Nevertheless, ITV1 ended 2007 up 1% in all-adult and ABC1 commercial impacts and only 3% down in share on 2006; a splendid, indeed miraculous, result on the face of it. In truth, the station's revival owed more to the decision to replace afternoon kids' programming with repeats of Midsomer Murders and its like, and the unexpectedly strong performance of the England rugby team, than any magical "Michael Grade effect".
With the England football team failing to make this summer's European Championships, it is unlikely that ITV1 will be able to improve in 2008 - even with the return of News at Ten.
The wisdom, or otherwise, of that decision will be measured by how the preceding 9pm drama slot performs. The first tranche of dramas in the new schedule will not win any Baftas, but Taggart and Trial and Retribution are safe bets and there is optimism about new series, such as Honest, which may provide News at Ten with a decent enough platform to hold its own against BBC News.
The other key plank of the schedule is the creation of a light entertainment-led long weekend, with the jettisoning of soaps from Sunday evening, to accommodate Dancing On Ice. Like the decision to reinstate News at Ten, this has Michael Grade's nostalgic prints all over it - his uncle Lew must be beaming in light entertainment heaven. Would anyone bet against Brucie returning to ITV with his Generation Game to give Saturday nights a real 1970s flavour?
Still, ITV should be applauded for its boldness. Putting aside the return of Ladette to Lady, the schedule is commendably free of reality shows. With Big Brother burning itself out and being replaced in youthful popularity by The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, ITV should continue to take 16-34 impacts from Channel 4.
However, to sustain the strategy, Simon Shaps and his UK commissioning team, and Dawn Airey on the Hollywood beat, will need to be on top of their game, providing a steady stream of new drama, while making few wrong moves.
If they succeed, then this time next year we could be justifiably talking about the magical Grade effect.
- Colin Grimshaw is the deputy editor of Media Week.