Quote: TopBanana @ July 9 2011, 4:35 PM BSTIt's bonkers.
You'll have a half-decent sitcom getting under 3m viewers and it will be seen as a failure.....and axed.
In context, 3m for a new sitcom would be pretty damn good. Corrie gets 8m-9m, so relatively speaking 3m is not to be sneered at.
3m for a new sitcom wouldnt be good for ITV1, the miminum would be 4m to be called vaguely successful.
Quote: dennispennis123 @ July 10 2011, 2:04 AM BST3m for a new sitcom wouldnt be good for ITV1, the miminum would be 4m to be called vaguely successful.
Yes, but it's expectation, dennispennis123. 4 million people wouldn't watch a sitcom on ITV, they'd think it's crap before they saw it - ITV need to adjust their thinking here.
Would they? Most of the public, particularly ITV's existing core audience, aren't aware of ITV's reputation. Many people seem only vaguely aware of a separate categorisation of programme as a 'sitcom'; they just watch something that's a funny programme.
All I can say is I find it bewildering what's going on at ITV, or what isn't going on, and that's comedy, especially sitcoms. I think they are nuts not to get on the sitcom train, just think of the advertising they'd attract if they could pull off another Rising Damp. It would have a knock on effect to bordering progs too.
And aren't they completely sick of the Beeb's smugness about their comedy record? You'd have thought it would stir up some real competitiveness in them, but, it just doesn't seem to! It's very disappointing because in their day, for a good few years, they completely outshone the BBC for peaktime shows. I thought Grade might turn things around. He didn't change a thing! I don't think he was allowed to.
And that is ITV's real problem. It is their rigidly populist ethos that the idiots in charge pay way too much attention to, and they're not even right to! I remember ITV in the 70s, its glory years. I tell you something, there was as much class on ITV in the evenings as there was on BBC1. They need to recapture this balance because nowdays it is way too down market on the whole, and this is their young executives' fault, because they really don't understand the true ITV from the past. They have ruined it. They come out of fancy unis with this and that but they know nuuuuthing.
It was far easier for ITV to develop sitcoms in the 70s when there were only three channels, meaning that the public pretty much had to watch whatever they put on.
Yes, but I don't buy that as an excuse in any way to stop bothering now. They can get viewers back imo, a lot of them, if they start making quality shows that catch on. But I don't mean more lazy comedy chat shows that cost little more than a pizza (Bacon's awful club). That just turns more people away.
But quality sitcoms with stories and characters people grow to love. Channel 4 managed it and now have an envious reputation for comedy. Why can't the infinitely more resourceful ITV? Maybe the desire to try it would be a big help.
The trouble is ITV need to attract advertisers so they are more likely to only work with established people.
Quote: Tim Azure @ July 10 2011, 7:54 AM BSTYes, but it's expectation, dennispennis123. 4 million people wouldn't watch a sitcom on ITV, they'd think it's crap before they saw it - ITV need to adjust their thinking here.
I agree, if ITV are serious are serious about making successful sitcoms again, they will have to grit their teeth and take some low ratings to improve their reputation again. Sadly, I feel ITV will just give up early on after a few bad ratings and make more cheap rubbish instead.
ITV would probably make a sitcom featuring Jedward, seeing as how appearing on the Shite Factor seems to give you the right to appear on any old ITV bullshit programme.
I think I may as well delete all ITV channels from my EPG.
It's all about the money with ITV, they just don't want to take risks do they? Most of the people who watch ITV wouldn't understand jokes anyways, most of them don't understand words.
Midsomer Murders and Art Attack are the only two shows worth watching. Now, I am off to make a sculpture of that woman I murdered out of egg boxes.
Quote: john lucas 101 @ July 8 2011, 10:20 AM BSTBring back Bottle Boys, I say. And a modern On The Buses with some kind of modern twist and casting.
Driver only buses? They could do it as comic monologues.
Whatever they bring back it will feature Peter f**king Andre or Cheryl f**king Cole, or any other talentless retard that twelve year olds like these days.
Quote: Aaron @ July 9 2011, 9:49 PM BSTDownton Abbey was excellent, and even Odd One In - whilst incredibly low-rent - is quite entertaining at times. Otherwise, I'd have to agree. Rarely anything worth watching.
ITVs drama record is reasonably respectable; they play safer than the Beeb but there are less out and out turkeys.
Quote: lofthouse @ July 15 2011, 10:38 AM BSTWhatever they bring back it will feature Peter f**king Andre or Cheryl f**king Cole, or any other talentless retard that twelve year olds like these days.
init
Get a sitcom right and you make millions, get it wrong and you lose millions... ITV do have it the toughest as they've got the most pressure on making ratings (C4's charter means it doesn't always have to deliver; whereas every viewer missed by ITV matters)...
Most sitcoms flop (just look at Lab Rats - genius team, but it still didn't work)... the BBC can easily ride a flop out, but if something dies on ITV it kills them. Example: When Mumbai Calling tanked on Saturday nights in 2009 I understand it cost them extra money on top of what they'd already paid to have it made, due to the lower advertising.
So that's why they tend not to do sitcoms but opt for 'safer' options like drama (someone, I forget who, wisely pointed out it's easier to make people cry than it is to make them laugh)...
But, yes, it seems they're going to try a few more sitcoms in the hope one of them sticks around like Benidorm has done - as when a sitcom works it is ratings gold.