GEITF 2002: Evans Announces Return To UK Media
Former TV and radio presenter, Chris Evans, has announced his return to broadcasting by revealing plans to buy a stake in a British TV channel.
Speaking at this year’s Guardian Edinburgh International TV Festival, the ex-Big Breakfast presenter, who was sacked from Virgin Radio just over a year ago, said he has been talking to venture capitalists about acquiring a stake in a UK television channel.
Evans, who spoke energetically about his return as a behind-the-camera TV player, refused to go into detail about his plans. However, speculation suggests that he could be interested in buying the 35% stake in Channel 5 held by the former Express owner, Lord Hollick.
In front of more than 500 television executives, Evans criticised ITV for allowing its daytime TV presenters, Richard and Judy, to move to Channel 4, saying: “It’s the biggest TV tragedy in the last year. It was a massive mismanagement of talent and shouldn’t have been allowed to happen.”
He urged ITV executives to restore the pair to their original daytime slot, saying: “ITV can fanny around as much as they want with different formats, but they should just bite the bullet and get them back.”
Evans claimed the quality of British TV has declined over the last year leading to large numbers of viewers becoming disenfranchised. He criticised Channel 4’s Big Breakfast successor RI:SE saying it was “going nowhere” and advised ITV to strengthen its Saturday night schedule with live programming.
He said: “ITV have got to get their confidence back, get their balls back. They’ve got to hit BBC1 hard on Saturday night. BBC1 shouldn’t be playing these [ratings] games, we all know that.”
Evans said that he was looking forward to getting back into TV, but emphasised that he would concentrate on producing rather than presenting for the foreseeable future. He also confirmed that he is working on three new television productions: a daily Channel 5 chat show, hosted by Chris Moyles, a morning programme, also on Channel 5, to be hosted by Gabby Roslin and possibly Terry Wogan and a Saturday night entertainment show called Boys and Girls for Channel 4 (see Evans To Return To Channel 4 With New Shows).
Evans was sacked from Virgin Radio last June after failing to turn up for his breakfast show for five consecutive days (see Virgin Terminates Evans’ Contract). Evans is currently suing SMG over his dismissal and was unable to discuss the subject for legal reasons.
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Reports on this year’s Guardian Edinburgh International TV Festival will appear on NewsLine throughout the week.