Constant diet of Reality TV works. Constant diet of Friends doesn't.
Reality ratings boost ITV2
So a constant diet of formulaic TV reality TV (I'm a Celeb, American Idol etal) has sent ITV2 spinning to become the second most popular entertainment channel in the first three months of 2004. Depressingly (the Media Guardian reports), only one of ITV2's top 20 shows was not a reality TV show.
Whoever said appealing to the lowest denominator works?
Meanwhile E4 would have lost a substantial chunk of its viewers had it not been helped by the launch of it E4+1.
For a TV station that seemed to promise so much (and deliver it) in the beginning, E4 has been on a downward slide for some time. But then looking at its schedule, you have to wonder just how many times people can watch endlessly looped repeats of Friends, Father Ted and Smack the Pony.
