Andrew post_id=36959 time= user_id=791 Wrote:Of course has a relaunch of a long running show ever actually worked, or just made the decline quicker, as nobody new switches on, and many current viewers switch off

Flux post_id=36974 time= user_id=766 Wrote:

Andrew post_id=36959 time= user_id=791 Wrote:Of course has a relaunch of a long running show ever actually worked, or just made the decline quicker, as nobody new switches on, and many current viewers switch off

Top Gear is probably the prime example of a successful relaunch. They flipped the original show on its head and created a successful format which is still running today. So it can work. But the odds are definitely stacked against any show that’s in that position because if they were still successful they wouldn’t need a relaunch in the first place.

Col87 post_id=36979 time= user_id=1400 Wrote:Of course Crossroads was only brought back because ITV lost home and away to channel 5 and needed something for that slot. To be fair when it was originally brought it seemed decent enough but was never going to rate high. That whole period was quite wired though because they tried everything in that 5PM with wheel of fortune basically taking the slot for almost with local news starting as early as 5:30 ( at least in the Tyne Tees region). Crossroads then for a short while was in a 5PM soap hour with the equally fated night and day. The ratings where so bad Blue Peter and the 5PM drama along with Newsround would regularly beat them in the ratings while home and away after been off for year launched at a new 6PM and was doing ok. ITV then seemed to struggle for years in that 5PM slot with Paul O Grady eventually starting to do well but then that ended up been short lived as he then took his show to channel 4 and several live shows where tried in the slot none of them doing that well with Richard Hammond been the best of a bad bunch but he then had that accident and once he was recovered signed a new contract with the BBC so that ruled out his show from coming back. It was only when the Chase started over 3 years later that ITV finally started going well in the 5PM hour after one flop after another but definitely crossroads not working out is what forced ITV to struggle for most of the 2000s.

Neil Jones post_id=36994 time= user_id=961 Wrote:

Col87 post_id=36979 time= user_id=1400 Wrote:Of course Crossroads was only brought back because ITV lost home and away to channel 5 and needed something for that slot. To be fair when it was originally brought it seemed decent enough but was never going to rate high. That whole period was quite wired though because they tried everything in that 5PM with wheel of fortune basically taking the slot for almost with local news starting as early as 5:30 ( at least in the Tyne Tees region). Crossroads then for a short while was in a 5PM soap hour with the equally fated night and day. The ratings where so bad Blue Peter and the 5PM drama along with Newsround would regularly beat them in the ratings while home and away after been off for year launched at a new 6PM and was doing ok. ITV then seemed to struggle for years in that 5PM slot with Paul O Grady eventually starting to do well but then that ended up been short lived as he then took his show to channel 4 and several live shows where tried in the slot none of them doing that well with Richard Hammond been the best of a bad bunch but he then had that accident and once he was recovered signed a new contract with the BBC so that ruled out his show from coming back. It was only when the Chase started over 3 years later that ITV finally started going well in the 5PM hour after one flop after another but definitely crossroads not working out is what forced ITV to struggle for most of the 2000s.

Actually ITV "fixed" their 5pm ratings grabber long before The Chase came along. Golden Balls did well in that slot and there were a few other examples of programming that they dropped in that lasted. Most of it didn't, but Golden Balls did, though it ended when Chase came along.

We've had the Crossroads discussion before though, and ITV effectively shot themselves in the foot with the entire saga. They lost Home & Away, invoked their "year long" break clause, and didn't have anything to replace it with. IIRC the show came off the air in June 2000, Crossroads wasn't actually commissioned until August 2000 and didn't start filming until October for a March 2001 start. ITV daytime once they lost Home & Away was a horrible mixture of Heaven only knows what until Crossroads came along, and they were lost without H&A.

XIII post_id=36961 time= user_id=894 Wrote:

Andrew post_id=36959 time= user_id=791 Wrote:What always gets airbrushed out of discussions like that is that shows that are riding high at the top of the ratings don’t generally have a relaunch forced upon them

Obviously those who liked the previous version and didn’t like the new version would say that, as they were one of the people still watching, but if many others weren’t, maybe it was thought something must be done

Of course has a relaunch of a long running show ever actually worked, or just made the decline quicker, as nobody new switches on, and many current viewers switch off

It's not a relaunch as such but I always find it interesting that some dramas can survive a cast change but others can't. Death in Paradise got a new lease of life when Ben Miller decided to leave and they got Kris Marshall as the new detective and it's become their thing that a new detective comes to Saint Marie every couple of years whereas New Tricks slowly lost viewers as the original cast left and were replaced and was eventually the BBC decided not to renew it in 2015 but I believe the higher ups weren't all that keen on it so once ratings dropped, they had a reason to get rid of it.

Col87 post_id=36979 time= user_id=1400 Wrote:Of course Crossroads was only brought back because ITV lost home and away to channel 5 and needed something for that slot. To be fair when it was originally brought it seemed decent enough but was never going to rate high. That whole period was quite wired though because they tried everything in that 5PM with wheel of fortune basically taking the slot for almost with local news starting as early as 5:30 ( at least in the Tyne Tees region). Crossroads then for a short while was in a 5PM soap hour with the equally fated night and day. The ratings where so bad Blue Peter and the 5PM drama along with Newsround would regularly beat them in the ratings while home and away after been off for year launched at a new 6PM and was doing ok. ITV then seemed to struggle for years in that 5PM slot with Paul O Grady eventually starting to do well but then that ended up been short lived as he then took his show to channel 4 and several live shows where tried in the slot none of them doing that well with Richard Hammond been the best of a bad bunch but he then had that accident and once he was recovered signed a new contract with the BBC so that ruled out his show from coming back. It was only when the Chase started over 3 years later that ITV finally started going well in the 5PM hour after one flop after another but definitely crossroads not working out is what forced ITV to struggle for most of the 2000s.

As for top gear I think it was possibly more of a case of the BBC wanting rid. While it probably was not a big ratings draw it must have been fairly cheap to make and had with the motorsport and top gear take two spin offs was clearly doing something right. If it was a poor ratings like claimed I doubt channel 5 would have been interested in it. Although it was probably 5th gear itself experimenting with the format which allowed Top Gear to return a year later and even that first series proved to not to be that good I believe May only joined from series 2 or 3 when it started to be the successful format people know. I would say Top gear found its feet again the series after Evens left as Le Blanc Ried and Harris made a good team. It was only due to Le Blanc leaving to concentrate on his new sitcom what forced them having to bring in a presenting team but yes it proved successful enough to get a move to BBC one.

Robertclark125 post_id=36975 time= user_id=1163 Wrote:But, as we know, Carlton decided in 2000 to bring it back, and this time it was a hotel, not a motel. But, poor scripts saw the show take a six month hiatus in 2002, and when it returned, the poor scripts, and some questionable acting, remained. The axe fell, and the somewhat ridiculous ending, of a character waking up in the office of a supermarket, having fainted, and dreamt about a TV soap opera called Crossroads, and then seeing all the characters in her dream working in the supermarket, was far fetched, to say the least. It didn't go out on a high, though perhaps it didn't deserve to.

JAS84 post_id=37058 time= user_id=881 Wrote:

Robertclark125 post_id=36975 time= user_id=1163 Wrote:But, as we know, Carlton decided in 2000 to bring it back, and this time it was a hotel, not a motel. But, poor scripts saw the show take a six month hiatus in 2002, and when it returned, the poor scripts, and some questionable acting, remained. The axe fell, and the somewhat ridiculous ending, of a character waking up in the office of a supermarket, having fainted, and dreamt about a TV soap opera called Crossroads, and then seeing all the characters in her dream working in the supermarket, was far fetched, to say the least. It didn't go out on a high, though perhaps it didn't deserve to.

True. I assume that ending was done so that a later reboot could just follow on from the 1988 ending while ignoring the entire revival run? Of course, no new reboot has happened since - they don't need a third soap now that Coronation Street and Emmerdale air for three hours per week each.

Brekkie post_id=37018 time= user_id=976 Wrote:

XIII post_id=36961 time= user_id=894 Wrote:

Andrew post_id=36959 time= user_id=791 Wrote:What always gets airbrushed out of discussions like that is that shows that are riding high at the top of the ratings don’t generally have a relaunch forced upon them

Obviously those who liked the previous version and didn’t like the new version would say that, as they were one of the people still watching, but if many others weren’t, maybe it was thought something must be done

Of course has a relaunch of a long running show ever actually worked, or just made the decline quicker, as nobody new switches on, and many current viewers switch off

It's not a relaunch as such but I always find it interesting that some dramas can survive a cast change but others can't. Death in Paradise got a new lease of life when Ben Miller decided to leave and they got Kris Marshall as the new detective and it's become their thing that a new detective comes to Saint Marie every couple of years whereas New Tricks slowly lost viewers as the original cast left and were replaced and was eventually the BBC decided not to renew it in 2015 but I believe the higher ups weren't all that keen on it so once ratings dropped, they had a reason to get rid of it.

Guess Skins falls in that category with completely changing their cast every two years - they got away with it once but not so much the second time around.

Arguably though Skins took that strategy to avoid losing it's stars one by one as time moved on - a clean slate was a better approach though there was some continuity from Gen I to Gen II with Effy which really helped. Gen III suffered from having no connections at all to the previous cast.

XIII post_id=37135 time= user_id=894 Wrote:Spooks replacing the cast every so often made sense story wise as the world of espionage is very dangerous.

Silent Witness was another that gained a new lease of life when Amanda Burton was replaced by Emilia Fox in 2004 and she's been in for over 17 years and it has survived multiple cast changes.