Blue Peter is on CBBC at 5pm on Saturdays which is good since CBBC’s core audience is primary school children aged six to 12-years-old.” (BBC, 2016). This age group will be home from school and eager to watch Blue Peter at this time, however if they do miss it there’s a repeat of Thursday’s episode every Sunday at 9am.
The show is more than just a television programme, it’s a significant part of British culture, especially due to its title as the longest running children’s TV in the world (first airing in 1958). Throughout the years it’s had a traditional theme of multiple presenters (male and female) who compete in challenges against each other along with setting competitions for the viewers enabling them to earn an infamous Blue Peter badge. They’ve also maintained the arts & crafts ‘makes’ (here’s one I made earlier!), although in this particular episode they didn’t have time for it.
Time was often given to reading letters and viewing pictures sent in by viewer, however in this episode they’ve retained the viewer/presenter relationship by using videos that the viewers have sent in as individual idents that link to the following section of content: Barney introduces The Vamps for the end of the show musical performance by asking if “Alice and her friends could bust some moves on (their) tour”. A short 10-15 second clip of Alice and her friends Irish dancing is displayed followed by praise from the presenters and The Vamps.
This has worked well for decades on Blue Peter as their target audience responds well to positive reinforcement; anyone who submits something to the show always receives recognition and praise for their work or talent. The Vamps are suited nicely to the show’s audience as they share the same target audience although Blue Peter’s viewers might be slightly younger than most fans of the band.
Pets were a regular feature through the 60s-90s however in this episode there was only the cartoon tortoise ‘Shelley’, who was part of a competition: who could spot her throughout the programme. This allows viewer engagement as they can play along but it does highlight that the show has lost some of its original qualities that made it so successful.
In December 2012, Blue Peter ended its 54-year run on BBC One and now airs only on the CBBC Channel. Viewing figures determined that 93% of CBBC’s target audience was now watching the BBC’s children’s programming on the dedicated CBBC Channel (Independent, 2012).
The decision to drop the much-loved show from BBC1 sparked controversy at the time. Filming had already moved from Television Centre, the London home of Blue Peter’s famous garden, to Salford, and critics claimed the show was being watered-down.Last year the programme, which first aired in 1958, was also cut to just one show per week hosted by two presenters. It has previously had four presenters and was broadcast three times a week (The Daily Mail, 2013).
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2342442/Heres-7-9million-viewers-lost-earlier-Blue-Peter-watched-child-BBC1-heyday–Now-just-100-000-tuning-switch-CBBC.html#ixzz4XpWispoB
References
BBC. (2017). Commissioning. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/articles/cbbc-channel . Last accessed 5th Feb 2017.
Murphy, S. (2013). The Blue Peter badge no-one wants: Show was watched by almost every child in its BBC1 heyday… now just 100,000 are tuning in after switch to CBBC Available: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2342442/Heres-7-9million-viewers-lost-earlier-Blue-Peter-watched-child-BBC1-heyday–Now-just-100-000-tuning-switch-CBBC.html#ixzz4XpWispoB . Last accessed 5th Feb 2017.
Sherwin, A. (2012). Blue Peter sets sail from its prime BBC1 berth of 54 years. Available: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/blue-peter-sets-sail-from-its-prime-bbc1-berth-of-54-years-7758136.html . Last accessed 5th Feb 2017.
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