ITV’s Katie Rawcliffe

Katie Rawcliffe, ITV’s head of entertainment commissioning, tells TV Formats about slots, strips, track records, wish lists and more across the bouquet.

Some of the biggest entertainment formats in the business have a home on ITV. And with the launch of ITVX last week, the shopping list for new entertainment to draw in viewers is even longer.

TV FORMATS: What role does entertainment play for the ITV channels?
RAWCLIFFE: Entertainment is hugely important for ITV both for linear and ITVX. Commercially, it’s one of the genres that can bring millions of people together in the moment, creating a sense of togetherness, event and talk-about TV.

Having winning main-event formats that can do this is the strength of our weekend schedules, event strips and one-offs. If you take the beginning of this year, the top six entertainment shows—The Masked Singer, Britain’s Got Talent, Saturday Night Takeaway, Dancing on Ice, Limitless Win and The 1% Club—were all on ITV; this is a mix of huge, established brands and three new ones. Limitless brought in 6.1 million viewers for its launch episode, the biggest launch since The Masked Singer and Starstruck, which launched with 4.7 million viewers. In a world where there is now so much choice with streamers, these are big success stories.

TV FORMATS: What’s guiding ITV’s entertainment strategy at present?
RAWCLIFFE: The launch of ITVX is huge for us. What this means for entertainment is it will continue to be a huge part of the linear schedule and will also drive people to ITVX as they live stream; it will bring audiences over to the new platform as a destination. Basically, we want millions of people watching at the same time.

Among all this, we are constantly thinking how to keep our big brand shows at the top of their game and working with the producers to do this. At the same time, we are always on the lookout for the next generation of hits.

TV FORMATS: What differentiates the types of entertainment you’re looking for across each of the various ITV channels and platforms?
RAWCLIFFE: For linear, our focus is the weekends, stripped events and one-offs. On a Saturday night, it’s useful to break the night down into three slots. Earlier, we have the 5:30 to 7 p.m. slots—brighter, high-energy shows. The TV is on, but often other things are happening in the household so it needs to be lighthearted; people don’t want to concentrate too hard at this time. Host is key here and play-along. A sense of humor here is key. Catchphrase is a building block of the schedule and works brilliantly here, along with Family Fortunes. We have a new celebrity version of our daytime afternoons quiz on a Sunday night in this slot: Lingo hosted by RuPaul Charles. Ru is, of course, a big talent, and the show is brilliantly play-along.

The main-event slot, that 7 to 9 p.m. tie, we know is a tough slot. Here, TV is the single entertainer; if you are watching, this is your single focus. The audience has high expectations, and anything new has a lot to live up to. Like most of our content, these shows need to be highly engaging, have warmth and humor, bring everyone together, be inclusive and surprising, have variety and talk-about moments and be joyful and escapist all at the same time. Britain’s Got Talent, The Masked Singer and Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway are all brilliant examples of this.

After the main-event slot, we have the “post” or the 9-9:30 to 10:30 p.m. slots. It’s a bit more grown-up, lights down, kids probably going or gone to bed. Jonathan Ross’s chat show sits here, [along with] The John Bishop Show, but we are looking for more ideas. The 1% Club with Lee Mack has been a standout success here. The host has to be someone people want to invite into their homes and spend time with. We know that these shows can’t be too silly, and the audience is selective about who they spend time with here. We know from our own viewing habits that it’s very easy to flick around channels and platforms at this time in the evening.

In terms of strip, we are always looking for the next big strip—something that can take over and drive viewing from night to night. A strip has to grab you and compel you to watch every night in the moment. When they work, they are fantastic. They create a huge buzz, a running narrative where the nation engages and wants to talk about [the show] night after night. Love Island on ITV2 is a standout success here, and I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! is arguably the king and queen of strips. We do get pitched a lot of derivative IAC formats: celebrities on islands, stripped bare of their luxuries and so on, but because IAC is the best in class, it won’t compete. It would be interesting to get more ideas outside of this area. As always, they need to have broad appeal and all the ingredients we have talked about.

Another area to consider are competitive formats that demand to be watched in the moment. Bake Off is an excellent example of this. It’s compelling, by telling great stories, and has high stakes for contestants involved. We would love more ideas in this area. We have commissioned Next Level Chef from Studio Ramsay Global, which first launched in the U.S. on FOX. We know Gordon is loved by the ITV audience in Gordon, Gino & Fred: Road Trip, which pulls in 5 million to 6 million viewers, so it felt natural to work with Gordon across another exciting format. It is a cooking competition at heart but with huge scale. Set in a purpose-built studio housing three unique kitchen spaces across three stores almost 50 feet high, it has a visual impact from the outset.

In terms of ITVX, there will be a raft of original commissions. For entertainment, our goal is to bring viewers to the platform by live streaming. We will still be looking for original commissions in the reality and talent-led space. Reality would need to have mass appeal; it will be about the continuing story and narrative, what will make you potentially binge an idea and keep you coming back for more.

TV FORMATS: Do you require a solid track record before you’ll evaluate a format for adaptation?
RAWCLIFFE: The latest hits I mentioned earlier—Starstruck, Limitless Win, The 1% Club—are all original formats. Yes, you can argue there is some familiarity in some of the formats, but that is often what works: familiar and original at the same time. There is no right or wrong here. The stakes are high on ITV; we want the eyeballs. If we think reviving an old format can bring this, then that’s a win. Equally, there is nothing more brilliant for both the producer or the network than to see a new format hit.

TV FORMATS: What’s on your wish list for entertainment and format acquisitions?
RAWCLIFFE: The shopping list is long. We are very much open for ideas and are lucky enough to have good development budgets. We always want to spend time working through ideas and getting them right before any launch. We often pilot with producers, do run-throughs and castings behind closed doors first.

TV FORMATS: Anything you’re not seeing enough of in the market that you’d like to see more of?
RAWCLIFFE: The things we get pitched least often are the main-event shows and strips. We know we don’t want dating or anything too similar to I’m a Celebrity.

TV FORMATS: What have been some of the most successful adaptations of international formats, historically, for ITV?
RAWCLIFFE: We are the best in class for showcasing some of the biggest global formats. ITV is the ultimate shop window. The Voice, Britain’s Got Talent, The Masked Singer are all still riding high locally and internationally. Working with these huge brands and reinventing them is hugely important.