On 2013-09-14 16:58:39 +0100, Jake said:

On Sat, 14 Sep 2013 14:35:15 +0100, Sacha
wrote:


That's just my view but I doubt if it's mine alone.

There is a very interesting double page spread in the 21 September
edition of AG on this subject.

I had a small exchange with Monty (and others) on Twitter recently in
which he rounded the GW audience down to 2,000,000 and mentioned the
estimated 9,000,000 gardeners who don't watch GW. No-one has answered
the question "Why don't they watch ..." yet.

Whilst I would run 2 miles to avoid David Domoney, in the AG article
he does make an interesting point that gardening programmes
concentrate too much on the labour aspect of gardening rather than the
enjoyment you can get out of your garden.

OTOH, this is a debate we've had so many times and I think it's fair
to say that opinions in the group - as elsewhere - tend to be
polarised a bit. The format of programmes seems to take a very much
secondary place to liking/disliking the presenter(s). I am certainly
guilty of that, to a point. But in reality the format of programmes
does matter more.

Toby Buckland's stint on GW co-incided with a format change that
alienated a lot of people. Did Toby have any significant input into
that change? We don't actually know but he's carried the can for it.
That audience figures have improved since the format was ditched is to
be expected but the conclusion that people prefer Monty to Toby has no
foundation.

And the AG article foretells what we're going the get in 2014. I'll
leave it to you to read the article and will simply mention that Fern
Britton will present one new show!

Oh god save us all! What is WRONG with the people that commission these
programmes?!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk