Parky ITV move
Chat show host Michael Parkinson has quit the BBC.
Veteran chat show host, and Emu's arch enemy, Michael Parkinson will be taking his hit show to ITV, following plans by the BBC to move him to a different slot.
"I'm very sorry to leave the BBC, of course I am," he said. "I have spent 20-odd years of my working life with the BBC and I don't turn my back on that lightly.
"But when the BBC brought back Match of the Day, effectively my spot had gone. When they bought the Premiership, they sold my playing field."
BBC bosses tried to move the show to Wednesday, and after he rejected that offer a 9pm Saturday slot was suggested.
"In the end, I wanted Saturday and I wanted 10 o'clock on a Saturday, and they wouldn't give it to me. I had a choice - either retire and walk away or go elsewhere," Parkinson said.
"Saturday at 9pm was a very good offer but my view has always been it's a talk show and talk shows belong at 10 o'clock.
"A show at nine o'clock has to become something else, like a variety show. There's nothing wrong with that but I didn't want to do it."
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