Two words that everyone at ITV's hoping you won't say today: Ofcom and Crowngate. Their hopes will be in vain, but here's why it doesn't matter.
Michael Grade has waited months to make significant changes at the top of ITV. By significant I mean no disrespect to the marketing, PR and other commercial directors, but we're talking chief executive and director of television here.
Today he addresses both of those questions by putting Dawn Airey and Rupert Howell in a padded cell - also known as the main board - to continue fighting it out for another 12 months. In the process he confirms what we all know about his own role - work still to be done.
And most importantly, he has addressed the creative problems at ITV by bringing in former BBC1 controller Peter Fincham to run the channel. The only surprise is the timing. Three months ago, switching Simon Shaps for Fincham felt like a sensible way to address the questions raised by the Deloitte report. Who knew? Who was incentivised? Who was responsible? At the time - as we all recall - apparently the answer was no one.
It was being discussed, even then, in senior executive circles, but the questions seemed unsurmountable. How would ITV's reputation be helped by bringing in someone who was effectively sacked over Crowngate?
That was always a red herring. Fincham took responsibility which is very different to actually re-editing the trailer himself. He resigned over, essentially, a lack of significant rigour in asking questions and then a great deal of confusion over what to do next. He had to go because at the BBC, a higher standard of responsibility is required. Nothing about that affair comes even close to the smallest of the participation TV deception incidents that we know about at ITV.
The only thing about Fincham's track record that matters today is the performance of BBC1 which has been blistering. I saw someone from Channel 4 yesterday and we both agreed that the way you can tell how solidly Fincham constructed that channel is that it's still holding its shape and its character months after his departure.
You may not have loved Cranford and you might not find Ashes to Ashes hilarious but it's inconceivable that Five Days, Armstrong and Miller, the last series of Spooks, Oliver Twist or 15 other things haven't raised the standard of UK broadcasting. I haven't even got to Saturday nights.
Now, the question is why push Shaps out before Ofcom details the whole story? Word is that the Ofcom ruling is going to take till at least May - let's not even begin to dwell on why that might be - and possibly even the rest of the year. In a way, this - like ITV's tanking share price - is a blessing. If it simply isn't feasible to wait until the Ofcom conclusion to act, well then just act now and be done with it.
For several months now, the only question has been when to bring in Fincham, not why. When to draw the line in the sand. The timing of today's announcement has more, I feel, to do with the City - Grade will present ITV's annual results next week - than the regulators. More - to be fair to Shaps - to do with appeasing shareholders than the actual performance of the new schedule. Though that performance has been somewhere between patchy and dire.
Sometimes you just need a fresh start. In fairness, Shaps has always backed new programmes, tried to innovate and aimed at different audiences rather than stick to the ITV heartland. It just hasn't really worked. Post 9pm is a wasteland and the light entertainment shows that seemed so fresh now feel tawdry and cynical.
It's time for a new era at ITV. Good luck to them.
