Harry Hill to present Stars in their Eyes

He was a regular "guest" on TV Burp, IIRC. It's mere proof that the execs (or Harry) simply want to try and revamp TV Burp in one form or another - the form being Stars In Their Eyes.

It's as if Harry wants to do TV Burp without all of the effort of doing TV Burp (I remember him somewhere describing TV Burp as a pretty much full time job because of the research, writing and sketch preparation involved).

I enjoyed parts of the show, and think it would never have come back as a straight singing competition.

The humour added to the introductions of the contestants was poor (especially the Everley Brothers couple and the gate for their sister in law).

I didn't like the Adele's baby sketch at all, that was close to irresponsible in my view.

I've just watched it again, its so bad its good. I do actully like it.

It isn't very often you watch a show on ITV and think Keith Lemon would do a better job. Through the Keyhole still has some respect for the format and the game is very much central to the show (the same with Cats does Countdown too), but here the game is very much in the way it seems.

So it's the viewers' fault its got such a negative reaction? That's a novel way of putting it.

Whatever they should have been expecting, it's clear from the reaction so far that they WANTED a faithful revival of what was a much loved and popular talent show. A show that's still fairly recent too.

This has all come at a time when The X Factor is dying because people are fed up of it, and are longing for the days when talent shows were less contrived and more simple, just like Stars In Their Eyes.

Perhaps due to this poor timing, I think Stars is too 'untouchable' for this sort of pastiche. If Harry wanted to work his 'magic' on an old format, there are PLENTY that would have been ripe for a p*sstake. I'm thinking the likes of 321, The Golden Shot, Sale of the Century... Shows that have been ribbed for generations on nostalgia programmes.

In addition to this, while I have enjoyed Harry Hill's previous shows, even taking the programme as a piece of surrealism, it's not that funny and relies too much on recycled material.

I can't think of many other shows that have been revived as a mickey take of the original series and then had elements shoe-horned in. There's some successful re-imagined series out there but what made them think Stars was the best one to go for, was it lying on the shelf? People had fond memories (rose tinted maybe but nevertheless...) and it was a bit like the singing got in the way of the show.

There's probably a few formally at Granada Manchester who had a lot of pride in what they achieved back in the day, I'd be interested to know what they thought of a new team coming along and mocking it.

That said, it was a nice touch with Matthew at the start, the X Factor digs and the scientists(!) working out the result. Wonder what the figures will be like for the Not Live Final?!

Taken from Twitter

"Gilly @gillywalshy · 21h 21 hours ago
After being a trainee on the original Star in their Eyes for a season I can't believe @itv have allowed it to become so low rent ! Shame"

If it ever gets to the 'Not Live Final'

No, but it may be the viewer's fault for expecting something different to what was advertised. A proportion of the negative criticism has come from people who don't like Harry Hill in the first place, so there's a good chance they actually knew the sort of show they would get beforehand. Perhaps the less than serious tone could have been made even more obvious in the promos (as if straddling a flying yellow star wasn't enough).



Stars in Their Eyes wasn't exactly held reverentially by everyone; it's been "ribbed for generations" too.

The only places I've read about a supposed furore are The Mirror and Metro, which aren't exactly paragons of outstanding journalism. They've both skimmed some Twitter comments and put it into an article form; The Mirror has scoured Facebook for a "campaign" (of 850 likes) to get Matthew Kelly back.

Ultimately, it's not going to spell doom for Harry Hill and I severely doubt it'll get pulled, unless ITV were really expecting the show to beat The Voice.

Personally, I don't think the show was perfect, but was enjoyable. But I'm not looking for an X Factor replacement, nor have I lost the numbers 4 and 6 off my Freeview remote that would allow me access to old episodes of Stars in Their Eyes.

I don't know what I was expecting really. But have just watched as much of it as I could stand and was surprised by how much of it was (I believe to be) completely scripted and made up. The way the 'contestants' behaved throughout I can only surmise that they were all actors. It has become a complete parody, and as I was watching the 'winner' be announced I could only be reminded of watching 'Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice' all I could think was that it was all such a shame. It could've been a lovely, harmless revival and now I really can't see this lasting, but maybe that won't be a bad thing.

I saw first two acts and just completely gave up - Yes I was expecting a faithful imaging of the original series and yes I do like Harry Hill's humour, ever since his first series for Channel 4, but for me Stars was completely unwatchable as a mixture between Stars, TV Burp and The Harry Hill Show - there was just no direction as to what the programme was heading in.

IN the end I switched to The Voice in time to see a naked Bungle Bear, from rainbow, perform in front of the judges, and the humour in Ricky Wilson trying to explain to William Adams what Rainbow was - far more funnier!!!

Interesting that Bothers Bar say only the first two episodes have been filmed so far, so there is potential for them to react to feedback from the first episode - though as the direction they've decided to take is clear I doubt much will change.

The expectation was there because Stars in their Eyes is a trusted brand and perhaps people didn't expect Harry Hill to be a one trick pony. There are plenty of people who'll happily sit through You've Been Framed but couldn't stand TV Burp, and though I'd say I was a fan and I was expecting him to bring humour to the show I wasn't expecting sketches to be shoehorned in.