Richard & Judy

Last updated

Richard & Judy
RichardandJudyshow.jpg
Also known asRichard & Judy's New Position
Genre Chat show
Presented by Richard Madeley
Judy Finnigan
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series10 (Channel 4)
1 (Watch)
No. of episodes1,129 (Channel 4)
?? (Watch)
Production
Executive producers
  • Simon Ross (2001–2009)
  • Amanda Ross (2001–2009)
Running time60 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production companyCactus TV
Original release
Network Channel 4 (2001–2008)
Watch (2008–2009)
Release26 November 2001 (2001-11-26) 
1 July 2009 (2009-07-01)
Related
This Morning (1988–present)

Richard & Judy (also known as Richard & Judy's New Position) is a British television chat show presented by the married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. The show originally aired on Channel 4 from 26 November 2001 to 22 August 2008, but later moved to digital channel Watch from 7 October 2008 to 1 July 2009. [1]

Contents

2001–08: Channel 4

Richard & Judy started with Channel 4 on 26 November 2001 and aired every weekday from 5pm to 6pm with breaks in-between. Between 2006 and 2008, the Richard & Judy show shared this original timeslot with The Paul O'Grady Show , a programme that started in March 2006. For three months of each year, between 2006 and 2008, the Richard & Judy show occupied the 5pm to 6pm slot (January to March and June to August), and then the Paul O'Grady Show occupied the timeframe for the following three months (March to June and September to December).

On the 15 August 2008 edition of the show, Richard stated that the following week's episode would be the last with Channel 4 and the final broadcast occurred on 22 August 2008.

2008–09: Watch

Following the show's departure from Channel 4, the producers of Richard & Judy subsequently signed a £2 million deal with the UKTV network Watch. Madeley and Finnigan renamed the show and hosted Richard & Judy's New Position from 7 October 2008. The couple stated that the new version would be "a high octane prime time show",[ citation needed ] with Madeley explaining, "we [Madeley and Finnigan] were both hugely impressed with the team at UKTV, and their proposal was attractive and fun and will give us the kind of flexibility in our personal lives which we have been looking for". The presenters continued featuring the programme's popular "Book Club" that had begun on their Channel 4 show.

The Watch version of the show featured a sofa area for interviews, as well as a bar area where the star guests and the show's crew members gathered during broadcasts. Each week the show employed a celebrity barman; comedian Rufus Hound undertook the role in the first week's episode. Hound had been a frequent guest on the Channel 4 series.

The first episode of the Watch series attracted an average audience of around 200,000 viewers (this figure included those who watched the show on Watch+1). The second episode, in the 8pm timeslot, attracted 53,000 viewers. Watch channel representatives were reportedly satisfied with the ratings, stating that the show had started well. Ratings consistently fell for subsequent episodes, reaching a new low of 11,000 viewers.

Following a Christmas break at the end of 2008, the show returned on 13 January 2009 in a new 6pm slot. The show also dropped the "New Position" section of its title and was called "Richard & Judy" again.

By April 2009, ratings had slumped and the following month, an agreement was reached to terminate the show six months early.[ citation needed ] From the week of 8 June 2009, the show was reduced to a single weekly episode that aired at 4pm every Wednesday. The show's final episode was broadcast on 1 July 2009.

You Say We Pay

"You Say We Pay" was a daily competition that involved a viewer at home describing images on a TV screen for the show's two presenters (the hosts cannot see the images, as the screen is behind them) to then identify without calling the displayed objects by their ordinary names. For each correct answer provided by Madeley and Finnigan, the viewer received £1000.

In January 2006, MP and Celebrity Big Brother contestant George Galloway entered the competition and won his housemates' weekly shopping budget. Lionel Blair, Abi Titmuss and Carol Vorderman also participated in "You Say We Pay" whilst they were guests on the programme.

Controversy

On 18 February 2007, the Mail on Sunday reported that it had received leaked emails from the programme, which suggested that viewers were being invited to call the show for a chance of entering the competition, even though the winner had already been chosen. [2] On 22 February, following Channel 4's admittance that several series of the programme could have been affected and a claim from a contestant that the problems existed in 2002, ICSTIS announced their intention to conduct an inquiry into the programme. [3]

The programme was the first in a long line of British programmes that had misled audiences into calling premium-rate numbers under false pretences, leading to the greater phone-in scandal.

As a result of the controversy, Channel 4 received a £150,000 fine from ICSTIS, [4] and a further £1 million fine from Ofcom. [5] There was no evidence to suggest that Madeley or Finnigan had any knowledge of the scandal. [2]

Richard & Judy Book Club

See main page: List of books from the Richard & Judy Book Club
Richard and Judy Book Club display at W.H. Smith, Enfield. Richard and Judy Book Club, W.H. Smith, Enfield.jpg
Richard and Judy Book Club display at W.H. Smith, Enfield.

In 2004, the Richard & Judy Book Club was added as a regular segment of the show. It was credited as having a massive effect on the sales of the books it featured, [6] much like Oprah's Book Club in the USA. Each year the segment featured ten books and discussions during the programme, often with guests. Alongside the discussions and programme features, the novels contended for the Richard & Judy Book of the Year Award, presented at the British Book Awards, where the winner was chosen by votes from the public.

The Richard and Judy Book Club debuted as a website in autumn 2010, run in conjunction with retailer WH Smith.

In 2007, Richard and Judy hosted a special Children's Book Club edition of the show as part of Channel 4's "Lost For Words" season. The featured books were chosen with the help of pupils from several schools around the UK. [7] [8] The New Writers Book Club was a feature launched in October 2008 focusing on debut authors. [9]

Richard & Judy Wine Club

Richard and Judy launched their wine club in 2005. Focusing on a different selection of wine each week, they reviewed the wines and gave tasting notes to the viewers.

Transmissions

SeriesStart dateEnd dateEpisodesNotes
126 November 200128 June 2002 ??
216 September 200225 July 2003 ??No episodes aired from 21–29 November 2002 [10]
315 September 200321 July 2004 ??
46 September 20042005 ??
55 September 200524 March 2006 ??
619 June 20061 September 200655
729 January 200730 March 200745
818 June 200731 August 200755
97 January 200814 March 200850
1016 June 200822 August 200850
117 October 20081 July 2009 ??

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Oddie</span> English conservationist, entertainer and ornithologist (born 1941)

William Edgar Oddie is an English actor, artist, birder, comedian, conservationist, musician, songwriter, television presenter and writer. He was a member of comedy trio The Goodies.

Television broadcasts in the United Kingdom began in 1932, however, regular broadcasts would only begin four years later. Television began as a public service which was free of advertising, which followed the first demonstration of a transmitted moving image in 1926. Currently, the United Kingdom has a collection of free-to-air, free-to-view and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channels for consumers as well as on-demand content. There are six main channel owners who are responsible for most material viewed.

Richard and Judy is the name informally given to Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, a British married couple who are both television presenters and columnists. They presented the daytime television programme This Morning from 1988 until 2001, and then hosted the daily chat show Richard & Judy from 2001 until 2009.

Judith Adele Finnigan is an English television presenter and writer. She co-presented ITV's This Morning and the Channel 4 chat show, Richard & Judy (2001–2008) alongside her husband Richard Madeley. Her debut novel Eloise, published in 2012, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Her second novel, I Do Not Sleep, was published in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Madeley</span> English television presenter and writer (born 1956)

Richard Holt Madeley is an English television presenter and writer. Alongside his wife Judy Finnigan, he presented ITV's This Morning (1988–2001) and the Channel 4 chat show Richard & Judy (2001–2008). Madeley's solo projects include the series Fortune: Million Pound Giveaway (2007) and covering for The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2. He was the main relief presenter of Channel 5's The Wright Stuff (2012–2017), and since 2017, he has been one of three main relief presenters of ITV breakfast show Good Morning Britain.

UKTV Media Limited, trading as UKTV, is a British multi-channel broadcaster, which, since 2019, has been wholly owned by BBC Studios, a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It was formed on 1 November 1992 through a joint venture between the BBC and Thames Television. It is one of the United Kingdom's largest television companies.

U&Dave is a British free-to-air television channel that mainly broadcasts comedy-oriented factual programming. It is owned by UKTV, a subsidiary of BBC Studios.

<i>Friday Night with Jonathan Ross</i> Former British television chat show

Friday Night with Jonathan Ross is a British chat show presented by Jonathan Ross and broadcast on BBC One between 2001 and 2010. The programme featured Ross' take on current topics of conversation, guest interviews and live music from both a guest music group and the house band. First broadcast on 2 November 2001, the show began its final series in January 2010 and ended on 16 July 2010.

<i>The Paul OGrady Show</i> British comedy chat show

The Paul O'Grady Show is a British comedy chat show presented by comedian Paul O'Grady, first shown on 11 October 2004. The programme is a teatime chat show consisting of a mixture of celebrity guests, comic stunts, musical performances, and occasionally viewer competitions.

<i>The Wright Stuff</i> British TV series or program

The Wright Stuff is a British television chat show which was hosted by former tabloid journalist Matthew Wright from 2000 until 2018. It aired on Channel 5 on weekday mornings from 9:15 to 11:15am. The series characterised itself as "Britain's brightest daytime show", which gave "ordinary people the chance to talk and comment on everything from the invasion of Iraq to social, emotional and even sexual issues back at home", as well as featuring "showbiz stars and media commentators". The Wright Stuff was nominated as "Best Daytime Programme" at both the Royal Television Society and the National Television Awards.

<i>Harry Hills TV Burp</i> British TV series or programme

Harry Hill's TV Burp is a British television comedy series produced by Avalon Television, and written and hosted by comedian Harry Hill. The show ran for 11 series between 2001 and 2012 on ITV1. Each episode sees the host take a humorous look back at the previous week of programming on British television from a range of shows aired on terrestrial and digital channels.

ITV Play was a short-lived 24/7 participation television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV plc. The ITV Play name continued as a strand on the main ITV Network until December 2007.

A quiz channel is a television channel that focuses on phone-in quizzes. The quizzes usually focus on puzzles, such as filling in blanks, identifying subjects, or other forms of word puzzles. The channels make money by encouraging viewers to call a toll phone number for the chance to play.

<i>5 News</i> British news programme

5 News at 5, also known as Channel 5 News, is the flagship news programme of British broadcaster Channel 5. It is produced by ITN from its main newsroom on London's Gray's Inn Road, and has been broadcast since Channel 5's launch in March 1997.

<i>Would I Lie to You?</i> (British game show) British TV comedy panel game show (since 2007)

Would I Lie to You? is a British comedy panel show aired on BBC One, made by Zeppotron for the BBC. It was first broadcast on 16 June 2007, starring David Mitchell and Lee Mack as team captains. The show was originally presented by Angus Deayton, and since 2009 has been hosted by Rob Brydon.

U&W is a British free-to-air television channel owned by UKTV, a subsidiary of BBC Studios. It originally launched on 7 October 2008 as Watch and until 2022 was a pay television channel. From 15 February 2016 to 16 July 2024, the channel was known as W.

Seoige is an Irish television chat show. It was hosted by sisters Gráinne and Síle Seoige and was broadcast live on weekdays at 4.30 pm on RTÉ One between 2006 and 2009, with a hiatus in the summer months. Episodes were repeated at 8.20 the following weekday morning on the same channel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chloe Madeley</span> English television personality

Chloe Susannah Madeley is an English personal trainer and reality television personality. She is the daughter of Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan.

<i>Dynamo: Magician Impossible</i> British television series

Dynamo: Magician Impossible is a fly on the wall documentary series following the life of English magician Steven Frayne, better known as Dynamo. The show is produced by Phil McIntyre Productions and Inner Circle Films for UKTV's channel Watch and Universal Networks International. In 2012, the show was nominated for Best Entertainment Programme at the 17th National Television Awards.

The 2007 British premium-rate phone-in scandal, sometimes referred to in the press as simply the phone-in scandal relates to a series of controversies regarding the use of premium-rate telephone numbers by several British television and radio broadcasters. The first revelations began in February 2007 regarding the Channel 4 television programme Richard & Judy. However, over the following weeks, more allegations emerged regarding misconduct by major British broadcasters, including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. The programmes affected included phone-in competitions and public votes conducted over several years, dating back to 2001. As a result, adjudicators Ofcom and ICSTIS conducted several investigations, resulting in millions of pounds worth of fines and a reform in the use of PRS by broadcasters.

References

  1. Chris Curtis (8 May 2009). "Richard and Judy chatshow dropped". Broadcast. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  2. 1 2 Morris, Steven (19 February 2007). "Richard and Judy show faces inquiry over quiz". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  3. Sweney, Mark (22 February 2007). "ICSTIS looks into Channel 4 phone-in problem". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  4. "Record £150,000 fine in TV quiz scandal". the Guardian. 7 July 2007. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  5. "Adjudication of the Ofcom Content Sanctions Committee – Channel Four Television Corporation in respect of its service, Channel 4" (PDF). 20 December 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 July 2016. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  6. McCrum, Robert (5 March 2006). "Our top 50 players in the world of books". London: MediaGuardian. Retrieved 6 July 2007.
  7. Pauli, Michelle (24 October 2007). "Richard and Judy turn attention to children". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 9 January 2008.
  8. Reynolds, Nigel (24 October 2007). "Richard and Judy cast spell on children's books". London: The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 24 October 2007. Retrieved 9 January 2008.
  9. First novels selected as Richard and Judy switch channels The Guardian, 23 September 2008
  10. Deans, Jason (13 November 2002). "Richard and Judy makes way for Celebrity Big Brother". The Guardian . Retrieved 13 May 2024.