Two announcements today from ITV:

RDF is back in business as a supplier, subject to new compliance procedures – like don’t let your chief creative officer get his hands on any rushes – that kind of thing. That one certainly slipped out didn’t it? Nothing to do with timing…

And the Deloitte Report.

My favourite bit is the Jiggy Bank* competition from Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway. Remember Ant & Dec KNEW NOTHING of any “jigginess” with the competition. Technically, the pair were listed as the show’s Executive Producers, but as Michael Grade explained:

An executive producer credit in their case is kind of a vanity credit … It gave them the comfort … that the editorial team would have to listen to them.

Grade, of course, is ITV’s Executive Chairman (not a vanity title), and he’ll be pleased to know that although his millionaire stars needed to be listened to, they didn’t hear any “jiggery-pokery.”

Here is what actually happened:

1. A list of locations which the pig would visit was drawn up in advance of the series. On a weekly basis a shortlist was drawn up by the production team of 20 to 30 entrants who lived within an hour of that week’s listed location. Entrants from places not near a location on the pig’s schedule, or those from areas already visited earlier in the series, had no chance of winning. This was not made clear to entrants.

2. The production team then routinely used editorial judgement in the final selection of each week’s winner. Researchers would telephone those on the shortlist of 20 to 30 and, as well as checking health and fitness, they would also assess the individual’s likely reaction on camera. From those assessments a final shortlist of five would be drawn up. A researcher then visited these individuals and selected the eventual winner to ride the pig. This practice was contrary to the terms and conditions of the competition, which stated that a random shortlist of potential winners would be selected from the correct and valid entries and that this shortlist would be contacted to ensure that they met the health and safety criteria. A further random selection would then be made from those members of this shortlist who met these criteria.

3. In one episode, an individual known to researchers in charge of winner selection was placed on the shortlist of 20 to 30 entrants after the researchers recognised the name of the individual as a viewer who had taken part in an audition for another element of the programme. The individual was called back as part of the process set out at paragraph 2 above, was included in the final shortlist and subsequently won. This procedure did not comply with the terms and conditions.

4. In another episode, an individual was pre-selected by the production team to win the competition on the basis that this would offer the most entertaining programme.

Thankfully, we now know this can never happen again. And remember, as Michael Grade told the Guardian, “There is a huge public appetite to be involved in shows with voting, [for example] The X Factor which starts this Saturday.” Kerching!

*In which a participant rode a giant model pig to dislodge as much as possible of the cash inside. Viewers entered a text competition (just £1.32!) to ride the pig in the following week’s episode by sending a correct SMS text answer to a question…