SW
Given Win The Ads has already been moved to the middle of the show, rather than being the big climax, and is often dashed off in a few minutes, I doubt the show would be that affected by its removal. It was important in the early days to have a hook to build the show around, after Slap Bang had been a disaster, but these days it's by far the dullest part of the programme. There's plenty they can do on Takeaway without it. The show without an audience in the last series was great fun, I know some of that was because it was a novelty but it can cope.
I watched that doc the other day, very strange it was too, it ended up being like Gogglebox with various hosts describing incidents from their shows, none of which seemed particularly exciting - two contestants saying a few funny answers and winning a middling prize on Catchphrase. I'm not sure anyone remembers Poker Face, to be honest. It was alright, but the first series was stripped across the week and that was perhaps to its detriment as each show was self-contained (I know there was a final, but each heat had different contestants rather than them all being there for the whole week) and it just illustrated how repetitive it was.
I know Ant and Dec like a quiz but some of them can be a bit constricting for them and don't really play to their strengths. In their new book, they give Push the Button and Red or Black the shortest shrift imaginable. Red or Black was a terrible, flawed format anyway, but it was also a total waste of Ant and Dec's talents, you want to see them mucking about, not stood there looking serious and reciting endless rules.
Yes, but ITV were in a bit of a state when Zoe and Jamie took over, Scratchy & Co was no competition and although Wow was a good show, ITV weren't prepared to invest in it and that was the end of that. So they had pretty much free reign on Saturday mornings (whereas Going Live, for all its brilliance, often found itself quite close to Motormouth and What's Up Doc).
The big problem of course came when they replaced Zoe and Jamie, but there's an interesting bit in Pip's book where he says Anna Home, the head of CBBC, often thought Going Live skewed a bit too old and would ask Chris Bellinger, in a pointed fashion, if he fancied aiming it at children at any point, which he ignored because he thought it was important to pull in the whole family. I know CBBC were particularly concerned that Zoe and Jamie were appealing more to adults and it was becoming a bit hard to manage, what with the Richard Bacon affair happening at the same time. I don't think it's a coincidence that Zoe and Jamie's departure coincided with Chris Bellinger moving upstairs and without him Live and Kicking started to skew much younger, and all the adults who watched it went to SMTV.
Well, I love Trevor and Simon dearly, and they clearly played a major part in helping Going Live appeal to adults, but SMTV moved it on further in that it actually won British Comedy Awards, beating off competition from proper grown-up comedy shows. It's true that Chums was similar to Trevor and Simon's sketches - and it's funny they featured Sting, because I remember Sarah Greene saying one of her favourite bits of Going Live was seeing Sting off-camera going through his lines and pacing up and down because he was about to go on with Trevor and Simon and was so nervous he was going to mess it up cos his kids were watching - but the idea of all the guests appearing in a big sketch at the end harks back much further than that. You can say it's the equivalent of the play at the end of the Generation Game.
Dick and Dom were brilliant, but by that point they were always going to be playing to a much smaller audience, with far fewer adults, because by that point you had numerous other shows aimed at adults on Saturday mornings, with Saturday Kitchen already started on BBC2 and digital becoming much more common. That wasn't the case in 1998 when SMTV began when you still had the Open University and far more people only had four and a haf channels.
Yes, in their first book, Ant says Walliams was responsible for his favourite line ever on television, when Lionel Blair appeared and said "Hi, I'm Lionel Blair and I hope you are too!", and I was delighted when Ant recycled that for a Get Out Of Me Ear sketch on Takeaway. When they did Unzipped, the pair suggested that they should get Eddie Braben, famously Morecambe and Wise's writer, to contribute some sketches, and I remember Ant saying that some of the stuff he wrote was so surreal, even Reeves and Mortimer would find it a bit bizarre.
Takeaway is impossible right now isn't it? Win the Ads can't happen due to lack of an audience, nor can the Disneyworld finale. The series in progress when everything crashed down ended up abandoned, the last two timeslots instead being clipshows.
Given Win The Ads has already been moved to the middle of the show, rather than being the big climax, and is often dashed off in a few minutes, I doubt the show would be that affected by its removal. It was important in the early days to have a hook to build the show around, after Slap Bang had been a disaster, but these days it's by far the dullest part of the programme. There's plenty they can do on Takeaway without it. The show without an audience in the last series was great fun, I know some of that was because it was a novelty but it can cope.
The lengthy Poker Face inclusion in How to Win a Gameshow seemed a bit too random to not be testing the water - and to be honest I'd rather that returned in the New Year than a watered down COVID safe Saturday Night Takeaway.
I watched that doc the other day, very strange it was too, it ended up being like Gogglebox with various hosts describing incidents from their shows, none of which seemed particularly exciting - two contestants saying a few funny answers and winning a middling prize on Catchphrase. I'm not sure anyone remembers Poker Face, to be honest. It was alright, but the first series was stripped across the week and that was perhaps to its detriment as each show was self-contained (I know there was a final, but each heat had different contestants rather than them all being there for the whole week) and it just illustrated how repetitive it was.
I know Ant and Dec like a quiz but some of them can be a bit constricting for them and don't really play to their strengths. In their new book, they give Push the Button and Red or Black the shortest shrift imaginable. Red or Black was a terrible, flawed format anyway, but it was also a total waste of Ant and Dec's talents, you want to see them mucking about, not stood there looking serious and reciting endless rules.
Probably a rare example of a successful duo being replaced by a successful duo, although of course Andi and Emma basically replaced Phil and Sarah anyway. Most shows though usually struggle to replace outgoing hosts at the first time of asking.
Yes, but ITV were in a bit of a state when Zoe and Jamie took over, Scratchy & Co was no competition and although Wow was a good show, ITV weren't prepared to invest in it and that was the end of that. So they had pretty much free reign on Saturday mornings (whereas Going Live, for all its brilliance, often found itself quite close to Motormouth and What's Up Doc).
The big problem of course came when they replaced Zoe and Jamie, but there's an interesting bit in Pip's book where he says Anna Home, the head of CBBC, often thought Going Live skewed a bit too old and would ask Chris Bellinger, in a pointed fashion, if he fancied aiming it at children at any point, which he ignored because he thought it was important to pull in the whole family. I know CBBC were particularly concerned that Zoe and Jamie were appealing more to adults and it was becoming a bit hard to manage, what with the Richard Bacon affair happening at the same time. I don't think it's a coincidence that Zoe and Jamie's departure coincided with Chris Bellinger moving upstairs and without him Live and Kicking started to skew much younger, and all the adults who watched it went to SMTV.
Yeah, if this documentary had gone on any longer it would have claimed sm:tv was the first show to broadcast in colour!. I'm not sure why the narrative seems to be comedy that appeals to adults didn't exist on Saturday mornings before Ant & Dec. Trevor & Simon had been hugely popular for a decade before sm:tv came on the scene.
Well, I love Trevor and Simon dearly, and they clearly played a major part in helping Going Live appeal to adults, but SMTV moved it on further in that it actually won British Comedy Awards, beating off competition from proper grown-up comedy shows. It's true that Chums was similar to Trevor and Simon's sketches - and it's funny they featured Sting, because I remember Sarah Greene saying one of her favourite bits of Going Live was seeing Sting off-camera going through his lines and pacing up and down because he was about to go on with Trevor and Simon and was so nervous he was going to mess it up cos his kids were watching - but the idea of all the guests appearing in a big sketch at the end harks back much further than that. You can say it's the equivalent of the play at the end of the Generation Game.
Dick and Dom wasn't my cup of tea but I can appreciate they had a popular, well made show that was funny and took risks. However taking everything into account does ut hold a torch to SMTV as a sat morning show? I always felt Da Bungalow was quite niche.
Dick and Dom were brilliant, but by that point they were always going to be playing to a much smaller audience, with far fewer adults, because by that point you had numerous other shows aimed at adults on Saturday mornings, with Saturday Kitchen already started on BBC2 and digital becoming much more common. That wasn't the case in 1998 when SMTV began when you still had the Open University and far more people only had four and a haf channels.
Yeah he started producing for them from series 2 of The Ant and Dec Show after the first series, in their words, wasn't one bit funny. David Walliams was one of the writers on the second series and used to write himself into sketches.
Yes, in their first book, Ant says Walliams was responsible for his favourite line ever on television, when Lionel Blair appeared and said "Hi, I'm Lionel Blair and I hope you are too!", and I was delighted when Ant recycled that for a Get Out Of Me Ear sketch on Takeaway. When they did Unzipped, the pair suggested that they should get Eddie Braben, famously Morecambe and Wise's writer, to contribute some sketches, and I remember Ant saying that some of the stuff he wrote was so surreal, even Reeves and Mortimer would find it a bit bizarre.
