Grade unveils his screen-test strategy

Moving Wallpaper, the comedy about the making of soap opera Echo Beach that is followed by the soap

He revealed today that Moving Wallpaper will be back for another series but that Echo Beach will take a lesser role, simply "appearing in some form or another".

It's all well and good for programmes such as Moving Wallpaper to attract critical acclaim
but initial five million-plus audiences have slumped to barely half that.

Reception for a relaunched News at Ten was also lukewarm.

Flagship channel ITV1 is about delivering mass audiences. As the television market fragments further with the growth of digital channels, ITV's unique selling point is that big hit with 10 million or more viewers that only publicly owned rival BBC1 can hope to match.

Grade has fail-safes. Sport, as rival Sky knows, is a crowd-puller. So too are long-running soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

ITV1 has strongly revived its weekend evening audiences with live or near-live Saturday nights including Ant & Dec, X Factor, Dancing on Ice
and Harry Hill's TV Burps.

Sunday-night dramas such as Wild at Heart, Kingdom, Doc Martin and Lewis, have also held on to viewers.

But Grade would still love to match BBC hits such as Doctor Who, Life on Mars and Spooks. His hopes lie in those monster hits that also win critical praise. Tonight sees the start of behind the scenes of a talent show drama Rock Rivals.

Kudos Productions, the team behind Spooks has made a new drama series The Fixer while Pushing Daisies with Anna Friel comes across from huge
success in the US, and Britannia High will be a major interactive entertainment production with music by Gary Barlow.

But Grade can also sit back and collect on the return later this year of money-spinners such as Britain's Got Talent and I'm A Celebrity