F-series News
It's official:
QI moves to BBC 1 in January 2009.
It's pretty guaranteed, however, that two episodes will be shown before the new year switchover:
(1) Children in Need - 14 November 2008
(2) Christmas episode - sometime around Christmas
The longer wait for the F-series is guaranteed to be disappointing for everyone, but the move to BBC 1 is something that the producers only dreamt of when they first pitched the show more than five years ago, and we should be happy for them. Really. Rationalize it as you may, but QI is still a commercial enterprise, and while it's very well to say "it's a BBC 2 show; we know it's there; it should stay on BBC 2!", the fact of the matter is that BBC 1 gets a higher audience share, and that most people (although this may shock you) are not like us; they may not always be on the ball so far as knowing when it is on. If more people catch QI because of this move, it can only mean more hype, more profits, more books, more QI for years to come.
Three months won't matter in the long run, and there are a lot of QI things to tide you over until the series begins. The 2008 Annual can now be appetizer instead of dessert.
Not to mention that the Stephen Fry in America series starts on 12 October, so you shouldn't be lacking for great Stephen-related broadcasts.
QI moves to BBC 1 in January 2009.
It's pretty guaranteed, however, that two episodes will be shown before the new year switchover:
(1) Children in Need - 14 November 2008
(2) Christmas episode - sometime around Christmas
The longer wait for the F-series is guaranteed to be disappointing for everyone, but the move to BBC 1 is something that the producers only dreamt of when they first pitched the show more than five years ago, and we should be happy for them. Really. Rationalize it as you may, but QI is still a commercial enterprise, and while it's very well to say "it's a BBC 2 show; we know it's there; it should stay on BBC 2!", the fact of the matter is that BBC 1 gets a higher audience share, and that most people (although this may shock you) are not like us; they may not always be on the ball so far as knowing when it is on. If more people catch QI because of this move, it can only mean more hype, more profits, more books, more QI for years to come.
Three months won't matter in the long run, and there are a lot of QI things to tide you over until the series begins. The 2008 Annual can now be appetizer instead of dessert.
Not to mention that the Stephen Fry in America series starts on 12 October, so you shouldn't be lacking for great Stephen-related broadcasts.