Following the news of Adrian Chiles departure to ITV on Monday night, there have been many upcoming changes, which have promoted anger with some highly-established presenters and turned the BBC and ITV into a Spring Transfer Window Service, rather than TV organisations!
Chiles’ decision to leave the BBC was not of great surprise, as it has been widely tipped that he would quit, after finding out that Chris Evans would present the daily evening programme, The One Show on Friday nights. However, not many predicted he would switch to ITV as a result. Although he does leave The Apprentice and Match of the Day 2 behind, this could be a brilliant career move for the popular Chiles, one of TV’s most common stars in recent years. He has been part of The One Show furniture since it began over three years ago, first with Myleene Klass and now with Christine Bleakly. In his new four-year deal, he will front breakfast show GMTV five days a week and become the much-needed new face of ITV’s growing football portfolio. Chiles will begin at ITV with their coverage of this summer’s World Cup finals in South Africa, and will front the FA Cup, the UEFA Champions League and England internationals from next season.
This move has angered ITV’s main sport face, Steve Rider. According to some media sources, Rider is planning to sue ITV in the High Court, as his £500,000-a year contract states that he will be the leading face of ITV’s World Cup efforts this summer. He was absent from ITV’s Champions League coverage in midweek and should he not be at Rockingham this weekend, for ITV4’s British Touring Car Championship action, then presume Rider is preparing to leave ITV. Reportedly, he may be planning to move back to the BBC, to front golf, tennis and rugby coverage, should things not work out with ITV.
The shake-up at the BBC has continued, with the news that Katie Derham is to leave ITN News to join the BBC, though not on the BBC News team. After twelve years with ITN, Derham will front the BBC’s coverage of the Proms, plus other daytime programmes. Chiles future replacement at The One Show has not been officially confirmed, though Strictly Come Dancing winner and BBC breakfast host, Chris Hollins is to fill the post for now. BBC Radio 1 presenter, Colin Murray will be the new fresh face on the MOTD2 sofa from next season. He already has connections with BBC, though his Radio 1 show, plus presenting the popular ‘Fighting Talk’ programme on BBC Radio Five Live. Of recent times, he has been fronting Football on Five’s coverage of the UEFA Europa League.
Finally, the concertina effort has continued over on ITV, at GMTV. Helen Fosparo, currently a host of the GMTV Newshour programme is expected to become Chiles full-time co-anchor from late on this year. With new bosses having come in at the end of last year, GMTV is going through a major revamp, which has already led to the departure of Penny Smith and Krypton Factor host, Ben Shepherd. Other anchors, Andrew Castle, Emma Crosby and Kate Garraway are also all expected to be wielded the axe in the coming weeks.
Watch this space for possible further movements in the TV market in the coming weeks; this has certainly been a week full of change, instead of the traditional continuity that we associated BBC and ITV for.
No comments:
Post a Comment