[Gary Baldy]

And now we're back to the situation where Pointless Celebrities is in the centre of the schedule at 8pm when really it's an early evening show.    The Wheel is back next week too replacing Big Show with the last 5 episodes of the series, which TBH is better scheduling than it had in the autumn and a strong offering up against Ant and Dec.

The frustrating thing is the Beeb actually have a nice little set of Saturday night shows on BBC1 now after struggling for a while in the 2010s, but the scheduling of them is a nightmare. Because the Beeb can’t make their mind up where to put their light entertainment shows, Casualty always ends up suffering- I can’t think of any other show that’s been in as many timeslots.. some weeks it starts around 7, some weeks it’s nearly 10 o’clock… no wonder viewing figures have dipped- nobody knows what time the bloody thing’s on it now.


- Pointless Celebrities, Hit List, Mastermind, Bridge of Lies- these shows should be the lead in to something bigger, not the centrepiece of the schedule. I also don’t think Bridge of Lies is Saturday night material at all- it lacks the warmth banter of Pointless for example- that manages to have a bit more gravitas compared to its daytime equivalent in order for it to work well on Saturdays- Mastermind adds a bit of chit-chat in its celeb version too, but Bridge of Lies Celebrity Version is practically identical to the daytime version, to the point that they might as well have just bunged it out alongside the daytime episodes. I like the daytime version of Bridge of Lies, but it’s not Saturday night material at all- the celeb eps should air in the daytime slots, just like Moneybags’ celeb specials for C4 did. Bridge of Lies suffers from the same issue that House of Games Night did- it’s just too similar to the daytime version.

Strictly- this is the centre piece of the schedule, the main event- they don’t really have anything else on this scale, besides the Eurovision when that airs, but even then it’s only the final that airs on BBC1- I wonder will they put the semis on BBC1 this time with the UK hosting the event?

Big Show/Wheel- Big Show, when airing outside of Strictly season is the main event. The Wheel is better as the lead-out of the main event rather than the lead-in, as Big Show always was. It’s a shame The Wall’s gone too- I liked that one- Danny Dyer surprisingly good host.

Blankety Blank is OK- it’s just a bit… dated? I enjoy it but I’m not sure it feels like much effort is really put into it these days compared to the Wogan/Dawson eras- even the Lily Savage era- yes, the Lily era had more of a parody tone that the Bradley era has somewhat replicated, the difference being that the Lily Savage era’s comedy felt organic and authentic (I can only imagine the bloopers)- the comedy of the Bradley version feels forced, and dare I say it, safe- there’s not much innuendo anymore which was always a key part of previous incarnations. I still like it, it’s a fun little closer to the night, but I think they should choose either that *or* The Wheel to be the lead-out of the centrepiece, not airing them both on the same night. It’s interesting with Blankety Blank though- all 3 Christmas specials of the Bradley version have felt very much like classic Blankety Blank- why is the main series so bland, when the Christmas eps get the tone spot-on?