ITV won a 21% share last night for both of its new Thursday evening offerings Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach.

much has been written already – both good and bad – about the duo of commissions, with negative comment generally focusing on the quality of the scripts across both.

but I’m not so sure thats such a bad thing…  bad TV has a long and illustrious history – some of us just about remember Carol Burnett battling in a raisin power struggle in Fresno…  and Sunset Beach’s was doing real time playout a decade before anyone had heard of Jack Bauer.  bad TV can be good if it’s knowing, and Echo Beach and it’s partner are both very knowing…

but the real triumph is a very smart bit of commissioning from ITV…  there aren’t many precedents of programmes that have been imagined in such a way, with spin-offs or sequels generally being an extension of a successful (or ailing) existing entity.  it’s a brave concept that could have been killed-off so many times in development, so kudos to ITV (and Kudos for that matter) for pulling it off.

it’s a shame that an advertiser wasn’t able to capitalise on the opportunity to reflect and play with two different sides of a brand personality.  the opportunity to do so remains open…