The days when weekend television was the preserve of Cilla Black and Bruce Forsyth are over. Now Saturday night is football night. In a dramatic shake-up of traditional Saturday evening viewing that is likely to result in living room bust-ups around the country, ITV announced yesterday that it will screen its new English Premiership football highlights show in the heart of the peak-time schedule.
Entertainment stalwarts such as Blind Date and Stars In Their Eyes will fit around Des Lynam's new 7pm programme, which ITV believes will eventually gain just as high ratings. There will be an updated repeat at around 11.30pm. "I've always thought the Premiership is showbiz, particularly in edited form," Mr Lynam said yesterday.
ITV executives believe prime-time football will restore a family viewing experience that has been eroded in recent years. As the number of channels has increased, viewing patterns have fragmented - in the past a family would sit down to watch a diet of sitcoms, variety and middle-of-the-road drama on BBC1 or ITV on a Saturday evening; now viewers can choose from scores of channels, with several televisions in the same home.
David Liddiment, ITV's director of channels, described its victory in securing the rights to Premiership football as a "once in a lifetime opportunity to change the shape of Saturday night television". The Saturday night line-up has changed little in the past 25 years. The Generation Game is still running after 30 years and the schedules in 1981 included programmes such as Pop Quiz and Summertime Special.
The scheduling of football highlights at 7pm marks a revolution.
ITV executives believe the presence of Mr Lynam will lure women who have not previously been football viewers, while children who would have been in bed for Match of the Day are also likely to become avid viewers.
Mr Liddiment said the highlights show, called The Premiership, would bring football to a wider audience when it starts on August 18. "Clearly football has a loyal core audience. What I believe is that it has a broader audience."
But he stressed that fans of drama and entertainment would not lose out. There had been speculation that Blind Date and other ITV Saturday night regulars would be moved to midweek slots to make room for the football: Mr Liddiment said that, while football would form the heart of the schedule, there would be plenty of time for big drama, entertainment and movies. "It is a part of our Saturday night, it is not the totality of our Saturday night."
The BBC is expected to back in the first week of ITV's new schedule with a strong entertainment line-up: possibly a blockbuster film or a special edition of EastEnders. It is likely the corporation will then concentrate on capturing audiences who are turned off by sport, although its Sat urday night drama staple, Casualty, is not due to return until later in the autumn.
Mr Liddiment refused to predict the viewing figures that The Premiership would attract. But he indicated the first few weeks would be a struggle. "We're in this for the long haul. It's a fundamental change in the shape of our schedule, and we believe it's going to work. I'm confident the whole of our Saturday night is going to be a big success."
Since it secured Premiership highlights from the BBC in a three-year deal worth £183m, ITV has ploughed millions into its highlights show. Some £500,000 has been earmarked for marketing alone, U2 has remixed its hit Beautiful Day for the theme music, and pundits Terry Venables and Ally McCoist complete the presenting team. Coca-Cola is sponsoring the coverage in a package worth £50m over three years, the biggest broadcast sports sponsorship deal in the UK.
Mr Lynam said that, when he presented Match of the Day on BBC1, executives consistently ignored his pleas to move the show to an earlier slot - sometimes it would start as late as 10.50pm - although when it began on BBC2 in 1964, it was shown at teatime.
"I have campaigned long and hard in the past and with singular lack of success for this kind of show at prime time on Saturday night. I think it's part of the entertainment schedule, and what's more entertaining than the Premiership on Saturday evening at prime time?"
Brian Barwick, ITV's controller of sport, described Mr Lynam as "the best sports broadcaster of his generation and a byword for authority, style and quality".
He pointed out they had both worked for Match of the Day; while The Premiership would be different, it would draw on the BBC's success. "I think the key thing is to take the best from Match of the Day and add to it. But the best stuff will be the action, and it will be on at a time when we're wide awake rather than half asleep," he said.
Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, said the early slot would widen the appeal of the game. "We want to reach the biggest audience possible and when you look at the audience profile, it peaks at about this time and it is a different audience, it has more women and more children. It therefore hits at the heart of the nation even more."
Viewers are likely to see more advertisements for beer, cars and grooming products as football tends to attract a young male audience. But ITV is unlikely to lose women-oriented advertisers, who will defect to later evening shows.
Adam Pace, a group head at the media buying agency, Optimedia, said the ITV schedule shake-up was essential: "There was a general feeling that what they were doing was quite tired. They needed to do something radically different."
Highlights from Saturdays of yesterday
BBC1 8/8/81
5.10 Alias Smith and Jones
American western series
6.00 News
with Richard Baker
6.15 Pop Quiz
With Mike Reid and guests Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy and Gary Tibbs of Adam and the Ants
8.30 Summertime Special
From Brighton, with Rod Hull and Emu, Shakin' Stevens and an appearance by the A Team
9.30 Roots
One man's search for his roots culminates in a journey to Africa. With Marlon Brando
ITV 8/8/81
5.05pm Under Manning
Bernard Manning meets people with unusual occupations
6.35 The Video Entertainers
Tonight featuring budding impressionist Gary Wilmot
7.05 Mind Your Language
Comedy with Barry Evans teaching English to stereotyped foreigners
7.35 Cry of the Innocent
Play based on a Frederick Forsyth novel
11.35 Let's Rock
With Lulu, Joe Brown, Alvin Stardust and Shakin' Stevens
BBC1 10/8/91
5.45 The Flying Doctors
Australian drama
6.30 Roy's Raiders
Motorbike madness
7.00 Columbo
Peter Falk still going strong as the detective in the raincoat
8.15 Film: Private Benjamin
Starring Goldie Hawn
10.20 Match of the Day
With Des Lynam
11.20 The Streets of San Francisco
Pilot film of the hit 70s series, starring Michael Douglas and Karl Malden
ITV 10/8/91
7.00 Through the Keyhole
Guests Willie Rushton and Alan Titchmarsh try to guess the celebrity homes
7.30 The Two of Us
Bland sitcom with Nicholas Lyndhurst
8.00 Ruth Rendell Movie
12.50am Connie Francis: A Legend in Concert
1.50 Bhangra Beat
Asian dance music
4.55 The Hit Man and Her
Michaela Strachan and Pete Waterman visit a nightclub and talk to drunk people
