The unexpected success of Dancing on Ice on Saturday nights has had the knock-on effect of giving ITV executives a handy stop-gap solution to the weekday afternoon headache caused by Paul O'Grady's defection to Channel 4.
A 30-minute Dancing on Ice spin-off will launch on ITV1 on Monday February 13, paired with You've Been Framed in the 5pm slot, and is expected to run for up to three weeks, until the Saturday show comes to an end early next month.
It is understood that ITV always planned to have a gap of two or three weeks between The Richard Hammond Show completing its run in the 5pm slot on Friday February 10 and the return of The Paul O'Grady Show.
The original plan is said to have been to pair You've Been Framed with acquired repeats - probably episodes of The Crocodile Hunter featuring Steve Irwin.
However, the runaway popularity of Dancing on Ice on Saturdays, which is said to have taken even ITV insiders by surprise, has convinced the broadcaster to go ahead with the weekday afternoon spin-off.
The ITV director of television, Simon Shaps, and the director of daytime and factual, Alison Sharman, face the double headache on weekday afternoons of having lost their one bona fide hit, The Paul O'Grady Show, to Channel 4, and facing the same broadcaster's new runaway success Deal or No Deal.
Ms Sharman said of the new ITV1 afternoon show: "Dancing on Ice Extra will give skating fans the chance to get all of the backstage gossip and exclusive behind the scenes action from the hit Saturday night series as it builds to its exciting finale.
"We'll be revealing the thrills and spills from the exhausting rehearsals that the ice dancers endure on a daily basis as well as hearing from the stars of the show themselves, their friends and family."
The Dancing on Ice spin-off is a useful stop gap, which is likely to run for three weeks until Friday March 3, the day before the finale of the main show.
However, a more long-term solution would be to cut back children's weekday programming block CiTV from 90 minutes a day to an hour, so that it ends at 4.30pm rather than 5pm. This change is expected to coincide with the launch of the CiTV digital channel on March 11.
ITV will not officially confirm the cut in CiTV hours, but sources familiar with the broadcaster's daytime plans say it is going ahead.
With an extra half hour to play with in the afternoon, ITV1 is expected to launch a 45-minute revival of gameshow The Price Is Right, presented by Joe Pasquale, between 4.30pm and 5.15pm.
If the new look ITV1 afternoon schedule is launched on Monday March 13, two days after the CiTV channel goes on air, it would have two weeks to bed in before The Paul O'Grady Show begins on Channel 4 on March 27.
ITV can cuts its CiTV weekday afternoon hours without going back to Ofcom to renegotiate its minimum public service commitments in the children's genre.
The minimum level is set at eight hours a week and ITV1 currently broadcasts around 11 hours of children's programmes a week on weekday afternoons, Saturday and Sunday mornings.
Even after losing two-and-a-half hours from weekday afternoons, ITV1 would still be above its eight-hour minimum.
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