Both ITV1 and ITV2 to feature more comedy in 2009
Peter Fincham, the new director of television at ITV, has just briefed his commissioning team as to the sort of shows he wants to see on the network in 2009. As predicted, being a former comedy producer, Fincham is looking to use comedy to boost the broadcaster's performance next year.
Peter Fincham is widely respected within the industry and much of ITV's future success is now resting on his shoulders. Previously BBC One controller and before that a producer at TalkbackThames, Fincham has a long track record of success. Amongst the show's he has worked on in the past are The Day Today, Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, I'm Alan Partridge, Smack the Pony, Da Ali G Show and Green Wing.
According to Broadcast Magazine, upon arriving at ITV, he has told commissioning editor of comedy Michaela Hennessy-Vass that sitcoms need to be a key priority going forward. He has reportedly said that she should focus on greenlighting series with broad appeal - things that viewers could grasp if it was summed up in one line, such as the package holiday theme behind Benidorm, ITV's only successful sitcom of recent years, or the call centre premise that features in the forthcoming ITV sitcom Mumbai Calling.
The industry talk is that Fincham is also looking to use his influence and connections to persuade a number of comedy stars to move over to ITV to help with this plan. As we reported earlier in the year, Little Britain creators Matt Lucas and David Walliams are likely to be top of the ITV 'shopping list' - they are friends with Fincham and it is known that their £6m golden handcuffs deal with the BBC is due to come to an end in just over a year's time.
ITV1 is looking to go head-to-head with the BBC in 2009 by putting comedy into its Friday night slots of 9pm, 9.30pm and 10pm. Meanwhile ITV2, which has been given over £30m to spend on programmes next year, is looking to give comedy prominence across the whole week.
ITV2 controller Zai Bennett has said that in 2009 he will be looking for up to four new comedy or sketch shows to fill half-hour slots between 10pm and 11pm during the week
. He has also made it clear to the independent production companies looking to pitch ideas that there will be no room for the niche or obscure
on his channel and thus we can expect to see fairly mainstream comedies on ITV2, all of which will be potential ITV1 cross-over material should they prove a success.
The first sitcom to be seen on ITV2 will be No Heroics, an all-star sitcom starting this September.