Blind Date

Making Shows Great Again

In recent years, we have seen such enduring favourites as Blind Date, Top Gear, Dancing on Ice and Robot Wars revamped and returned, with the aim of recapturing loyal audiences and attracting new ones.

We have seen The Great British Bake-Off switch channels and talent and receive just as much love and adoration on Channel 4 as it did on BBC. The key question is: when do you stick and when do you twist? In the company of four experienced TV executives intimately acquainted with one of TV’s great gambles, we find out….

Making Shows Great Again | Highlights

It is one of the greatest dilemmas in popular telly – when to persist with a popular franchise, give it a lick of paint and some new talent, and when to mothball it, only to drag it out of the store cupboard, to enchant a whole new generation of TV viewers. 

In recent years, we have seen such enduring favourites as Blind Date, Top Gear, Dancing on Ice and Robot Wars revamped and returned, with the aim of recapturing loyal audiences and attracting new ones.

Making Shows Great Again | Full video

Watch what happened at our latest event, where TV bosses discussed whether bringing back old TV formats shows that we're running out of ideas, or if some shows are just worth giving a make over for new audiences.

Journalist Caroline Frost was joined by a panel of TV experts to discuss just that.

Joining Caroline on the panel were:
Sean Doyle, Channel 5, Commissioning Editor, Blind Date
Camilla Lewis, CEO, Curve Media
Richard McKerrow, Love Productions, Executive Producer, The Great British Bake Off
Ella Umansky, Head of Format Support, ITV Studios

Should there be more TV revivals?

From left: Sean Doyle, Ella Umansky, Caroline Frost, Camilla Lewis and Richard McKerrow (Credit: RTS/Paul Hampartsoumian)
These are robust TV formats, which, over many years, bring audiences to broadcasters and profits to production companies. But they are the exception, not the rule in television.
 
At an RTS early evening event in early June, a panel of top TV execs discussed what gives formats legs.
 
The central London event took place a day after the triumphant return of ITV2’s Love Island, which attracted a peak audience of 3.4 million. The series opener averaged 2.95 million viewers, more than double last year’s first episode.
 

Paul O'Grady to host Blind Date reboot

The hit dating show will take romantic hopefuls back to a time when you could not be judged on your best selfie and there was no such thing as an online dating profile. 

The 90s match-making show has had a modern update; a new generation of singletons will compete to find their potential mates in front of a live audience with new twists, as well as the introduction of LGBT contestants for the first time on the show. 

RTS Legend Cilla Black remembered

Cilla Black

Cilla Black, the singer and much-loved television presenter, has died.

Black’s showbiz career began in the clubs of Liverpool, where she often sang alongside her friends The Beatles.

It was John Lennon and Paul McCartney who wrote Black’s first single, Love of the Loved, which went to number 35 in the charts. However, it was her version of Anyone Who Had a Heart, originally recorded by Dionne Warwick, that propelled her to number one and set her on the way to becoming a national treasure.

This week's top TV: 6 - 12 July

Emma and James get Married at First Sight

Monday

Idris Elba: No Limits

Discovery, 9pm


Idris Elba (Credit: Discovery UK)

Drag racing, aerobatics, rally driving and land speed record attempts might seem like the perfect training ground for a would-be James Bond, but Luther star Idris Elba has denied that he will be taking that baton from Daniel Craig.