Line-up revolution

It is important for us all to realise the revolution that is taking place on our screens tonight. TVB has decided to run not one, not two, but three top-rated American drama series back-to-back this evening.

This means no movie, no feature length mini-serial, no two-hour sport special, no award ceremony highlights, just drama made for television in one-hour chunks.

The X-Files (Pearl, 8.30pm) has enjoyed the early-evening slot for some months now, and a brand new series of NYPD Blue (Pearl 9.30pm) and another of Murder One (Pearl 10.30pm) will follow it.

The cracks in the traditional scheduling pattern of news, half- hour sitcom or news magazine, one-hour series and a movie, began when ATV decided to schedule basketball in the movie slot earlier this year. Today TVB has taken that policy one step further.

Hong Kong is not the only place where two channels aimed at exactly the same audience screen the same kinds of programmes at exactly the same time, but it was astonishing how rigidly that policy had been maintained by both sides.

So could this shift suggest some bigger behind-the-scenes changes in the mindset of TVB and ATV bosses towards English language programming? That remains a matter for speculation. Pearl's Programming Department would only say that after The Odyssey attracted such large audiences, it decided it was worth pulling movies to run on television series.

In this column, and in almost every English-language viewing family in Hong Kong, the point has been made over and over that some of the best shows are shown at stupid times, either after midnight or on weekends in the morning. And TVB says it too has been frustrated in the past at not having enough slots for good quality series (the first Murder One series went out after midnight).