Channel 5 boss kept Jay Blades series "on the shelf", feared it would "die a death"
Ben Frow revealed he held back on scheduling the show while speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival 2022.
Jay Blades: No Place Like Home aired on Channel 5 earlier this year, proving popular with viewers and gaining a recommission for a second season.
However, Channel 5's controller Ben Frow has now revealed that the show's first season, which aired in May this year, had sat "on the shelf" for months, as Frow feared it wouldn't be able to stand up to competition from other broadcasters.
Frow was speaking at a panel focused on scheduling at this year's Edinburgh TV Festival, where he said of the show: "It was a lovely series, beautifully made. It's wonderful to have Jay Blades on the channel, but it was soft history, very BBC Two, and I kept it on the shelf for a few months".
Frow said he was "dreading the call from Jay Blades going, 'When's this bloody programme going out?'", but kept thinking that "it's going to die a death, it's not going to be able to stand up" to the competition.
Frow continued: "Then this week appeared [in the schedules] when you looked at the competition and you went, 'There is nothing for that older, intelligent audience who might like a bit of soft history. Now's the time to launch Jay Blades.'
"We put him into the schedule, it does over a million and that three-part series has now become an ongoing series. So timing is really important."
The three-part documentary series Jay Blades: No Place Like Home saw Blades return to his childhood neighbourhood of Hackney, in order to discover its history and relive his own past.
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Season 10 of Blade's BBC show The Repair Shop began earlier this year, and new episodes are airing Wednesdays at 8pm on BBC One.
Read more coverage from the Edinburgh International TV Festival 2022:
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- Heartstopper boss talks why they had to change Nick's journey for TV
- Channel 5 boss says Maxine Carr drama is "deeply respectful to the victims"
- Channel 4 boss on Big Brother return: 'Reviving old shows is depressing'
- Armando Iannucci dismisses Doctor Who "woke" criticism, backs "colourblind" casting
- ITV boss backs Emmerdale and Coronation Street schedule change
- ITV boss reveals why the channel is resurrecting Big Brother
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Jay Blades: No Place Like Home is available to watch now on My5. Find something to watch with our TV Guide or visit our Entertainment hub for all the latest news.
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Authors
James Hibbs is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering programmes across both streaming platforms and linear channels. He previously worked in PR, first for a B2B agency and subsequently for international TV production company Fremantle. He possesses a BA in English and Theatre Studies and an NCTJ Level 5 Diploma in Journalism.
