Abacat's What If's/ITV2

**ITV2** is a British television channel, owned jointly by Granada Television and Thames Television under the ITV Broadcasting plc subsidiary. The channel is primarily aimed at the 21-39 age group and is known for being more experimental and younger skewing than ITV1, with a schedule of comedy, drama, factual programmes such as true crime and politics, game shows, news, world drama, movies, sport and children's programmes. It replaced Channel 5 in September 1992.

In the channel's 30 year history, it has been the home to successful shows including *The Bill, Big Brother, Men Behaving Badly, Love Island, Big Brother, Abadaba, Spaced, Moving Wallpaper, The Royle Family, Family Guy, Police Interceptors* and *Harry Hill's TV Burp* as well as game-changing, innovative and risk taking content such as *Band of Gold*, *Cracker,* *Queer As Folk* and *The Second Coming*.

## History

### Channel 5

In 1987, after much political debate and speculation, the Government and the Independent Broadcasting Authority gave the go ahead to a fifth national, commercial television network. A bidding round would be held to determine who would win the license to broadcast on the frequencies from 1990.

In May 1989, the IBA awarded the franchise to C5 Broadcasting, a consortium consisting of Carlton Communications, CLT-UFA, Kerry Packer - owner of Australia's Nine Network - and Richard Desmond, a pornographic publisher and later the likes of *OK!* and the *Daily Express*. Within months, the channel announced the hiring of the highly controversial Kelvin MacKenzie, from The Sun, to present a weekly current affairs programme, just months after he ran the headline 'The Truth' in his paper to much outcry.

C5 was to be 'unashamedly Conservative' in regards to it's news and current affairs output, especially with Richard Desmond, Kerry Packer and Michael P Green, a friend of Thatcher, behind the channel. The channel signed on Bernard Manning and Johnny Speight (whose sitcoms *Till Death Us Do Part* and *Curry & Chips* typically dealt with racism) for a new comedy series, and Kenny Everett, a supporter of the Tories, was given a music and sketch programme.

The IBA was highly critical of the conservative slant and ordered 10 hours a month of more culturally diverse programmes.

Hence the likes of Chris Tarrant, Michael Aspel, Julian Clary, Sally James, Derek Jameson and Gloria Hunniford were poached from the competing terrestrial networks with exclusive contracts for 5. It's also reported that the channel unsuccessfully tried to poach Cilla Black and Des O'Connor from LWT and Thames Television respectively. As the channel got closer to launch, more programmes were announced. Jayne Irving would also be poached from TV-AM to co-present a new breakfast programme with Aspel, Julian Clary would host a UK version of the striptease game show *Colpo grosso*, renamed *Big Shots*, and Bel Mooney was announced as the host of the evening news. Acquired programmes would include *The Wonder Year*s, *General Hospital* and *Seinfeld*.

Channel 5 launched fully on 15 April 1990. Despite high targets and ambitions, the network failed to catch on with the public, with low ratings and negative publicity from within the media. Kerry Packer divested his stake of Channel 5 in September 1990. Berlusconi quit in April 1991, and going with him, was the flower logo. Channel 5 was quickly rebranded in June launching in it's place an avant-garde, highbrow look, although it can be argued this was at odds with the network's mainstream output. The channel began to suffer serious budgetary problems around this time, with the channel's runtime reduced from 24 hours a day to a 5.00pm-1.00am broadcast schedule, even on weekends.

### ITV2 pre-launch (1991-92)

With Channel 5 in serious trouble, Richard Desmond sold his stake in Channel 5 to half-owners Carlton Television in November 1991. Carlton, alongside fellow ITV contractors Granada, LWT, Yorkshire and Central, immediately proposed to the ITC the idea of operating Channel 5 as a joint service in co-operation with each other, and with contributions from other franchises within the ITV network. with programmes provided to compliment and counter those on the main ITV network, and presented under a new channel name, ITV2 - to solidify it's place as ITV's second channel. After the ITC approved the proposals in December, planning began on the rebranded network.

The programmes on ITV2 would compete with those on BBC2 and Channel 4 - and unlike the conservative Channel 5, ITV2 would target younger, more intelligent and liberal audiences by commissioning programmes primarily in genres not well served by the rest of ITV - including alternative comedy, edgy contemporary drama, cult science fiction, arts and cultural, live sports coverage, world cinema, public access, current affairs, children's and youth magazines and minority programmes.

ITV was also beginning to consider the viability shifting some of it's public service commitments to ITV2, including religious programmes, current affairs programmes such as *World in Action* and *First Tuesday* and the lunchtime programmes for young children. Whilst the idea for moving preschool programmes across was approved albiet only from Autumn 1993 onwards, the ITC ruled that current affairs and religion had to be kept on the main network.

### Relaunch as ITV2 (1992-96)

ITV2 was relaunched on the evening of 4th September 1992. The usage of the ITV brand, alongside a new programme schedule, proved massively successful. The network's comedy output included poaching comedy double acts *Fry and Laurie* and *Vic and Bob* from the BBC and Channel Four respectively to helm new programmes. The channel also acquired the British terrestrial rights to air *The Simpsons*. Channel 5 News was revamped as *The Newsdesk* with Dermot Murnaghan, and some Channel 5 shows including *Night Fever*, *The Julian Clary Show* and *Hard Copy* remained in the schedule. The channel was by this point only closing down five nights a week, remaining on air through the night on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

New programmes commisioned specially for the launch included twice-weekly drama serial *Dream Team* set in a fictional football club, *The Mix* - ITV2's televised equivalent to The Network Chart Show on independent radio and competitor to *Top of The Pops* on BBC1, Jimmy McGovern's drama *Recovery*, alternative and experimental arts and cultural strand *The Strand*, *Soap Fever* - a magazine show covering all of the television soap operas (including those seen on the BBC and Channel 4) and comedy sketch show *Fast Forward*, which was adapted from an Australian programme of the same name. There was also *Thought for Tomorrow*, broadcast each evening around midnight for five minutes, in which a member of a public was given five minutes of airtime to make comment on current events or tell a story about their lives.

ITV2 also played to it's strenghts of being a complimentary service to the main network, broadcasting nightly late evening repeats of *Coronation Street* and *Home and Away*, along with omnibus editions of *Family Affairs* and *Emmerdale*. ITV2's programmes were also reshown on the main ITV network during the overnight (00:00 - 06:00) hours and over the weekends. A breakfast edition of Children's ITV - presented by Glenn Kinsey, was broadcast between 7:00 am and 9:25 am in lieu of a TV-AM service, as said broadcaster was to close down just months after ITV2's launch.

ITV Network Centre and ITV2 cheifs also began to propose plans that all programmes for young children (-6 years old) would also move to ITV2 beginning in September 1993, including new commisions *Wizadora* and *Tots TV*, along with *The Riddlers* and *Allsorts*. This was a response to the launch of *Good Morning with Anne and Nick* in October 1992 on BBC1, a programme that was a competitor to This Morning, with an identical format. ITV2 also announced it was looking to commision a daily, half hour preschool show, which ended up becoming *Abadaba.*

Abadaba debuted on Monday 6th September 1993 in the 12:30pm slot. On the same day and directly preceding it in the 11:30am slot, ITV2 also debuted *Talk Back*, a revival of the Open Air format as seen on BBC1 between 1986 and 1990, a live forum for debate and discussion on the television landscape.

ITV2 became a testing ground for new comedy and drama talent, alongside programmes that were deemed too outrageous and adult in nature to be broadcast on the flagship network, allowing the channel to take bold creative risks that were otherwise unacceptable for ITV standards. This led to the commissionings of the likes of *Takeover TV* which often showcased clips with bawdy sexual humour, and *Band of Gold* - the drama about a group of prostitutes. The channel also broadcast the Australian soap *Chances*, which some described as "teleporn".

### Latter half of the 90s; channel rebrand (1996-99)

ITV2 was rebranded on Monday 15th April 1996. The new look included a new set of idents and a new logo, abandoning the 1989 logo (which continued to be used on the main network until 1998) in favour of a new logo featuring the network's name in red spelt in lowercase in a font that appears to be styled similar to Arial Narrow 7, and a bigger number 2 in grey, with the Zurich Black font. The rebrand was undertaken to give the channel a unique graphical style distinct from that of the primary channel, matching ITV2's alternative skew.

During this period, ITV2 became particularly known for running a series of successful late night adult-oriented programmes. Sex-based game show *Carnal Knowledge* made it's debut along with the saucy Saturday evening show *Man O Man* and raunchy documentary series *Ibiza Uncovered* - produced by LWT was first aired in 1997, *Ex-Rated* and *Prickly Heat* followed in 1998 and 1999 brought *The Villa*, which ITV picked up after a run on Galaxy - which Granada partly owns thanks to it's stake in BSB. These ran in late night time slots alongside erotic movies and magazines alongside repeats of *Chances*. Some nights ITV2 would also air overnight music videos and the sports magazine programme *Under the Moon* was shown on Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Whilst Conservative MPs and traditionalist moral guardians were heavily critical of this strategy, it brought ITV2 much higher ratings in the post-11pm slot and through the night.

*Bedrock* was axed in December 1997. Replacing it at the start of 1998 was a new, longer youth magazine, *The Cornerstone*. The programme was the result of a new programme and production deal made with MTV, with the programme using two of their presenters, Edith Bowman and Trevor Nelson, along with Neil Cole and Dani Behr. Later joining the team was Ben Shephard who replaced Nelson when he left in 1999. It was broadcast for 90 minutes, live from 4.30pm. The format included celebrity chat, news and features, and encouraged viewers to call in to the programme to request their favourite music videos that would then be played on the programme. An afternoon replay of *This Morning* was also instated around this time, and the American soap *Sunset Beach* made it's debut in the 6pm slot.

ITV2 notably invested heavily into new comedy during this era, introducing *Armstrong & Miller* to national status, along with popular new sitcoms such as *The Royle Family* and *Spaced*. The channel also invested into panel shows with the launch of *Bring Me The Head Of Light Entertainment* hosted by Graham Norton, and sketch shows *Barry Welsh is Coming* and *We Know Where You Live* - which featured Simon Pegg, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Amanda Holden, among others. 1997 saw Victor Lewis Smith make his ITV2 debut with *TV Offal*, and Harry Hill appeared with *Harry Hill's Fruit Feast*. *Tarrant on TV* also relocated to ITV2 in 1996. ITV2 also began investing heavily during the late 90s in the ever increasing field of adult-oriented animated comedies, with *South Park*, *Family Guy*, *The PJs*, *King of The Hill, Futurama* and *Duckman* all broadcast by the channel.

This time period also featured the likes of *Straight Up* - a current affairs show which included early television appearances for Nick Knowles and Kate Thornton, and a revival of *Name That Tune* presented by Jools Holland.

### The 00s (2000-2008)

From 2000, the broadcaster pursued an aggressive acquisition strategy, and screened several of the highest-rating American dramas, including all four *CSI* series, all three *NCIS* series, the first three *Law & Order* series, *The Wire*, *The Shield* and *Charmed*. It was also in the early 00s when ITV2 began to broadcast spin off programmes to ITV1's most popular reality entertainment series, such as *Pop Idol Extra*, *I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! NOW*, *The Xtra Factor* and *Britain's Got More Talent*.

ITV2's on-screen look was given a refresh on Monday 28th October 2002, ditching the stylised box logo in favour of a more generic logo akin to the logo of ITV1. Despite this change, the same idents were used. A more widespread relaunch was implemented on Monday 14th July 2003, fully ditching the 1998 look after four and a half years and introducing new idents and a new on screen identity.

Following the acquisition of Flextech by ITV in 2004, ITV2 became a sibling channel to Living, who also screened various major US dramas, and who shared the rights to some of the aforementioned programmes. ITV2 was given a reshuffle in which the older skewing US dramas were moved exclusively to Living, such as *CSI*, *NCIS* and *Law & Order*, whilst terrestrial viewers would see ITV1 night time repeats after a certain window of months.

ITV2 meanwhile focused on more youth oriented US comedy acquisitions, including *Everybody Hates Chris* and *It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia*. Drama was also skewed towards a younger and more upmarket audience, with new acquisitions including *Prison Break*, *House*, *Grey's Anatomy*, *Entourage*, *Gossip Girl* and *Supernatural*. All of these shows were very successful for the channel, and were at some point given late night repeat runs on ITV1. *House* was also promoted from ITV2 to ITV1 as it had a British lead in Hugh Laurie, as did *Law & Order*, to tie in with the British version.

### Refocus as youth channel (2008-15)

Despite the shift arguably setting in many years beforehand, ITV2 was officially relaunched in the Autumn season of 2008 as a channel squarely targeting the 18-34 age demographic. The channel was rebranded on Monday 1st September 2008 with a new 3D perspective logo, and a range of new programmes. Perhaps the most notable programme of the relaunch was *Celebrity Juice*, the comedy panel show presented by Leigh Francis (as Keith Lemon) and captained by Holly Willoughby and Fearne Cotton. Other new programmes included the sitcom *No Heroics*, *CelebAir* and *The Fashion Show*. Supplementing these were the fourth season of *Supernatural*, second season of *Gossip Girl* and fifth season of *Grey's Anatomy*.