So, after hearing about it a while back, I decided to watch the first episode of “Pushing Daisies” on ITV1 on Saturday.
First time I’ve actually chosen to watch ITV1 in a long time…
… and it was really good. Definitely something I want to keep watching… even if it’s on ITV (which I’ve almost always found to be shite, IMO).
So what do I hear today? ITV have done something incredibly stupid & decided to drop the second episode, for “scheduling reasons”… seems they didn’t realise that a NINE episode season wouldn’t fit into EIGHT weeks. Ooops. Seems they can’t show it for nine weeks, ‘cos the all-important Euro2008 will be starting (featuring a grand-total of ZERO UK HOME NATIONS).
And they didn’t think to, say, show a double bill last Saturday. Nope, why do that, when you can follow up ep1 with another American Pie repeat (1 or 2… I don’t remember, oh, & it got awful ratings compared to Pushing Daisies apparently).
They even blamed it on the WGA Strike… don’t see how that’s relevant, though, seeing as if there’d not been a strike, Pushing Daisies would have had 22 episodes, not 9. Would they have cut 14 in that case, instead of 1?
Some stories…
Daily Mail (sorry!)
I’ve emailed ITV about it…
Dear ITV,
I know this is not the first email you have had from a viewer regarding your insane treatment of “Pushing Daisies”, and I very much doubt it will be the last.
Do you realise how much bad press – and bad feeling – ITV has created with its nonsensical scheduling? The story has been all over the BBC, DigitalSpy, the national press, etc… and there are also many, many, angry – and long – threads about it popping up on different discussion forums all over the internet.
To be honest, I have pretty much always thought of ITV as being rubbish, so I was very surprised when I heard that ITV had actually bought the UK rights to a *decent* series like “Pushing Daisies”, which has been a huge success in the US with both the critics & the ratings…
… of course, I was then not too surprised to hear that ITV were dropping episode 2… I guessed that ITV would do *something* stupid to mess it up, although I really didn’t expect something quite this ridiculously stupid.
Why not show a double bill last Saturday, & either a) not show American Pie, or b) show American Pie an hour later?
Why not start the run a week earlier, so it had 9 weeks instead of 8?
Why not extend the run forward to 9 weeks, & move the football that night to somewhere else? [seeing as none of the UK's Home Nations are in Euro2008 anyway!]
Or…. Why not actually *count* the number of episodes when you bought them, & then prepare a schedule of appropriate length? [9 episodes = 9 weeks!]
Did ITV honestly not realise that NINE episodes had been bought, for an EIGHT week run?
I also fail to understand how ITV can they blame the WGA Strike? If it hadn’t have been for the WGA Strike, “Pushing Daisies” would have had a full 22 episode run… what would ITV have done then? Dropped 14 episodes instead of 1?!
Please do not insult my intelligence with the same standard reply I’ve seen online about “scheduling restrictions” & “due to the writers’ strike…” etc… Any “scheduling restrictions” are of ITV’s own making, due to an inability to count; while the WGA Strike is irrelevant.
I dearly hope that season 2 of “Pushing Daisies” is purchased by Sky or Channel 4… quality programmes seem to have no place on ITV, in my opinion, plus at least Sky/C4 would treat it properly.
Regards,
Matt Dodd
Only got a crappy bog standard reply though… to be expected, really.
Bollocks to ITV. They’re not getting my viewing.