ITV entertainment specials

National Movie Awards

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ITV has upped the ante this year by investing generously in big, glossy shows to push its ratings boundaries.

ITV has pulled off several coups recently that have turned industry heads. In the first year of its National Movie Awards it managed to lure Hollywood A-listers such as Dustin Hoffman and Jamie Foxx on set. Then it announced a star-studded one-off, Saturday Night Divas, featuring Girls Aloud, Jennifer Lopez and Chaka Khan. And, earlier this month, the broadcaster revealed that adopted British treasure Kylie has agreed to take part in an hour-long special.

All these commissions are the work of ITV music and entertainment controller Guy Freeman, whose credits also include The Brits and the Eurovision Song Contest. He joined ITV in February 2006 with a brief from director of entertainment and comedy Paul Jackson to make "ITV the home of big, talked-about events that unite mass audiences".

Freeman describes landing this pivotal role - of ITV putting a new emphasis on major one-off entertainment shows - as his biggest "career high" so far. "I spent years as a producer trying to get lots of shows like this off the ground. Now I'm looking after a dozen or more in a year and we're the only channel doing shows of this level of ambition. The BBC has its standard fare of Comic Relief and Children in Need, but the number of new one-offs that we are putting into the schedule this autumn and will aim to do in the future is unrivalled," he says.

One of the reasons ITV can do these big, glossy shows is down to money. The broadcaster is willing to dig deep in its pockets for the right idea, with average one-off budgets ranging from £300,000 to £400,000 per hour - well above most of its competitors. Another reason ITV can lead in this area is its unashamed focus on unadulterated fun. As Freeman says, the BBC does not have this luxury: "ITV doesn't need to worry about anything other than putting a smile on viewers' faces, whereas at the BBC there are pressures to tick other boxes as well."

However, Freeman admits that the opportunities for indies pitching ideas are fairly limited and confined to the late Saturday-night slot. He is looking for ideas to run in the second half of next year and specifically in the crucial fourth quarter, which is a more commercially important time for ITV. But one way indies can instantly stand out in the ideas pile is by securing talent in advance. He says: "I get loads of people saying 'why don't we do a show on this artist'. But pitching an idea that hasn't been road-tested with agents or talent directly is folly."

Freeman clearly also has a confrontational streak and gravitates to ideas that take some kind of risk, not worrying about upsetting people in the process. An example is the National Movie Awards, which many observers didn't think would attract a high-profile enough audience to be of interest to viewers. Some Bafta members were also unhappy - they saw the show as encroaching on its territory. Another example is Freeman's push to take the Brit Awards live, which encountered resistance due to memories of the last live version in 1989 when hosts Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood spent the evening fluffing their lines.

Nevertheless, his persistence won out and for the first time in years audience figures rose for the televised event in February. Again, his commissioning of Happy Birthday Bafta - a celebration of 60 years of the organisation - reflects his constant pursuit of how to twist convention and reinvigorate event programming.

If Broadcast interviews him in a year's time his ambition is that he will have "seated into public consciousness that ITV is the king of big events and glossy entertainment shows". But he's aware that these shows are high risk as well as high reward and he's prepared to get it wrong.

"There's always going to be stuff that doesn't work. But as long as we're in a place where we are prepared to give it a go - and Simon Shaps and Michael Grade are - then we're very happy to carry on with these sort of shows."

Schedule slots

The brief
"These shows need to work in the later half of Saturday evening. Their job is to create moments of punctuation after our big-series shows, such as The X Factor or Dancing on Ice.
"They must not be there to fill or pad, they are there to provide a real treat and put a smile on viewers' faces," says Freeman.

Saturday nights
For this late Saturday-night slot, no subjects are off limits and its timing doesn't necessarily mean that ITV is looking for content with adult humour.
A prerequisite, however, is high production standards and a compelling central theme. "Following our big live shows, you can't get away with playing something off tape that is simply a 'nice' idea," says Freeman.
One example of a show that worked well is That's What I Call Television, which combined celebrity with archive highlights. The idea stood out because it was "affordable and timeless".

Ceremonies
The National Television Awards, The Brits and the National Movie Awards all performed strongly for ITV, and have room for spin-offs on ITV2. "They work because they are glossy and star-studded," says Freeman.

Music specials
Take That, Lionel Richie, Donny Osmond and Ricky Martin have all featured in An Audience With… style shows. These are ratings bankers
for ITV.

Coming soon
Saturday Night Divas, a celebration of female singers, hosted by Myleene Klass.
The Kylie Show, a one-hour special on the Aussie popstrel with samples of her old and new songs.
The National Television Awards, broadcasting on 31 October.
Happy Birthday Bafta, a tribute to 60 years of Bafta and how its winners have inspired others over the years, hosted by Joanna Lumley and Michael Parkinson.

ITV facts
Budget: Budgets vary but on one-off special programmes will average from £300,000 to £400,000 per hour.

Up close: Guy Freeman

CV: Joined in February 2006 as ITV controller of music and events, from Celador.
Commissions: An Audience with Take That, The Kylie Show, The National Movie Awards.
Top TV: Britain's Got Talent, The Apprentice.
Websites: YouTube.
Inspiration: It comes from all over, but mostly when I'm outside the office and not thinking about work.
Quote: "I'd rather be doing this job here than anywhere else in the industry at the moment. There's lots of support here."

Successful ITV entertainment specials

What they say

Bijan White, executive director, broadcast, Manning Gottlieb OMD: "ITV's decision to schedule and broadcast more music and event one-off shows is an no-brainer, even though an element of risk is attached to the output."

Mark Beilby, media analyst, Dresdener Kleinwort Wasserstein: "We believe the market continues to underestimate the extent to which stronger peaktime programming could translate into faster top line growth." 

Michael Kelpie, executive producer, Saturday Night Divas, ITV Productions: "As a commissioner, Guy's skills and experience are hugely advantageous to producers as he understands what we're pitching."