[Score]

That press pack seems really uninspiring.  The best dramas obviously being syphoned off for X and as a result it kind of feels like it cheapens the main channel.  Obviously X is the future and its an autumn going to be dominated by the Rugby World Cup but its still somewhat muted. 

Entertainment clearly lacking, but I guess they will be hoping that Rugby does the business on Saturday nights where entertainment against Strictly usually fails.

It is uninspiring. I think the Rugby explains entertainment to an extent as it will take up a lot of weekend slots, but The Voice is clearly in for a battering come November, particularly as it won’t be able to avoid Strictly with I’m a Celebrity on after it some weeks. They really do need to come up with something stronger for 2024.

The drama lineup is lacklustre though. I’m not sure how much of it is down to ITVX either as looking at the ITVX stuff, some of it seems to be imports, the only ITVX dramas that actually seem to be ITV commissions are the second series of Crime, Archie, Platform 7 and The Winter King. And whilst I think they are more interesting looking than the ITV1 dramas, none strike me as ratings winners. 

I do think there’s a real lack of returning drama on ITV now. The Sunday 2 hour dramas do well but they need the equivalent on weeknights in 1 hour drama, yet don’t seem in any rush to find them. Doc Martin ended last year and there’s been no attempt to replace it, they canned Good Karma Hospital, Grantchester (which gets mediocre numbers but is at least a staple) appears to have been delayed. They’ve only really got The Bay which returns year after year on weeknights, Unforgotten seems to be on a 2 year cycle now. They need their equivalents to Silent Witness and Death in Paradise but there doesn’t seem to be any urgency to find them. And to be fair BBC1 aren’t doing much better, although did at least launch Beyond Paradise this year which did very well. Perhaps ITV should have stuck with The Long Call and actually marketed it as a Vera spin-off.