That Antony Cotton Show

Overview

That Antony Cotton Show is a British comedy chat show that was broadcast on ITV & STV for one series in 2007. It was presented by Coronation Street actor Antony Cotton, and aired on weekdays at 5pm. The show was not broadcast in Northern Ireland, due to UTV's news programme beginning at 5.30pm. The show was filmed in front of a live audience at the ITV Granada studios in Manchester. Preview tapes of the pilot circulated before the series began, mainly on YouTube, and were panned by critics as it was simply a copy of The Paul O'Grady Show, which originally was shown on ITV. ITV Productions Granada thought Anthony Cotton would have been either more popular or as popular as with viewers as Paul O'Grady was. That Antony Cotton Show launched with 2 million viewers at 5pm on Monday 13 August 2007. This was significantly up on the slot average of 1.7 million viewers. It also attracted more than Channel 4's flagship daytime show, Richard & Judy, which pulled in just 1.1 million viewers at the same time. However, by its third episode, the show had lost 500,000 viewers, drawing 1.5 million and a 13% share. Viewership continued to fall further for Cotton's show. On 24 August 2007, only 1.1 million tuned in. The show's viewership slumped to below 1.1 million on 11 September 2007.