Comments on: Axed: Primeval

By: ian

ian — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:13:44 +0000

STV and UTV are being blamed for major shows on ITV beng axed as they are opting out of funding and buying ITV shows and going their own way. These two channels are sick of being forced to show programmes that don’t make money in their regions and don’t want to go out of business like ITV is close to doing.
ITV are considering sueing STV because they choose to opt out which they are entitled to do. Despite getting rid of big name stars and long standing characters in Corrie and The Bll these programmes are safe for now.

By: Belinda

Belinda — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:50:43 +0000

I have heard whispers that ITV is not going to fund Secret Diary of a Call Girl anymore. Things must be really bad there.

By: Matthew See

Matthew See — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:11:35 +0000

“ITV embattled? Really?

To save dollars”.

John, I am pretty they don’t use dollars in the UK.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:09:33 +0000

Primeval was brilliant, and will be missed, season 3 was great. It seems that the whole style of serial show is getting phased out for ones where you don’t have to watch every episode (ie boring shows with little to no character development).

I am glad the production guys are going to keep it alive though, maybe BBC can pick it up (esp if they cancel torchwood after their upcoming last ditch effort to save it).

By: wamdue

wamdue — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:50:06 +0000

John, Neighbours is not and has never been on ITV.

That said dont feel too sorry for ITV its crying poverty is working, its not gotten cash from the BBC to help produce local news, something that he has to do as part of the “Channel 3″ Licence it gets from OFCOM, a Licence that gives them “3″ on various EPGs and saw them gifted alot of freeview space, on which it has built its little empire of spin-off channels.

In effect the BBC is now paying ITV to do what it should be doing in order to get an artificially high EPG number and alot of free freeview space.

Meanwhile all ITV does it churns out about 6 hours of Corrie & Emmerdale a week, cuts back on all drama, even cutting theBill to one episode a week, and replaces it with various reality TV show, or “human interest” dramas, that are nothing more than a modern day freak show.

By: John

John — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:37:58 +0000

ITV embattled? Really?

To save dollars do you think they’d not renew their Neighbours contract.

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:12:51 +0000

Yes ch9 promoted Primeval for about 6 months last year then stopped come December.

Seen S2 but sitting on S3 until I have time to watch it, don’t spoil the ending.

I hope they do a direct to DVD movie.

BTW while the special effects are as good as most other stuff on TV (Doctor Who/Torchwood) I wouldn’t call them state-of-the-art.

By: Neon Kitten

Neon Kitten — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:32:00 +0000

Those were big-budget computer effects?

By: bill

bill — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:30:43 +0000

I hope so because it left us with a storyline that had not yet concluded at the end of series 3, I hope the movie will rectify the fact the members of the team are stranded in the past.

By: David Knox

David Knox — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:51:49 +0000

That’s US produced if I recall…but yes.

By: Matthew See

Matthew See — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:49:21 +0000

“A devastated production team indicated they had “every intention of keeping Primeval alive in other ways,” presumably through other platforms and products.”

Presumably it means that the movie reported weeks ago is still going ahead.

By: Craig H

Craig H — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:45:17 +0000

ITV is on the record as saying they arent interested in having any drama in its pre 9pm watershed slots (except for soaps Cornation St & Emmerdale, which rate well and I presume pay for themselves) , this would also be the rationale for moving The Bill to 9pm one night a week, expect to see more cheap reality / game shows in the networks pre 9pm scheduled from here on…and dont expect anymore family type dramas in the genre of Primevil!

By: GuanoLad

GuanoLad — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:07:46 +0000

It started out cheesy, and only got cheesier. It didn’t help how severely they reduced the regular cast in the third season. I won’t miss it.