[James2001]

Hollyoaks being cut to three eps a week.

www.broadcastnow.co.uk 

Feels quite likely at this point that the show's slowly being wound down.

Though admittedly a cut in episodes across the board with soaps is probably needed, 3 hours a week of Corrie and Emmerdale is too much.

[JMT1985]

Why don't Channel 4 just axe it and stop the meddling around with it - put it, the cast and what is left of it's audience out of their misery.

I was watching an interview Graham Norton did with the creator/writer of Big Boys Jack Rooke, and boy could I feel the mismanagement at Channel 4 in this interview, when Jack said there was hardly any publicity for the show, in fact people only found out about series one, after he was interviewed by Graham before.

Again, Channel 4 have a great show, and literally bury it. Shoving it on a Sunday, where I got the feeling from this interview that Jack was not best pleased about the slot chosen for series two.

Channel 4 needs an entirely new management and schedule team - it seems they have now totally lost their way and just think cutting budgets and cutting episodes will solve their problems - it won't, that is simply putting a plaster over cancer.

Also, I laughed when Graham was promoting where Big Boys can be seen, and Graham had no idea what the Channel 4 streaming service is now called. In fact Jack's mum still calls it 4OD - that is another sign your brand is dying a death, when they now just call their streaming service Channel 4 - at least with ITV, you know their streaming service is ITVX and apparently doing far better than Channel 4 streaming.

What a mess Channel 4 are in!

[tellyblues]

Series 1 of Big Boys was shown on Thursdays so it was given a chance but viewing figures dropped off, although it's OK that people didn't like it enough to keep watching.

I'm not sure that Channel 4's other shows would act as great publicity for it as they attract different audiences, which was the point I was trying to make before, and it won't appeal to everyone (despite what its writer claims). Other channels can get away with showing perhaps seen as niche content because they can soften the blow of poor ratings with the performance of other shows but C4 can't and as a channel which isn't exactly the go-to option nowadays and where cross-promotion of programming is more crucial, if they have to make shows like Big Boys and for them to be popular then the current schedule isn't helping. But how long do they give new pre-watershed shows of a similar target audience and would they even succeed? Just to point out, doing this wouldn't mean C4 would be exclusive to young people.

[Brekkie]

The problem with comedy is it's bounced all over the place now. They need to pick a slot and try to stick with it - I'd go for Thursdays at 10pm with new shows at 10pm followed by a repeat of a recent show - as it's reruns which turn comedies into hits.

That said with The Last Leg cut back and Lateish Show axed there should be more opportunities to run comedy at 10pm on Fridays too, after their highest rated show of the week.

I'd happily trade 104 episodes of Hollyoaks for a final series of Big Boys though - it's clearly a three act series.

[tellyblues]

I don't think Channel 4 have axed Big Boys though - more the writer thought two series was enough. Probably best to leave it that way instead of being forced to crank out scripts.

[Brekkie]

I don't think the writer has called time on it. The second series did not complete the story - it's clearly set up for a third.

[tellyblues]

Just going by a couple of interviews the writer has done, including the aforementioned one with Graham Norton. I didn't watch it and won't so can't comment in a plot/story sense.

[Brekkie]

See Find It, Fix It, Flog It, which has run in daytime on C4 for 7 years, has now moved to UKTV with a new series on Yesterday later this month.

corporate.uktv.co.uk 

UKTV restores Find It, Fix It, Flog It to TV screens with new double series peak…
HCA Entertainment to produce new episodes for Yesterday and UKTV Play
  Source: corporate.uktv.co.uk

Any news on ratings in the ex-Packed Lunch slot?

[RhysJR]

Any news on ratings in the ex-Packed Lunch slot?

What's been replacing it? Repeats of more of the same or has there been anything special/different?

[Brekkie]

What's been replacing it? Repeats of more of the same or has there been anything special/different?

Repeats of course but generally two hour long shows, including Find It, Fix It, Flog It, rather than Come Dine with Me or Four in a Bed marathons.