Channel 4 has ruled out the return of a Big Breakfast-style TV format and will instead launch a series of pilot shows to bring back original content in its problematic morning slot.
The broadcaster claims to be quite happy with the performance in the ratings of a line-up of repeats, featuring the likes of Friends, since the axing of the dismal Ri:se a year ago.
But programming boss Kevin Lygo has been on the lookout for new shows, with the broadcaster conscious it should be seen to be coming up with its own content.
Back in June, he admitted to an industry audience that the slot was very difficult.
He said: “Honest to God, there’s not a single idea that has arrived on my desk that you want to even return the call.”
Lygo is understood to have ditched plans for a new show called The Good, The Bad and The Early, which was to be hosted by Russell Brand, last seen as the loud-mouthed anchor on Big Brother ’s EForum.
Despite an off-screen pilot, C4 has decided not to go ahead with the show, which had been planned to take a light-hearted, topical look at current affairs and celebrity issues.
Other shows are in the pipeline, but Channel 4 was keen to stress this week that it was not seeking a replacement for the massive 1990s hit Big Breakfast.
It is believed the broadcaster has decided to scrap the idea of a two-hour live breakfast show, having failed to capture anything like the audience of Big Breakfast at its peak when Ri:se came on the menu.
In fact, despite the search for new shows, C4 has performed substantially better with repeats of Friends and other imports such as Everybody Loves Raymond than it did with Ri:se .
C4 claims that in an ever more competitive marketplace, it is virtually impossible to repeat the commercial success of the Big Breakfast, which launched the TV career of Chris Evans and later made household names of Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen.
When launched, satellite TV was in its infancy, Five had not even been born and radio companies were not investing such huge sums in their breakfast slots, which has seen the likes of Evans and Vaughan swap media.
One TV insider said: “A lot of people tend to look back at the Big Breakfast with rose-tinted spectacles. “Whereas, in its prime, it was getting between 500,000 and a million in the ratings, by the time it was dropped by Channel 4 it was down to 250,000.
“The fact is that radio competes far more effectively with TV during the breakfast slot than at any other time of the day, which, combined with the increased competition from the likes of satellite, will make it very difficult to repeat what happened with that show.”
Andy Zonfrillo, managing partner at MindShare, said that while agencies would welcome the return of original content on Channel 4 at breakfast time, they would not do so at the expense of viewers or investment in prime time.
“In the world of CRR, commercial impacts are very important for C4,” he said.
“ Big Breakfast in its prime was a vibrant and original format.
Could C4 come up with something just as vibrant? I think the answer is yes.
“But would we want them to invest in a two-hour breakfast show, rather than, say, come up with vibrant and original peak-time programming? I would say no.
“It’s a question of priorities.”
Lygo said recently in his presentation to agencies in the run-up to the TV trading season that he would not launch “half-cooked” ideas for the breakfast slot.
Source: Media Week -
http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/articles/fol ... 4confronts
Tis Brill
chrismoyles.net
