Amanda Holden and John Bishop join W for two new UKTV Originals

London - 1st March 2016 W, UKTVs premium entertainment channel, today welcomed Amanda Holden and John Bishop to front two brand new UKTV Originals, due to air later this year.

John Bishop: In Conversation With...(10x60), produced by Lola Entertainment and distributed by BBC Worldwide, will showcase Johns unique approach to interviews and cast the comedian in a whole new light. Each week, John will be joined by a household name to discover the person behind the public persona in a series of intimate and revealing one-on-one interviews.

Amanda Holden will front brand new reality format, Ive Got Something To Tell You (6x60), produced by Zig Zag Productions. Filmed in an English country retreat, Ive Got Something To Tell You features ordinary people making extraordinary confessions over dinner, drinks or a simple cup of coffee. Watching from the sidelines, Amanda Holden offers support as friends, partners and relations break life-changing news to loved ones before the cameras. From emotional outpourings to hilarious admissions, this UKTV Original will take viewers on an emotional rollercoaster.

UKTV director of commissioning, Richard Watsham said,

These fantastic series demonstrate our ambition for W, both in terms of the extraordinary level of talent that were delighted to be working with, and also the breadth and originality of the programmes themselves. These are two very different, very exciting propositions but together they should start to create a coherent and consistent tone of voice for Ws smart female audience.

Steve North, Ws general manager, added,

We want W to be the home of smart escapism, with UKTV Originals sitting alongside our top shows like EastEnders. Adding gems like Ive Got Something To Tell You and John Bishop: In Conversation With... is helping to build a strong channel with shows that our viewers will love. We are really excited to welcome John Bishop and Amanda Holden to the W family and we look forward to seeing the new shows uncover some of Britains best stories and secrets.

Ordered by Steve North for W, John Bishop: In Conversation With... is commissioned by Richard Watsham and Ive Got Something To Tell You commissioned by deputy director of commissioning, Hilary Rosen. Rosen will act as executive producer for UKTV across both shows.

The continued investment in original commissions follows the launch of W last month. An evolution of general entertainment channel Watch, W caters for 30 to 39-year-old women and their loved ones, with whom they share a love of smart entertainment.

The channels daily reach is up 9% and has already seen success in attracting its target audience with an 11% increase of 30-39-year-old women tuning into W. The launch included authored documentary series ON, led by Sara Cox, Grace Dent and Sophie Ellis-Bextor and the narrative repeat of BBC Ones EastEnders.

For more information contact:

Kerry Parker, Head of Network Communications

Gemma Pinkney, Publicist

About W Sky 109/245, Virgin 124/191, BT & TalkTalk 311

On demand on Sky and Virgin

W is UKTVs premium entertainment channel, offering audiences a dazzling mix of original factual entertainment formats - ON, Get Me To The Church, Honey I Bought the House - alongside the gold standard of shows from the US including Code Black, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, CSI:NY, Grimm and The Strain plus jewels from the same day repeat of EastEnders.

liveonw.co.uk @LiveonW

About UKTV UKTV is the multi-award winning media company that reaches 42 million viewers a month.

UKTVs eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, Watch, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Good Food - include the most popular non-PSB channel in the UK and account for 9% of the British commercial TV market. The companys most recent financial results showed record-breaking year-end revenue of £283m and EBITDA of £74.1m. It invested £123m in programming and related launches last year, and is becoming an increasingly significant investor in UK creativity.

UKTV has a truly innovative model, curating brand-defining commissions, high-profile acquisitions and the very best of BBC, alongside programmes originally shown on ITV and Channel 4. The network embraces technology to deliver inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView and UKTV Play, and distributes its highly valued original programmes to 200 territories. Now celebrating its 22nd year at the forefront of digital television, UKTV - an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI) - is proud to be the only British television broadcaster to be recognised by Best Companies.

corporate.uktv.co.uk / pressoffice.uktv.co.uk / @uktv_press

LINK:	http://corporate.uktv.co.uk/news/article/amanda-holden-and-john-bishop...
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