Repeats of London’s Burning have become the first casualty of a shakeup
in ITV’s scheduling, following complaints by advertisers over declining
audience figures.
Marcus Plantin, ITV’s network director, has moved quickly in the past
two weeks to win back lost viewers, scheduling event-led programming and
dropping repeats.
London’s Burning was dropped last weekend and replaced by the movie
premiere The Distinguished Gentleman. This weekend the London’s Burning
slot will be filled by another film, Police Academy 5.
A spokeswoman for LWT said: ‘We are trying to see what viewers want, and
are listening to advertisers. We are making more of an event of Saturday
night.’
Last weekend’s efforts seemed to pay off, with ITV claiming a 41% share
of Saturday primetime viewing, over 35% for BBC1. This was better than
May 18 when ITV had 35% share and BBC1 41%.
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