For ITV boss Adam Crozier, this year has been like a potboiler that’s instantly gripping, but then fizzles out long before the finale.
In the first half, advertising spending was solid, if unspectacular. Then the Brexit thunderbolt struck. Summer was always going to be tough, with the Rio Olympics showing on the Beeb. But with caution the watchword, retailers, travel companies, banks and insurers pulled in their horns.
It did not get any easier as the evenings began to draw in. ITV enjoyed its best ever September last year thanks to the Rugby World Cup, so ad spending this autumn will have been weak by comparison.
The big question Crozier must answer on Thursday, when ITV publishes its third-quarter trading update, is: will there be