used know the time of year we were with the shows that we saw on TV and knew that would be back at the same time next year after it's run. But that was when TV channels ran at less hours per day. So to fix this the channels only need to make a run go up from the old 10 or 12 weeks to 24. then make shows longer from half hour to hour or more. Also channels need to stop the fad type of shows. This means that if a channel comes up with a show that some type of people like a lot do not copy it's type just to try and get the same type of people to watch. this will not make money for the advert makers as the same people that watch the first show have only one lot of money to spend. Because a show is a hit more money should not be put into it that changes the format. TV channels need to ask viewers more about the shows and timings with a postings and Internet. I do not know anyone that has had they channels & shows viewing looked into by any channel or other groups that deal with TV. There should be at lease one or more per town and if more than one tv area is covered in that town then it should be covered by another person in the viewing test. All drama shows should be made with out smoking shown in them as this does help the many that are trying to stop. Flash lighting in shows should be made less as it not right for people that have that illness, more flashing does make a show better for anyone. Bad words in shows do not make a show it only makes most real people switch over. Get real people to host shows not just because they are in so called news all the time for going to parties etc.
For a number of years ITV and other channels have lost what has made them watchable for the public, with them playing time slots of shows. With time spit with work, family, friends and others, people can only make time for a show at a time not moved all over the place. I then past we used know the time of year we were with the shows that we saw on TV and knew that would be back at the same time next year after it's run. But that was when TV channels ran at less hours per day. So to fix this the channels only need to make a run go up from the old 10 or 12 weeks to 24. then make shows longer from half hour to hour or more. Also channels need to stop the fad type of shows. This means that if a channel comes up with a show that some type of people like a lot do not copy it's type just to try and get the same type of people to watch. this will not make money for the advert makers as the same people that watch the first show have only one lot of money to spend. Because a show is a hit more money should not be put into it that changes the format. TV channels need to ask viewers more about the shows and timings with a postings and Internet. I do not know anyone that has had they channels & shows viewing looked into by any channel or other groups that deal with TV. There should be at lease one or more per town and if more than one tv area is covered in that town then it should be covered by another person in the viewing test. All drama shows should be made with out smoking shown in them as this does help the many that are trying to stop. Flash lighting in shows should be made less as it not right for people that have that illness, more flashing does make a show better for anyone. Bad words in shows do not make a show it only makes most real people switch over. Get real people to host shows not just because they are in so called news all the time for going to parties etc.
Mark, Sussex, on January 2nd, 2008
Hour long Emmerdale on Tuesday is a bad idea as it clashes with Eastenders why not just cut the 6th episode altogether
Hour long Emmerdale on Tuesday is a bad idea as it clashes with Eastenders why not just cut the 6th episode altogether
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Coronation street needs to be axed altogether !