To wonder WHY this is - and that it should change?

[TrinketsBiscuits]

When I was a kid we had really good Saturday morning TV programs like Swap Shop and Saturday Superstore. Now there’s NO kids’ programmes at all on Sat mornings - instead a plethora of cookery programmes - each one with virtually the same format!

Heads up for anyone interested - October 2nd this year will be 50 year anniversary of Swap Shop and there’ll be at least 1 program on TV commemorating it

Peter Simon presented.

You can watch these programmes on YouTube.

My faves were Zzzap and Fun House (although I don't think they were Saturday morning shows)

Never watched TV in the mornings and my kids don't ever... seems such a slovenly thing to do.

I think it was Pat Sharp who presented it?!

There's a live one on CBBC called Saturday Mash up but I imagine it doesn't attract anything like the viewer numbers of Tiswas etc. Things that happened on Saturday Superstore, Going Live etc are shared cultural moments for earlier generations

Yes this is what I think

Yes totally agree - I’ve not even heard of Saturday Mash Up cos I just stick religiously to the traditional’ channels of

BBC1 BBC2 ITV and if I have to CHANNELS 4 and 5! None of these fancy digital channels for me!!

i can only guess that Saturday Mash Up gets hardly any mainstream publicity

It is sad though that there's no longer Saturday morning kids shows like SMTV live for example. It used to be fun going into school on Monday knowing everyone had watched the same thing on Sat morning and discussing it etc. I get that everything is streamable now but there's now no exciting element of people calling in, entering competitions etc.

We are both wrong! Apparently it was Neil Buchanan!

Clearly we are getting Fun House, Double Dare and Run The Risk all muddled up 😁

Noooo !! Swap Shop was ACE! I never got Tiswas!!

Saturday mash up is very similar to what I remember Saturday morning TV to be as a kid. CBBC is a free channel for kids so obviously a BBC Saturday kids' show will be on that channel. Channel 5 Milkshake in the mornings is for kids as well.

Yes this is it

Yes exactly this

No I do have Freeview and realistically I do stream - but the only steaming services I use are the BBC1, ITV, Channels 4 ones etc - so traditional channel streaming nothing like Netflix etc

My daughter watches Saturday Mash Up. Its a similar sort of of show to the old days but its not on all year round sadly.

Purely because there is far more available to children on dedicated channels, streaming, devices etc. Just as there's no need to go out and buy a newspaper or magazine or the latest album. Everything is readily available online.

TV companies know that kids are watching stuff on YouTube and kids channels all week so no need to specifically put anything on normal channels for them anymore.

If you don’t recognise the song lyrics

“see one, feel one, touch one” 🎵

then I’m afraid you’re NOT my televisual equals! 🤣

I think you’re the one missing the point. The answer to the OP’s question is still that streaming has made programmes like this obsolete. Even before streaming, they were dying out. They became shared cultural moments, as another poster puts it, largely because of a lack of an alternative. Everyone watched not just because there were only four channels, but because they didn’t have the internet to browse, TikTok videos to make… hell, even videogames were a bit of a luxury until the 90s really got underway.

It’s not just about streaming, but the increase in competition for our attention in general. So as for the second part of the OP’s question - “Should this change?” - it would only really be a matter of “should” if there was a huge untapped market for it. There isn’t. There won’t be a new, mainstream terrestrial equivalent to Live and Kicking for the same reason terrestrial channels are cutting the number of episodes of soap operas instead of launching new ones.

Yeah & of all things that have changed not having this mind mush on a Saturday morning is about the least of the 'problems'.

No thankfully I'm not.

not 'equal' does not mean 'less'

This. My kids only watch ‘TV’ for a few hours at Christmas when we put a film on. At nearly 18 and 21, they’ve not been down to the lounge sine even before covid. They stream to their PCs and devices and often watch the same programme with friends on some shared platform (who are also in their rooms on devices) while chatting via discord.

Thank you - this is a very interesting take.

one thing I’m very surprised about though is soap operas cutting their episode numbers - from what I can see since the 80s soap operas like Corrie and Eastenders have increased their episodes although since the late 80s there’s been the demise of the Aussie soaps as well as Brookside etc

There’s just actually now been a new item on Radio 2 midday news saying that the BBC is apparently now going to create kids’ viewing content specifically for YouTube - to reflect the fact that kids are increasingly watching online content

This is obviously the way the world is going ..