Having bemoaned the growth of this kind of cheap, mind numbing entertainment and suggested its on an ever remorsely advance, (presumedly being capable before long of subsidising the licence fee) I thought I'd set about trying to list the examples. Now I'm not a prolific TV watcher and have had to enlist a bit of help, and after chewing it around a bit we realised that there were a few spieces of the same family genus. Anyway, I speculated earlier that there had probably been about 40 shows introduced in the last 7 or 8 years that are essentially shows built around a premium rate telephone number, the format of which appears secondary to a desire to coin it in, and provide oxygen to the likes of Nicky Campbell. So far my list falls short of this figure, so any help is appreciated?
1: Big Brother (the Satan of them all)
2: Celebrity Big Brother (Damien)
3: Strictly Come Dancing
4: The X factor
5: Pop Idol
6: Hells Kitchen
7: Just the Two of Us
8: Fame Academy
9: Pop Stars the Rivals
10: Celebrity Love Island
11: Survivor
12: Celebrity Scissor Hands
13: The Salon
14: Castaway
15: One that involved two teams running a bar?
16: Only Fools on Horses
17: Stars in their Eyes
18: Soap Stars Super Stars
19: A celebrity Circus thing?
20: Was there a celebrity holiday rep thing?
21: Was htere a political one?
22: Your favourite Novel (involved celebrity advocates)
23: Something about renovating a dilipidated old building or two featuring Griff Rhys Jones?
24: Celebrities on Ice
Another genre that appears, is D list celebrities doing ordinary(ish) things in a desperate attempt to gain a profile and revive usually flagging careers, this usually involves a vote, but doesn't always. This show has pushed the boundaries of what is a celebrity? Abbi Titmus. Why? I kind of see this as the televisual manifestation of 'Hello' or 'OK'. Quiz shows under the auspices of charadee have proven fertile ground for this one, although football has also been roped in.
Another thing noted was the growth of phone in votes for absolutelty anything, even though the show can survive perfectly well without it. Sports programmes were particluar culprits, although Goal of the Month has been around for years (answer on the back of a postcard to BBC, Television Centre, Wood Lane etc Man of the Match has supplanted this one when Sky worked out they could do it in running. It's only a matter of time I suppose before the BBC's coverage of Wimbledon extends to "was that shot in? text yes to xxxx, or No to yyyyy". I mentioned in my previous rant that radio 5 had a text which gave you the chance to send our reporter to a game of your choice last week poll. Where will it end? What final score would you like our correspondant to report? What would you like them to drink at half time? text T for tea, C for Coffee, B for Bovrill, or U for urine (actually even I might join in that one if it became an option)
Daytime televison was also identified as prime offenders in this category;
"And todays question is; who is generally felt to have fallen off the wall, before being assisted by all the Kings Horses and all the Kings men?"
Was it A: Arch Bishop Macarios, B: Humpty Dumpty or C, the sixth Duke of Anjou
Text/ phone your answer to etc
The final area of concern, is what we called "top lists TV", and this one is particularly rife at present.
Now this is the ultimate in cheaply produced television that has the added incentive of combining D list celebrities to provide additional fill, through a talking head as they desperately try and lend some pseudo academic gravitas to the programme by musing about their own re-collections of what ever list is involved. As with any rank order though the chance to launch a vote is ever attendant, although I understand most of these are done on line rather than premium rate phone lines. None the less they can occupy two, 3 hour slots if they involve 100, and can pad out a weekend evening in the schedules, and cost little more than an editing team to produce.
Last night for instance, one such example of this emerged of 'your favourite top 40 funniest moments from only fools and horses' - I kid you not. The list of top 100 or whatever number is endless. I've got some recollection of Britains top 10 castles appearing a few yeasr ago "as voted for by you the viewer". Music, Films, and TV moments are of course flogged out. As have been comedians, funniest programmes, funniest moments, and if last nights evidence is anything to go by, we've now entered the zone of funniest moments from funniest programmes. Expect to see the top 10 funniest moments from the 7th series of Last Of The Summer Wine, followed by celebrity Songs of Praise, featuring your top 5 hymns, and who do you want to deliver the surmon?
I await celebrity midwife with a sense of dread. Though could be tempted by celebrity christians versus the lions hosted by Stuart Hall
1: Big Brother (the Satan of them all)
2: Celebrity Big Brother (Damien)
3: Strictly Come Dancing
4: The X factor
5: Pop Idol
6: Hells Kitchen
7: Just the Two of Us
8: Fame Academy
9: Pop Stars the Rivals
10: Celebrity Love Island
11: Survivor
12: Celebrity Scissor Hands
13: The Salon
14: Castaway
15: One that involved two teams running a bar?
16: Only Fools on Horses
17: Stars in their Eyes
18: Soap Stars Super Stars
19: A celebrity Circus thing?
20: Was there a celebrity holiday rep thing?
21: Was htere a political one?
22: Your favourite Novel (involved celebrity advocates)
23: Something about renovating a dilipidated old building or two featuring Griff Rhys Jones?
24: Celebrities on Ice
Another genre that appears, is D list celebrities doing ordinary(ish) things in a desperate attempt to gain a profile and revive usually flagging careers, this usually involves a vote, but doesn't always. This show has pushed the boundaries of what is a celebrity? Abbi Titmus. Why? I kind of see this as the televisual manifestation of 'Hello' or 'OK'. Quiz shows under the auspices of charadee have proven fertile ground for this one, although football has also been roped in.
Another thing noted was the growth of phone in votes for absolutelty anything, even though the show can survive perfectly well without it. Sports programmes were particluar culprits, although Goal of the Month has been around for years (answer on the back of a postcard to BBC, Television Centre, Wood Lane etc Man of the Match has supplanted this one when Sky worked out they could do it in running. It's only a matter of time I suppose before the BBC's coverage of Wimbledon extends to "was that shot in? text yes to xxxx, or No to yyyyy". I mentioned in my previous rant that radio 5 had a text which gave you the chance to send our reporter to a game of your choice last week poll. Where will it end? What final score would you like our correspondant to report? What would you like them to drink at half time? text T for tea, C for Coffee, B for Bovrill, or U for urine (actually even I might join in that one if it became an option)
Daytime televison was also identified as prime offenders in this category;
"And todays question is; who is generally felt to have fallen off the wall, before being assisted by all the Kings Horses and all the Kings men?"
Was it A: Arch Bishop Macarios, B: Humpty Dumpty or C, the sixth Duke of Anjou
Text/ phone your answer to etc
The final area of concern, is what we called "top lists TV", and this one is particularly rife at present.
Now this is the ultimate in cheaply produced television that has the added incentive of combining D list celebrities to provide additional fill, through a talking head as they desperately try and lend some pseudo academic gravitas to the programme by musing about their own re-collections of what ever list is involved. As with any rank order though the chance to launch a vote is ever attendant, although I understand most of these are done on line rather than premium rate phone lines. None the less they can occupy two, 3 hour slots if they involve 100, and can pad out a weekend evening in the schedules, and cost little more than an editing team to produce.
Last night for instance, one such example of this emerged of 'your favourite top 40 funniest moments from only fools and horses' - I kid you not. The list of top 100 or whatever number is endless. I've got some recollection of Britains top 10 castles appearing a few yeasr ago "as voted for by you the viewer". Music, Films, and TV moments are of course flogged out. As have been comedians, funniest programmes, funniest moments, and if last nights evidence is anything to go by, we've now entered the zone of funniest moments from funniest programmes. Expect to see the top 10 funniest moments from the 7th series of Last Of The Summer Wine, followed by celebrity Songs of Praise, featuring your top 5 hymns, and who do you want to deliver the surmon?
I await celebrity midwife with a sense of dread. Though could be tempted by celebrity christians versus the lions hosted by Stuart Hall
And who the FECK knows the answers they could (if you got through change the answer which I bet they do)
