For Broadcast April 23, 2008

Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan are always full of surprises, whether it's dressing up as Ali G or showing more than just a little cleavage at an awards ceremony.

They have also surprised people with their ability to reinvent their chat show and drag audiences with them.

First, the Richard and Judy daytime slot on ITV was predicted to be a disaster, but was actually a huge success. The same negative forecast followed when they moved to teatime on Channel 4, but was also proved wrong. Now they are aiming to beat the critics again, this time in primetime and on a digital channel for the first time.

In October, Richard and Judy will unveil themselves on UKTV, but don't expect a simple, hour-long chat show. These two television innovators may not always gain critical acclaim, but they know a thing or two about where TV is heading in the digital age.

At a UKTV staff meeting last week, Richard was a "man on a mission" talking about the maturation of the digital audience and the "journalistic opportunities" for the chat show couple in a post-watershed time slot. It also transpires that the chat show duo's debut on UKTV will include all the digital accoutrements, including online and on-demand versions delivered in a "creative" way.

UKTV boss David Abraham is keeping his cards close to his chest about just how R&J will show up in the UKTV portfolio, but what he does say is that bringing a terrestrial TV brand name to digital TV is part of the wider maturation process on the road to digital switchover. It's also part of a specific effort by UKTV to move its nine-channel portfolio from archive-only to a more balanced schedule of commissioned and acquired content.

So can R&J do for digital TV what they did for daytime and teatime? It's a big gamble (the reported fee being paid to them is £2m) but given the duo's track record, it's not necessarily one you would bet against.