I was gutted to hear this afternoon that the BBC show Something for the Weekend (lovingly known in our house as Summat for the Weekend) is going to be axed when the current series finishes in March. Apparently it’s up for the chop because of budget cuts, and the BBC will be replacing it with endless repeats. The crazy thing is it’s a successful show – the BBC’s own Radio Times site reports that it gets over a million viewers a week, over 11% of the audience share. There must be plenty of other, less popular shows that could be axed – The One Show, for a start.
There’s so little I watch on telly these days, and weekend TV is especially bad – yet SFTW is perfect Sunday morning viewing. It’s also one of the few shows that we can all watch together as a family, because the variety of TV clips, celebrity interviews, cooking and gadgets offers something for each of us to enjoy. We’ve often tried out the recipes later in the day (at least Steve has!) and love playing along with the Deja View game each week.
The presenters – Tim “Chelsea” Lovejoy, Simon the cook, Big Wayne and Louise “Nurdle” Redknapp – work really well together and it’s become part of our Sunday morning routine to watch Something for the Weekend, either in bed if we’re feeling lazy, or together as a family.
By the look of it I’m not the only person to be upset by the BBC’s decision – a Facebook group “SAVE Something For The Weekend From The Axe”
started yesterday and already has over 20,000 followers, and there’s a big campaign going on on Twtter too – just look out for the #saveSFTW hashtag. Even former celeb guests like Professor Brian Cox have got involved!
If you want to play your part in trying to save SFTW join the Facebook group and send a letter to the BBC .. there are contact details on the facebook group’s wall, and there’s even a template letter for you to use.
Are you listening, BBC? 20,000+ people can’t be wrong. Do something for us, the licence payers, for a change and save Something for the Weekend!