ITV Play

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ITV Play was the brand name used for phone-in shows on British television network, ITV until December 2007.

The brand was launched on April 1, 2006, the day that ITV launched the game show The Mint. This was broadcast alongside Quizmania. The ITV Play channel was launched on April 19, 2006, and closed on March 13, 2007. Make Your Play was the last ITV Play show to be broadcast, with the final edition being aired on December 23, 2007.

[edit] Former shows

[edit] Make Your Play

Make Your Play was a live, interactive quiz show, showing on the ITV Network from Monday to Saturday after midnight. The show was launched on Friday September 29, 2006 on ITV and ITV Play. Both Make Your Play and Glitterball alternated their days of broadcast, until the latter ended in September. Ben Baldwin, Zö Christien, Yolly Koppel, Charlie McArdle and Russ Spencer were the team of presenters.

[edit] Quizmania

Quizmania was the first show of its kind to air on the ITV Network. It was presented by Greg Scott, Debbie King, Lee Baldry and others. The success of this show was one of the main reasons ITV started the ITV Play brand. The last episode was shown on January 14, 2007. Quizmania is set to relaunch in Summer 2008 due to demand from the show's fans. It is unlikely however that any relaunch would be under the ITV Play brand name.

[edit] Other Shows

The Mint kicked off the ITV Play brand showing alongside Quizmania. The Mint ended in February 2007, being replaced by Glitterball. For programmes shown only on the ITV Play channel see here.

[edit] Criticism and closure

ITV Play's shows attracted significant negative publicity for the group as a whole, at first for the perceived poor quality of the shows provided, but more was to come when several British TV companies were caught up in a series of scandals related to the manipulation of phone-in quizzes.^[1]

The ITV Play channel was axed shortly afterwards but programmes retained on the ITV Network after midnight. It was announced on September 12, 2007 that ITV were to close the ITV Play brand and its shows on the ITV Network 'by the end of 2007'.^[2]

The final edition of Glitterball was broadcast on the September 30, 2007. Make Your Play was then extended to 6 nights a week, until the closure of the brand on December 23, 2007.

The recently relaunched ITV Play website was renamed as ITV Games in September, with the ITV Play brand now only used for itv.com's Bingo, Casino and Poker websites.

ITV Play on digital channel ITV2 ended at the start of November, 2007.

[edit] References

1. ^ "Impossible phone-ins cut off", MediaGuardian (Free subscription required), April 23, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-12. 
2. ^ "ITV Play programming to be 'phased out'", Digital Spy, September 12, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-12. 

[edit] External links

• ITV Play at itv.com