I felt it was bittersweet tonight. John seemed more comfortable in the role than David did, but having said that, he lacks the enthusiasm to carry the show. Hearing him introduce the show over the sort-of title sequence with all the oomph of a wet leaf was actually quite painful to listen to.
I felt that an independent voiceover would be welcome for this introduction rather than the host doing their own.
Not enough guests out there to fill a 5 night a week show in this country I imagine. Certainly not high-profile ones anyway, without having to resort to TOWIE people and X Factor contestants to fill the slots.
You don't need high profile guests, you just need good, entertaining ones.
Big Hollywood stars don't necessarily make good guests and aren't necessarily big audience draws. That's the case over in the US, they have TV presenters, comedians, newsreaders on their talk shows too
Best chat show at the moment for me is Alan Davies' show on Dave. It's just 5 comedians chatting and exchanging anecdotes. No big a list stars, it's all about them having as good a time as possible and entertaining
The best chat show guests in the past have been the likes of Kenneth Williams and Billy Connolly, get one of them on and your show was made
Last edited by Inspector Sands on 7 March 2017 8:21am
I don't think the key is big stars, it's relevant and engaging ones. The Tonight Show in the U.S. often featured Brian Williams, prior to his fiasco, and still often has Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie on. In fact Piers and Susanna have previously appeared on Alan Carr. In recent weeks Stephen Colbert has had Jake Tapper (CNN Washington correspondent), Anderson Cooper (CNN host) and Joe Scarborough (MSNBC host). Descriptions of TNS have heavily mentioned satire therefore having the likes of Robert Peston to discuss politics in a relaxed and jovial manner would sit quite nicely. Other low-key guests that have recently appeared on Colbert include daytime TV hosts Wendy Williams, Dr. Phil, Kelly Ripa and Rachel Ray.
To be honest, I'm surprised that David Tennant and/or Olivia Colman haven't appeared yet to promote Broadchurch (not that it needs the extra promotion). However, the stars of respected TV dramas wouldn't be out of place on Norton or Ross. The problem with the fact that the UK audience is only used to weekly chat shows means that we're used to only A-list film stars, and we assume U.S. late-night shows have the same standards for all guests 5 nights a week. Last week ITV had four new 9pm series starting (Broadchurch, Play to the Whistle, Benidorm and Prime Suspect: 1973), and not one person from any of these four shows have yet appeared on TNS which seems like a complete wasted opportunity for both parties.
To me, guests who aren't there to promote anything such as Kim Cattrall and Roger Daltrey just seems rather irrelevant, and I'd much rather see Kate Garraway discussing her new book (as she was yesterday on Loose Women) or Lenny Henry talking about this year's Red Nose Day campaign.
I felt it was bittersweet tonight. John seemed more comfortable in the role than David did, but having said that, he lacks the enthusiasm to carry the show. Hearing him introduce the show over the sort-of title sequence with all the oomph of a wet leaf was actually quite painful to listen to.
I felt that an independent voiceover would be welcome for this introduction rather than the host doing their own.
I'm surprised they didn't drag Peter Dickson in on it.