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- guardian.co.uk, Monday February 5 2001 08.00 GMT
The BBC is capitalising on renewed interest in music TV by relaunching its flagship chart show, Top of the Pops.
As the huge ratings for ITV's hit show Popstars demonstrate that plastic pop is alive and well, the BBC has decided to rescue its music showcase from a "graveyard slot", up against Coronation Street on Fridays. The programme, first broadcast in 1964, will get a new look when it moves studios later this year. Executives are considering whether to give it a new time slot, possibly its original home of Thursday.
The relaunch has been prompted by the BBC's move to broadcast a fourth weekly episode of EastEnders. TOTP is being forced to give up its studio at Elstree in Hertfordshire to make way for increased production of the soap.
A temporary home has been found at the Riverside studios in west London. The relaunch will take place once a permanent base has been secured.
The revival is a remarkable turnaround: TOTP faced the axe a few years ago. A new executive producer, Chris Cowey, has succeeded in restoring its credibility: now it is slicker, less chart-led, and has ditched its association with ageing Radio 1 disc jockeys. A US network wants to make its own version, and a successful BBC2 spin-off, Top of the Pops Plus, may prove to be the model for reviving the BBC's ailing Saturday morning children's output.
An appearance on TOTP is still coveted by the music industry: the manufactured band featured in Popstars hopes to be invited onto the show if, as expected, their first single is a hit. One of the remaining episodes of Popstars will be devoted to the TOTP debut. "It's stillthe holy grail of the pop world," said a source at LWT, which makes the ITV show.
At the weekend, millions saw the final choice of the Popstars band line-up revealed. They were picked from almost 3,000 by LWT's controller of entertainment, Nigel Lythgoe, record company executive Paul Adam, and public relations consultant Nicki Chapman.
They are Kym Marsh, 24, and Suzanne Shaw, 19, both from Lancashire; Danny Foster, 21, from east London; Myleene Klass, 22, from Norfolk ,and Noel Sullivan, 20, from Cardiff.
