On Monday night, the BBC made a mistake. They didn't realise it at the time, but within hours a backlash had begun that has successfully changed the schedule of one of the most popular BBC channels within 24 hours.
Let's go back to beginning to see how it all unfolded.
The Bedtime Hour is the final hour of programming for BBC children's channel CBeebies. It has always consisted of a selection of calming shows followed by a bedtime story read by a celebrity, and changes to the schedule are always risky as many parents use it as part of their children's bedtime routine. Back in 2011 Cbeebies changed the Bedtime Hour line up with little warning to parents and there were numerous complaints, so this time around they gave out plenty of warning. For the last few weeks parents, myself included, have been constantly reminded about the changes planned for the Bedtime Hour. Adverts ran constantly throughout the day reminding us and the channel's blog and Twitter feed ran articles and published multiple Tweets about it.
The change was as follows; the previous line up of a 20 minute episode of "Waybuloo" followed by "In The Night Garden" and the bedtime story would be replaced by 10 minutes of "Driver Dan's Story Train", a new shortened 10 minute edition of "Waybuloo", then* "In the Night Garden"* and the bedtime story as before. The new shortened version of "Waybuloo" would also include a narrator, something never used on the show before. I heard a few lone voices online asking how this would work and I was also a little confused by the idea, but no one seemed particularly bothered about the inclusion of a narrator, after all it was a new series.
On Monday night, I like many other parents across the country, switched on the TV after my two year old had eaten dinner to allow him 10 minutes of TV before taking him up to bed. "Waybuloo" began and I sat listening in complete disbelief. "Waybuloo" was always a very relaxing show, with easy to follow stories about friendship and making others happy; there was calm chill-out music and the main characters, CG creatures known as Piplings, would do an activity called "Yogo" - a form of toddler yoga. This new version was not a new series. Instead, an old episode had been chopped up to remove most of the plot line and the narrator didn't so much narrate as talk in an obnoxious manner throughout, as if mocking the characters. The best I could describe it as was watching the TV with a drunk male friend who felt the need to comment sarcastically about everything until you want to chuck them out of the room. My husband walked in halfway through and shared my confusion and dismay, neither of us could begin to understand why these changes had been made and both of us tweeted to that end.
This morning (Tuesday) I decided to search Twitter for "Waybuloo" and I quickly discovered we were far from alone in our thoughts. Countless tweets had been sent by parents complaining bitterly about the changes. The email address of Cbeebies executive producer was being rapidly retweeted and parents were sending messages directly to the channel's Twitter account telling them to switch back. I was busy throughout the day but after dinner I once again switched on Cbeebies for my son and immediately noticed that the old format "Waybuloo" was back; the obnoxious narrator was gone. I checked the digital schedules for the rest of the week and every day was the same, the old Bedtime Hour schedule was back with a full length episode.
After bedtime was over I began looking up what had happened and immediately came across these tweets from the Cbeebies account:
A quick look at the channel's blog revealed that the post detailing the new format had over 200 comments, a shocking number on a blog that rarely even strays in doubt digit territory, and every one I read was a complaint. The post on the Facebook page was also at over 100 comments, again every one I read a complaint. Overnight, parents had mobilised on social networks, banded together and used their online voices to bring about a change. The new format lasted one night. I cannot help but wonder how many hours of work went into making these changes that seem (to me and it seems many other parents) so utterly pointless, only to have it all go to nothing.
After all that I only have one real thought, other than how grateful I am to not have to listen to that terrible narration again. It is that if anyone is still doubting the ability of social networks to bring people together and create real world changes, they need to see what happened here and take heed. The schedules of a kids TV channel are hardly of world-consuming importance, but the people for whom it was important had the platforms to stand up and make their voices heard available to them. I also learnt one very important lesson this week; do not meddle in the affairs of internet savvy parents...
