ITV's 9.25 shows

Good morning from Central!

For a little bit more than a decade, and then again for seven weeks, the 9.25am slot on Britain's main commercial network was pretty much guaranteed to be filled with one glorified parlour game or another. Starting on 7 September 1987, when ITV managed to palm off its schools' programmes onto Channel 4, the slot was the natural home for cheap 'n' cheerful tat.

There now follows a list of game shows which filled this nearly-hallowed slot. Dates are of course series start dates. Weeks do not necessarily add up to 52 as the game show slot would usually be replaced with cartoons during the school summer holidays and would also take two or three weeks' break over Christmas and New Year.

1987
7 Sep Chain Letters (5 weeks)
12 Oct Runway (10 weeks)
1988
4 Jan Give Us a Clue (11 weeks)
21 Mar Lucky Ladders (5 weeks)
25 Apr Crosswits (8 weeks)
20 June Password (6 weeks)
1 Aug Whose Baby? (2 weeks)
15 Aug What's My Line? (3 weeks)
5 Sep Runway (8 weeks)
31 Oct Lucky Ladders (7 weeks)
1989
9 Jan The Pyramid Game (9 weeks)
13 Mar Keynotes (9 weeks)
15 May Crosswits (9 weeks)
4 Sep Runway (7 weeks)
23 Oct Keynotes (7 weeks)
11 Dec Born Lucky (2 weeks)
1990
8 Jan Lucky Ladders (6 weeks)
19 Feb The Pyramid Game (7 weeks)
9 Apr Crosswits (7 weeks)
29 May Chain Letters (6 weeks and 2 days)
3 Sep Jeopardy! (8 weeks)
29 Oct Keynotes (8 weeks)
1991
7 Jan Runway (1 week and 3 days) (a)
4 Mar Lucky Ladders (8 weeks)
29 Apr Crosswits (8 weeks)
24 Jun All Clued Up (4 weeks)
29 Aug Runway (2 days and 6 weeks) (a)
14 Oct Jeopardy! (10 weeks)
1992
6 Jan Keynotes (7 weeks)
24 Feb Lucky Ladders (7 weeks)
13 Apr Crosswits (11 weeks)
29 Jun Your Number Please (4 weeks)
27 Jul Jumble (6 weeks)
7 Sep Win, Lose or Draw (5 weeks)
12 Oct Keynotes (10 weeks)
1993
4 Jan Runway (7 weeks)
22 Feb Jeopardy! (7 weeks)
12 Apr Lucky Ladders (5 weeks)
17 May Crosswits (5 weeks)
21 Jun Talkabout (5 weeks)
6 Sep Supermarket Sweep (15 weeks)
1994
3 Jan Win, Lose or Draw (13 weeks)
4 Apr Crosswits (14 weeks)
5 Sep Supermarket Sweep (15 weeks)
1995
2 Jan Chain Letters (17 weeks)
1 May Win, Lose or Draw (10 weeks)
4 Sep Supermarket Sweep (15 weeks)
1996
1 Jan Win, Lose or Draw (17 weeks)
29 April Supermarket Sweep (repeats, 10 weeks)
2 Sep Supermarket Sweep (new, 15 weeks)
1997
7 Jan Win, Lose or Draw (7 weeks)
4 Mar Chain Letters (8 weeks)
28 April Supermarket Sweep (repeats, 10 weeks)
7 Jul Win, Lose or Draw (repeats, 8 weeks)
1 Sep Supermarket Sweep (new, 16 weeks)
1998
6 Jan Win, Lose or Draw (8 weeks)
2 March Supermarket Sweep (repeats, 3 weeks)
2019
13 May Dickinson's Real Deal (repeats, 4 weeks)
10 June Tenable (repeats, 3 weeks)
  • (a) Series 4 of Runway was meant to run for 8 weeks (as Richard Madeley said at the start of the first show of the run) but it was pulled from the schedules after 8 days due to news coverage of the Gulf War. It returned on 29 August.

The last 9.25 game show went out on Friday 20 March 1998. From Monday 23 March, ITV moved Vanessa Feltz's show into the slot. It had been a half-hour afternoon talk fest since coming on air in 1994, and now extended to 50 minutes.

When Vanessa took her show to the BBC, Trisha Goddard took over the slot from 21 September 1998 and stayed for the next six years until she moved to Channel Five from January 2005, but repeats of the ITV version carried on until 15 April 2005. From 18 April to 27 May 2005, ITV aired The People's Court, their version of the American courtroom show. During half term, ITV showed a week of the US Supernanny copycat "Nanny 911", then from 6 June to 1 July 2005 (and from 5 to 16 September 2005), ITV aired a UK version of Jerry Springer. From 4 July 2005, Jeremy Kyle took over, which was on the same set as the UK version of Jerry Springer and went on for fourteen years.

Early morning games made a brief return to the slot following the unfortunate death that brought an abrupt halt to the Jeremy Kyle show, but after seven weeks it was back to talk as Judge Rinder took over the slot. In January 2020, the 9.25 slot effectively disappeared as the extension of Good Morning Britain to three hours caused Lorraine to shift up and fill the hour from 9 to 10.

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