The perils of going commercial

The Great British Bake Off is going from BBC1 to Channel 4 next year, though without Mel and Sue and some rumours suggest Mary Berry doing the same. Here some more examples of going from the Beeb to the other side not working out.

Michael Parkinson

After suffering something of a career slip with the infamous launch of TV-AM, Michael Parkinson enjoyed a comeback in the late 90's after highlights of his 1971-82 BBC1 chat show which showed him interviewing the likes of Peter Sellers, Richard Burton and Bing Crosby led to calls for him to his chat show back. And in 1998 Parkinson was back on air on BBC1 and for the following 6 years (with the same set design) Michael interviewed the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis, Ewan McGregor and in one rather uncomfortable interview Meg Ryan. Then in 2004 the BBC brought back the highlights package for the English Premier League (more on that later) and seeing his show being moved from it's prime Saturday slot Michael Parkinson with great fan fare moved to ITV, despite sharing the same theme and set design as the BBC show the new ITV show was not a hit and 3 years later (aside from the odd project here and there) Michael Parkinson retired.

Des Lynam

Through years of hosting Grandstand and major sporting events like the Olympics and the World Cup, Des Lynam was seen as very much a BBC man. In 1992 he became host of Match of the Day which went on late Saturday nights, Des was not happy about this in particularly with it going out after US TV movie pot boilers. In 1999 in a shock move Des went to ITV where at first he presented live coverage of the Champions League and then when the Premier League highlights package was won from the Beeb he fronted a Match of the Day type show called the Premiership which at first went out on early evenings but after disappointing viewing figures was moved to a late night slot. Des quit ITV in 2004 around the same time as the Beeb brought back the Premier League highlights. Des has gone on record to say he wished he had not moved away from the BBC.

The Boat Race

In 2005 ITV brought the rights to The Boat Race. In 2010 without anyone in the way the BBC brought back the rights paying less money than ITV did.