ITV director of television Simon Shaps has defended the network from accusations of "copycatting" saying he makes "no apology" if some shows seem familiar.
Responding to criticism that ITV has continued to produced copies of other channels' programmes, despite a pledge by executive chairman Michael Grade to reverse the trend, Mr Shaps admitted some shows were "close" to rivals.
ITV programmes such as Tycoon, You Don't Know You're Born, Dancing on Ice and Grease Is The Word have been compared with BBC shows The Apprentice, Who Do You Think You Are, Strictly Ice Dancing and How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria.
"There are some we would put our hands up to, maybe in the way the show was made or presented, you could say it was close," Mr Shaps said.
However, he went on: "If we're saying there only shows we can commission have to be unlike anything you've seen before then I think we've a problem. TV endlessly reinvents itself."
He said the BBC made a "mistake"by not turning Strictly Ice Dancing into a series. ITV subsequently had a hit with Dancing On Ice.
The ITV chief also responded to reports that ITV executive chairman Michael Grade wants to move the 10.30pm ITV1 news.
Mr Shaps admitted that 10.30pm "seems an imperfect place", but said it is "incredibly difficult" to see where else in the schedule to put the late evening bulletin.
He confirmed that changes are being made to the style of the bulletin, as revealed by MediaGuardian.co.uk, saying: "We've pushed some of the gimmickry too far."
In terms of talent on ITV, Mr Shaps said he was "not having a conversation" about Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan returning to ITV, where they fronted This Morning for more than a decade before defecting to Channel 4.
He also denied reports that Paul O'Grady is being approached to take over Michael Parkinson's chat show mantle on ITV1, saying they were "untrue".
Mr Shaps confirmed that the Deloitte report on premium rate phone-ins is due to be published in October.
However, he refused to pre-empt it or say if it emerged that money was obtained falsely from callers to ITV premium rate phone services, whether it would be returned to viewers.
Looking back over the last year for ITV, Mr Shaps said it now feels "on the front foot".
He defended the channel's performance, saying that ITV1's loss of audience across all hours "has been the least of any terrestrial channel, we've only lost about 2% across all time, BBC1 has lost 5% and Channel 4 has lost 12% of their audiences year on year".
"Our performance this summer is as good as for many many years. However I concede we need to improve our performance at 9pm," he added.
Mr Shaps said that despite the furore over TV phone-ins, quiz brand ITV Play has not damaged ITV's reputation, though it is being reviewed. "As far as we can measure it, there's no impact on the ITV brand," he added.
