Is ITV dancing on thin ice?

As the TV company which produces the hugely popular _Downton Abbey_, _Britain’s Got Talent_, _Coronation Street_ and _I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!_, it would seem ITV has got _The X factor_ when it comes to producing successful television shows. Yet in amongst these ratings winners ITV also has its large share of catastrophic failures.

Take _Daybreak_ for example. What was first seen as supposed almighty coup for the channel, snatching the very overrated Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley to present ITV’s flagship breakfast programme, has now developed into a highly embarrassing situation for ITV to deal with. BBC’s _Breakfast_ is typically attracting over two and half times more viewers every morning than its ITV counterpart. Bosses at ITV are reluctant to axe the show as reports claim that it would cost £4 million just to pave way for the exits of the revered presenters.

The other ‘gem’ in ITV’s breakfast schedule is allegedly _Lorraine_, the show that never actually seems to be presented by Lorraine Kelly and instead features one of her general look-a-likes (Carol Vorderman, Fiona Phillips or a ‘Loose Woman’). This host will then appear helplessly out-of-depth attempting to present a show which will combine dreadful analysis of the ongoing situation in Libya whilst also discussing the pregnancy of Beyonce or something even less significant in the showbiz world.

This is one of the main problems with ITV: people generally view the channel with some form of TV snobbery. The Royal Wedding coverage was a prime example, it didn’t even have adverts, yet no one in their right mind would instinctively choose to tune into ITV ahead of the BBC. Critic Charlie Brooker likened watching ITV’s broadcast of the marriage as similar to ‘using Bing instead of Google.’

But it is in the department of original drama where ITV is underperforming the most.
Yes, I hear you cry, “what about Downton Abbey?”, that popular and critically acclaimed period drama that no one I know of actually seems to watch. ITV relies on a small amount of drama serials (_Doc Martin_, _Downton Abbey_, _Lewis_) for a few programmes a year, pats itself on the back and then sees itself fit to either repeat these shows so often that people lose the will to live, or commission some woeful and generic 21st century detective drama starring Suranne Jones or Hermione Norris.

And where is ITV1’s answer to _Miranda_, _Outnumbered_ or _My Family_? The channel makes only one actual comedy in the form of Benidorm and even that is mediocre at best. They attempted to produce a primetime stand-up comedy in the form of _Show Me the Funny_. However this being ITV, ‘the Live at the Apollo come Apprentice’ show spectacularly flopped. It was so bad that even Sarah Millican didn’t touch the show with a bargepole (and that is really saying something).

ITV shows often lack originality. _Dinner Date_ is blatantly an inferior _Come Dine With Me_. Or what about _Britain’s Best Dish_, which is effectively an amateur’s _Great British Menu_. And _Dancing on Ice_, which is an obvious rip-off of _Strictly Come Dancing_. ITV seems to lack the creative flair of the BBC and Channel 4.

ITV does however have one redeeming feature: Simon Cowell. Love him or loathe him, the music mogul has undoubtedly given the company huge profits and ratings off the back of the likes of _X Factor_ and _Britain’s Got Talent_.

But conversely, perhaps this is where ITV is in fact going wrong. ITV now invests heavily in reality TV and whilst this may account for a significant proportion of the company’s profits, it has led to this vicious circle where the channel will tend to sideline original drama for its most profitable reality TV shows. And until the network invests less in programmes such as _The Only Way Is Essex_ or _Britain’s Got Talent_, ITV’s credibility as a serious broadcaster of new quality drama is somewhat lacking.

A diversion of TV license money to ITV programming is a genuine possibility. Yet it is hard not too see the effects of this as nothing but damaging, especially for the BBC, whose output as a result would undoubtedly suffer. But until someone invests heavily in ITV, the company will continue to overwhelmingly rely on reality TV in order to be profitable. This over-reliance on one form of programme-making is a poor but easy option for ITV. The problem will arise – and debatably has already arisen – when people start to become bored of the same tired format of reality TV. ITV will have to pray that this situation never happens, as they have pretty much next to nothing to fall back upon.