History
Following a successful pilot broadcast on 22 December 2001, a series was commissioned, starting on 14 November 2002. Notably, the BBC did not allow any clips from EastEnders to be used within the first series, requiring Hill's comments on the show to be instead accompanied by crude animation, courtroom-style sketches or staged comic re-enactments of scenes from the show. However, as of the second series, clips have appeared. The first two series were broadcast late at night on Thursdays, and the third series on Fridays. Whilst well received, the scheduling was criticised due to the family-friendly humour. The third series received a Sunday teatime repeat and from the fourth series, the show moved to a Saturday teatime slot, later moving to primetime.
In 2007, Ofcom ruled that TV Burp had breached guidelines by including clips of a Bear Grylls programme which featured Grylls eating a frog and cooking a turtle; Ofcom ruled that the clips were 'inappropriately scheduled' given the offence they could potentially cause viewers when taken outside of the context of the whole Grylls programme. In 2009, "The Best of TV Burp 3" included footage originally broadcast in 2004, which lampooned Sky reality series The Real Mrs Robinson. ITV and Avalon were not aware that two of the participants in the programme had passed away between the original broadcast and the 'Best of'. However, Sky's licence to use the footage made no mention of this, and the participants were not referred to by their full names in the footage, restricting TV Burp's ability to research the case ahead of putting the programme to air. After complaints were made to ITV and Ofcom, the programme was voluntarily re-edited such that the segment was removed from all further broadcasts. Ofcom did not uphold a complaint made by relatives of the deceased, stating that whilst it recognised that the broadcast of the footage would have been distressing to the family, the manner of the broadcast did not breach the broadcasting regulations. The highest rated episode of TV Burp aired on Saturday 13 November 2010, with the show receiving 7.946 million, a 31.7% audience share.
Due to the inclusion of a large amount of material to which ITV and Avalon do not hold the rights, repeats of past TV Burp episodes were rare outside immediate broadcast repeats. However, in 2009, The Best of TV Burp was introduced, which featured clips from previous episodes. Additionally, following the roll-out of ITV Player, as of 2009, new episodes have also been made available to view online on the service for up to 7 days after original transmission. As of 7 April 2012, 24 'Best of TV Burp' episodes have been aired, in addition to a Best of Christmas TV Burp episode on 27 December 2010, with clips from previous Christmas episodes of the show. On 28 October 2011, Cartoon Network began airing a similar format, in which they take past episodes of the series and edit segments together to make the series more child-friendly. No new segments were recorded for this version, with the exception of the trailer.
After months of speculation, Hill confirmed to his studio audience at the taping of the final episode of Series 11 that it would be his last.
Read more about this topic: Harry Hill's TV Burp
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