In an attempt to turn its schedule around, ITV had recently gone for a relatively brave approach in terms of ITV1's programming which will take a while to attract viewers that are more accustomed to the channel showing programmes such as Emmerdale, Foyle's War or the umpteenth celebrity edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
However ITV still appears to have kept some old and unwelcome habits when it comes to peaktime programmes at the weekend, namely moving things around in the schedule just when they have become settled. This applies in particular to that old battleground known as Saturday nights which has had mixed fortunes as of late.
At the beginning of its seven episode run, time travelling drama Primeval was in a 7pm slot, but it wasn't long before it got moved to slightly later start times then finally being moved back to 6.30pm last Saturday to make way for a new series of Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.
Then there's the underperforming quiz show Duel, which was initially shown at 8.30pm but got moved to a post-9pm slot pretty swiftly. And that relatively unusual choice for ITV1 evening entertainment Thank God You're Here has also been moved around the schedule more times than I care to remember.
Although ITV is trying to maximise the potential of each programme in the face of erstwhile changing competition, all this scheduling brinksmanship is rather tiresome for the viewer who just wants to sit down at a regularly scheduled time to watch his or her favourite programme as well as doing nothing to enhance ITV's image in the process.
If ITV wants to be known as a reliable and trustworthy broadcaster in the wake of a succession of industry-wide phone-in/fakery scandals, then parts of the weekend schedule are best left fixed in stone as is often the case elsewhere. ITV needs to hold its nerve in order to restore credibility even if other broadcasters are less obliging.
Plus the contentious use of those in-programme 'pop-up' captions advertising what's on "Next" and "Later" don't seem to be preventing certain programmes from 'tanking' in the ratings (so to speak), and their use could arguably be less necessary if programme start times were approaching something known as 'regular' on a week-to-week basis.
ITV not only needs to commission good programmes but to have ultimate faith in those programmes as well. It's no good commissioning a slew of programmes then suddenly having cold feet about them; after all, the people who work in ITV plc are supposed to be experts in knowing what people want and when they want it.
