Night Network
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Night Network and later Night Time were names given to the overnight (usually between 12 and 6 am) schedule of the ITV television channel in the United Kingdom.
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[edit] History
[edit] Night Network
Night Network was ITV's first experiment into the area of overnight broadcasting beginning in 1987, originally for the ITV regions covered by LWT in London, TVS in Kent, Anglia in Norfolk and Central in the Midlands, then going nationwide in 1988. Whereas today overnight broadcasts are commonplace, back in the late 1980s, ITV decided it would take a more cautious approach with 'Night Network', only initially broadcasting between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. in the Friday and Saturday night schedules and between 1a.m and 3a.m in the Sunday night schedule (which were actually Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings).
The show was produced by Jill Sinclair who had been the producer of BBC1's 'Pop Quiz' and C4's The Tube at Tyne Tees/Channel 4, aiming for a similar audience to that of these two shows. The format of Night Network was similar to Channel 4's Network 7, or even a late night adult version of Saturday morning kids TV, as it was a mixture of quizzes, celebrity guests, imported serials and bands. Segments over the two nights included Street Cred with Paul Thompson, Roland Rivron in The Bunker Show, Tim Westwood's "N-Sign Radio", Emma Freud's chat segment Pillow Talk, Geoffrey Cantor's video segment The Axeman, Barbie Wilde's video review for The Small Screen, and quiz The Alphabet Game hosted by Nicholas Parsons, whilst cult TV series Captain Scarlet and Batman were also frequently seen. On Sunday nights classic movies were shown, but this was only until the programme went nationwide.
[edit] Night Time
However, it wasn't long before ITV decided to broadcast 24 hours throughout the week, and revamp its schedules, axing 'Night Network' and replacing it with the rebranded 'Night Time'. This new late night line up consisted mainly of cheap American syndicated shows such as America's Top Ten (presented by Casey Kasem), American Gladiators, WCW Worldwide (which would later be promoted to a Saturday afternoon slot) and Donahue. There were also a limited number of home-grown shows such as The Hitman and Her and pub quiz based gameshow Quiz Night.
[edit] Post 'Night Network'
[edit] The late 1990s
By the mid-1990s with 24-hour programming becoming the norm on British Television, ITV phased out the Night Time logos and presentation on overnight shows and by 1998 the 12 to 6 am time slot carried normal ITV branding.
The shows associated with the old Night Network and Night Time also disappeared and the early morning schedule was given over to repeats of talk and music programmes and compilation shows such as ITV Sports Classics. The only show to survive was the unusual cookery show Get Stuffed in which members of the public (often students) presented a five-minute show demonstrating their favourite recipes in their own kitchen.
[edit] Present
ITV's current overnight schedule consists mainly of premium rate viewer participation quiz shows such as The Mint, along with repeats of talk and lifestyle shows such as The Jeremy Kyle Show with in-vision signing.
