Everyone thought they were crazy to leave ITV's This Morning for a tea-time magazine series on Channel 4, but popular married presenting duo Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan paved the way for 5 o'clock entertainment that wasn't for strictly for kids.
This is the final "season" of their show, which has been rocked by big upsets in the past 18 months. I think the most damaging was the arrival of decent competition from ITV, in the award-winning shape of The Paul O'Grady Show.
O'Grady's populist mix of light entertainment, celebrity chat, cute kids/animals, and Generation Game-style larks, was a more enticing proposition than R&J's middle-class diet of discussions, vox-pops, a book/wine club, and tabloid journalists debating tittle-tattle.
Viewers flocked over to ITV, but R&J held firm – secure in the knowledge that they were the thinking man's alternative to O'Grady's brand of mayhem and mischief.
But, after O'Grady fell out with ITV, his show was poached by Channel 4. Suddenly, R&J looked like they might be replaced by their upstart rival. For whatever reason (probably contractual), it was agreed that R&J would instead "share" the year with O'Grady – alternating every three months. It seemed to work, too.
ITV struggled to replace O'Grady (bizarrely showing repeats of his show against CH4's The New Paul O'Grady Show for awhile). They then tried to fill his shoes with Richard Hammond, Sharon Osbourne and Anthony Cotton, but every show was slated by the critics.
However, while the R&J/O'Grady schedule share worked quite well -- stopping each show becoming stale, and giving heart-attack prone O'Grady welcome breaks – it did mean that audiences were soon becoming more accustomed to the O'Grady model of late-afternoon entertainment.
R&J may have proved 5 o'clock was a viable hour to win audiences, but O'Grady's chat-show evolution had become more popular. So much so, that viewers even began abandoning R&J for ITV's O'Grady copycats! Yes, more people watched the dire Anthony Cotton than R&J last year – there's no accounting for taste!
And then there was the phone scandal. R&J's popular daily quiz "You Say We Pay" was shut down after it was revealed that contestants were being chosen 10 minutes after phone lines opened, but viewers were still being asked to call in for a chance to take part! This incident became the catalyst for worse cases of malpractice on the BBC and (particularly) ITV, but it damaged R&J's squeaky clean reputations.
Now, with O'Grady increasingly popular, you can feel the atmosphere drop whenever R&J takeover his slot. Their show has failed to develop or evolve in the ensuing years, and now looks prematurely slothful and old-fashioned.
Judy Finnegan herself has aged rapidly in the past 5 years, and can barely string a sentence together without mispronouncing a word, or coughing now.
Richard Madeley is the only one keeping the show together, but these days you're only watching him in vague hope he'll make another gaffe, or ask a ridiculous question.
Both have always been sycophantic and desperately chummy to their guests (a trait shared by O'Grady, too), but even the content of their show seems to have nosedived in the past year. So they've decided to call it a day...
This 3-month stint will be their last, with rumours suggesting that Richard will branch-out alone (he's always dabbled in solo presenting gigs, from 90s game-show Cluedo to last year's Million Pound Giveaway), and is likely to participate in Strictly Come Dancing. Judy is expected to go into showbiz retirement and fulfil her ambition to become a best-selling author. I'm sure they'll both keep their popular Book Club going in some form, as that has proven to be the most successful aspect of their programme since it started.
I don’t know if Richard and Judy were pushed or jumped into this decision, but I can't deny it's probably for the best. While their show offers an alternative to ITV's clones and a change of pace from O'Grady, it's coasting on fumes now. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but it's time to put it to rest.
Weekdays
Channel 4, 5.00 pm
This is the final "season" of their show, which has been rocked by big upsets in the past 18 months. I think the most damaging was the arrival of decent competition from ITV, in the award-winning shape of The Paul O'Grady Show.
O'Grady's populist mix of light entertainment, celebrity chat, cute kids/animals, and Generation Game-style larks, was a more enticing proposition than R&J's middle-class diet of discussions, vox-pops, a book/wine club, and tabloid journalists debating tittle-tattle.
Viewers flocked over to ITV, but R&J held firm – secure in the knowledge that they were the thinking man's alternative to O'Grady's brand of mayhem and mischief.
But, after O'Grady fell out with ITV, his show was poached by Channel 4. Suddenly, R&J looked like they might be replaced by their upstart rival. For whatever reason (probably contractual), it was agreed that R&J would instead "share" the year with O'Grady – alternating every three months. It seemed to work, too.
ITV struggled to replace O'Grady (bizarrely showing repeats of his show against CH4's The New Paul O'Grady Show for awhile). They then tried to fill his shoes with Richard Hammond, Sharon Osbourne and Anthony Cotton, but every show was slated by the critics.
However, while the R&J/O'Grady schedule share worked quite well -- stopping each show becoming stale, and giving heart-attack prone O'Grady welcome breaks – it did mean that audiences were soon becoming more accustomed to the O'Grady model of late-afternoon entertainment.
R&J may have proved 5 o'clock was a viable hour to win audiences, but O'Grady's chat-show evolution had become more popular. So much so, that viewers even began abandoning R&J for ITV's O'Grady copycats! Yes, more people watched the dire Anthony Cotton than R&J last year – there's no accounting for taste!
And then there was the phone scandal. R&J's popular daily quiz "You Say We Pay" was shut down after it was revealed that contestants were being chosen 10 minutes after phone lines opened, but viewers were still being asked to call in for a chance to take part! This incident became the catalyst for worse cases of malpractice on the BBC and (particularly) ITV, but it damaged R&J's squeaky clean reputations.
Now, with O'Grady increasingly popular, you can feel the atmosphere drop whenever R&J takeover his slot. Their show has failed to develop or evolve in the ensuing years, and now looks prematurely slothful and old-fashioned.
Judy Finnegan herself has aged rapidly in the past 5 years, and can barely string a sentence together without mispronouncing a word, or coughing now.
Richard Madeley is the only one keeping the show together, but these days you're only watching him in vague hope he'll make another gaffe, or ask a ridiculous question.
Both have always been sycophantic and desperately chummy to their guests (a trait shared by O'Grady, too), but even the content of their show seems to have nosedived in the past year. So they've decided to call it a day...
This 3-month stint will be their last, with rumours suggesting that Richard will branch-out alone (he's always dabbled in solo presenting gigs, from 90s game-show Cluedo to last year's Million Pound Giveaway), and is likely to participate in Strictly Come Dancing. Judy is expected to go into showbiz retirement and fulfil her ambition to become a best-selling author. I'm sure they'll both keep their popular Book Club going in some form, as that has proven to be the most successful aspect of their programme since it started.
I don’t know if Richard and Judy were pushed or jumped into this decision, but I can't deny it's probably for the best. While their show offers an alternative to ITV's clones and a change of pace from O'Grady, it's coasting on fumes now. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but it's time to put it to rest.
Weekdays
Channel 4, 5.00 pm
