Variety act
Investors tell ITV to ditch Allen for Dyke
You can almost feel sorry for Charles Allen at this point; his ITV plc has spent a lot of time and effort trying to placate shareholders by showing more soaps, Pop Idol, Millionaire, reality TV and Carol Vorderman but this hasn't caused viewers to consistently flock back to ITV1 despite the odd peak in the viewing figures. An hour-long episode of Emmerdale might be effective in countering EastEnders but that's just soap versus soap and provides nothing that alludes to real and consistent growth in terms of viewers.
ITV's investors are getting restless at ITV1 'treading water' in this fashion so they understandably want Greg Dyke at the helm for a bit more action, so to speak; what is desperately needed at ITV is something called imagination. Ask yourself the question: would Spitting Image have been commisioned by ITV if it had never existed prior to 2004?
The old regional system may have had its faults but having several companies commissioning their own programmes at least increased the odds of an unusual idea being accepted somewhere within the network then being allowed to prove itself on a national or regional basis, as opposed to ITV plc where it's only a few people responsible for one set of programmes that get commissioned because there is now so much more to lose if they get it wrong and nothing apart from audience figures (and investors) to persuade them otherwise.
