ITV execs watch Channel 4 at 5pm, come up with great new idea for show

ITV execs have revealed that the idea for new show 'Dinner Date' developed organically while watching Channel 4's 'Come Dine With Me' - an existing, identical and superior programme.

Four years of extensive focus groups commissioned by ITV recently revealed that humans have an attachment to food with over 80 percent admitting they have eaten in the last 10 days or are planning to eat in the near future.

This knowledge has led to an explosion in the number of cookery shows on TV. There are currently 400 food-based programmes, while there are plans to shoehorn low-level cookery into traditionally non-food based shows, such as Newsnight and Songs of Praise.

The BBC's experiment with Catch of the Day last Saturday was hailed as a great success with Mark Lawrenson's Spanish-style Hake and Shellfish Stew rustled together during an indictment of Manchester City's profligate strike force rated a particular highlight.

Keen to get in on the act, ITV chiefs were asked to look for a fresh approach and to come up with a novel cookery show. After a half-hour long meeting held at 5pm on a Friday evening in front of a TV tuned to Channel 4, the concept of 'Dinner Date' was created.

The treatment was immediately given the green light by the same astute commissioning chiefs who agreed to place 'Im a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here' and 'Celebrity Juice'.

At just 21 words, the treatment was shorter than average but significantly longer than the successful pitch for 'The Only Way Is Essex.'

"You know that show 'Come Dine With Me'? Well, this is basically that but there's sort of some dating and stuff," it reads.

ITV are said to be thrilled by the show's early ratings and an insider has revealed that they have high hopes for another programme where a group of contestants are placed inside a house and TV cameras monitor them 24-hours a day with one evicted every week by public vote.