2 posts tagged “scheduling”
But recently that seems to be changing. ITV have been showing a couple of American import that seem to be aimed at people exactly like me. Firstly they started showing Dexter (to be honest I'm not sure how much I like Dexter, but it's certainly non-standard fare for ITV) and then last weekend they started showing Pushing Daisies which, judging by the first episode, I'm going to enjoy very much.
ITV certainly seem to be very proud of Pushing Daisies. It has had one of the biggest advertising campaigns that I can ever remember from ITV. There have been trailers and posters everywhere for weeks. And it seems to be going very well for them. Most of the reviews I've read have been very positive.
But they seem to be on the verge of blowing it completely. The first series of Pushing Daisies contains nine episodes. And ITV only have eight weeks in which to show them. After that, some football competition starts. Much as I'd love to live in a world where quality drama trumps sport, I know that's some considerable way off and that there's no way that ITV will make way in their football schedules for something like Pushing Daisies. But even then their solution seems bizarre in the extreme.
They are planning to drop one of the episodes. The second one apparently. The one that is due to be shown next weekend. They think that it's the only one they can drop without leaving significant holes in the plot. Is that really the best they could do? Couldn't they squeeze an extra episode in one week? Show two episodes the first week? Or the last week ("Big Pushing Daisies Series Finale Night")? I mean it's not as though any of this came as a surprise to them. They must have known how many episodes the series had. And the start date for Euro 2008 has, no doubt, been set for some time. All in all I think it shows a strangely inflexible attitude to scheduling.
So just as ITV started to go up in my estimation as a TV company. I was just starting to warm to them and now I'm back to viewing everything they do with suspicion. Perhaps they really don't care. Maybe they were only making a token effort at attracting viewers like me.
p.s. I hope it's obvious, but I'll be scouring bittorrent for the missing episode.
As is becoming traditional (well, this is at least the second year I've done it) at this time of the year, it's interesting to look around for hints about when the new series of Doctor Who will launch. Normally it's about Easter, but Easter is about as early as it gets this year - and it's definitely not starting this weekend.
Of course, it won't start until Torchwood has finished. And there are still a few episodes of that to run. But the BBC seem to have noticed that issue too and from this week, they'll be showing two episodes a week (on Wednesday - as usual - but also on Friday), so that means that Torchwood will be out of the way in just over a week.
The BBC Doctor Who site isn't giving anything away yet (well, yes, it's giving away Doctor Who wallpapers - but you know what I mean) but a couple of days ago they ran a news story saying that the trailer for the new series will be shown on Saturday 22nd. Since when was the broadcast of a trailer such big news?
Obviously the show won't start on the same day as the first broadcast of the trailer. So we can say that the earliest it will start is Saturday 29th March. But then I saw this post on TV Scoop (which I found via Planet Dr Who) which claims that David Tennant and Catherine Tate will be guests on the Jonathan Ross show on Friday April 4th. It seems likely that this appearance will be promoting the start of the new season. So that's where I'm sticking my marker.
I reckon the new series will start on Saturday 5th April.
Update: Looks like the CBBC Newsround site is the first one to confirm that date.
