The BBC has started the search for a new prime time Saturday night show, after it pushed out a brief to producers to find ideas that would ‘draw people together’.
The Voice, which is filmed at MediaCityUK in Salford, will end on BBC1 in 2017 after it was poached by a rival broadcaster, believed to be ITV.
The BBC has already run a tender process for new ideas that would be able to ‘sit alongside Strictly Come Dancing and The Voice’, asking producers to pitch shows with ‘a sense of event on a huge scale’ that would ‘draw people together, whether as households gathering in their living rooms or creating a sense of national event.’
Acting controller of entertainment commissioning Alan Tyler said: “I’m a big believer in a continuous creative dialogue with producers. It’s the only way to find great ideas and to grow hit shows.”
Meanwhile, the show’s producer Talpa Media, is set to go to trial in the US over a copyright row. Irishman Roy Barry has lodged a court claim that he filed copyright for a talent show called The Voice of America in 2008. The trial is expected to start in the New Year.
