Channel 5 kicks off at 6pm on Sunday. This Is 5 is the first show, a host of fresh faces, hoping to become household names, introduce us to the schedule. It is then time for Family Affairs, the channel’s new soap, to make its debut.
The Two Little Boys arrive at 7pm, this traces the party leaders’ first steps on the road to power. A one-off hospital comedy, imaginatively titled Hospital, takes us through to the news at the top of the hour. Then the promised feature length film rolls out at 9pm; Beyond Fear is a dramatisation of the kidnapping of estate agent Stephanie Slater.
Just as the schedule was beginning to look like it was borrowed from ITV, The Jack Docherty Show illustrates that 5 does have its own agenda. Docherty will be hosting this comedy talk show in its stripped and stranded slot five nights a week. The Comedy Slot comes next and this intends to maintain the laughs that Jack hopes to get. Two sport’s shows Turnstyle and Live and Dangerous complete the first night’s entertainment on 5. The late night programming is definitely the most innovative area of the schedule.
The channel’s weekday schedule begins at 6am with 5 News Early. 5 has shunned the breakfast magazine show format, a fun, educational series for kids Havakazoo, comes after the news. This is followed by a series of kids orientated films that look cheap and dated, The Enid Blyton Adventure Series is one such gem. However, it’s the school holiday’s next week, so this part of the schedule can not be viewed as typical.
Although Leeza will be a regular part of the schedule. No commercial terrestrial channel seems to be able to go to air without a US chat show and Leeza hopes to do for 5 what Ricki Lake and Montel Williams have done for Channel 4.
It was originally thought that the channel would have news bulletins at least once an hour *Channel 5 Schedule Overview, this has proved not to be the case. There are hourly bulletins between 6am and 2pm, then there is a bulletin at 6pm, the main evening news is at 8.30 and the last report of the night is at 11pm.
Channel 5 has marketed its 9pm film as its best asset, but these movies are not the Hollywood blockbusters that many people have been led to expect. My Stepmother Is An Alien and Family Business are two of the dated classics from the last decade which will be broadcast by 5 in its opening week.
5’s PR machine may have made the mistake of promising more than the channel can offer in its early stages, as a result, there are bound to be a lot of disappointed viewers.
