[Score]

I do think rather than launch a new show in the slot ITV will rejig the schedule a bit. As Brekkie said, Masked Singer could easily sustain a couple more episodes and would benefit from not having to launch over Xmas/New Year which never works that well. I also think BGT could benefit from running a few weeks earlier, taking straight over from Masked Singer, maybe with the lives running from May Day rather than the Bank Holiday at the end of May. It would avoid that run of clashing with Eurovision/Champions League final etc.

It would also mean A&D could be spread better across the year rather than having almost all their shows in the first half of the year. I suspect whatever they do instead of Takeaway might be for September time rather than Feb/March.

I mean they could just jig things around and absorb the loss of the show, but it's another tent-pole show that's not being replaced. 

How about ITV come up with some new shows, they've never yet managed to replace XF in the autumn.

Of course they need to come up with new shows, I just think they’d be better off putting said new shows in September where they’re needed. Really they’re overstuffed on Saturdays in the first half of the year so as much as anything Takeaway going gives the rest of the lineup some breathing room.

Really The Masked Singer, Limitless Win and Starstruck are all the replacements for The X Factor. None existed whilst XF was on and it was them finding Masked Singer that meant they could shift The Voice into the Autumn. And then off the back of that it created the room in the schedule to launch Limitless and Starstruck. 

So it was a rejig but they still had to find the new shows. It just made sense to move something established (The Voice) into X Factor’s slot, and put the new stuff into the easier Q1 slot(s) instead. It’s the same here, put the new stuff where it’s more likely to work out and less likely to look like a direct replacement for the show that’s gone as that rarely works out (the comparisons to the previous show often don’t end well).