SM:TV Live to return for one off special?

I'm not sure how you could even confuse the two. They neither looked or sounded remotely alike (one being Scottish, one being Cockney for a start!).

The first ever edition of Chums.

Behind the scenes of SM:tv from the great late 90's LWT series 'It Shouldn't happen to.... A Children's Presenter'

I never know Michaela Strachan work on SMTV live in the back office

She was a guest.

Wasn't she just a guest presenter? Looks like it's from those few weeks in summer 99 where Cat was away (and there was also a few weeks where Ant & Dec were away and it was just Cat).

Louise Nurding was the regular stand-in for And and Dec wasn't she? I remember her and Cat presenting together often. There was even a Chums title sequence without Ant and Dec which was used when Louise stood in.

I'm also sure Shavaughn just vanished one week, with no explanation given, but months later she re-appeared for the last ever episode as if she'd never been away.

Yes she just disappeared, initially thought to be on holiday but as you say, never spoken of again until she turned up on the last show.

Louise was regular stand in, taking part in the "Cat the Dog" sketches, although did she stand in for Cat as well?

The guest hosts are not very well documented, not like say The Big Breakfast.

Zoe and Jamie's departure really hit Live and Kicking, but I thought Pokémon was the game changer for SMTV.


I recall Victoria Beckham was crowned #1, only for Sophie Ellis-Bextor to pip her on final day sales.

Wasn't a big CD:UK fan. Now Popworld over on Channel 4.........the ultimate hangover music programme. :p

One thing about the final show is they filmed an Eminemmerdale sketch for it, but for some reason it wasn't shown- the mentions of it being awkwardly cut out of the show (apart from one that was left in when Brian introduced Garth Gates) and they put an episode of Spongebob Squarepants in its place.

It had been a pretty poor sketch anyway when it had been on earlier in the year, but I've always wondered why it got cut, seemingly at the last minute.

Weren't there a few episodes of Chums after Ant & Dec had left too? But when it came to the run-up to the final episode they acted as if they'd never existed and treated the wedding as the end (even having Dane Bowers being locked in the bedroom for 2 years).

In the summer of 99, Cat had 4 weeks off followed by Ant & Dec's 4 weeks. With Cat Westlife co presented at least one week with Billie Piper the week before relaunch.

In the summer of 2000 Cat was joined by Emma Bunton through out with some different guest presenters joining them. I remember they created sketches such as PHEW (Pokémon Health Education and Welfare) to have a themed slot replacing the pokérap in Ant & Dec's absence. The spice girls featured on one of these episodes and took part in one of my favourite SM:TV memories 'The Spice Is Right', made better by guest of the day Jackie Chan's involvement.

Edit: here it is:


Louise filled in with Cat for the summer of 2001 and returned after Ant & Dec left in December. They were joined by guest presenters such as Chris Evans and Dermot O'Leary (the latter would have been a brilliant permanent presenter alongside Cat).

Everybody remembers the programme for Ant & Dec but Cat was an equal part of the success and was a good poaching from MTV for what could have been a disaster of a programme (from the first few months), I suppose they poached her for CD:UK more than anything.

Did I read somewhere that Cat had planned to leave SM:TV with Ant & Dec but bosses talked her into staying to help the transition? A shame that she didn't stay for a longer period with one fixed presenter. I always felt that her & Tess clashed, not in a nasty way but something didn't feel right to me at the time, especially after James left.

Going back to that chums video, it was a weak first episode (nice to see the S Club clap scene that was used in the end credits) but it had all the elements there, the behind the sofa fight, the kiss and visitors popping around. The good thing about it was that as 'friends' had no fixed premise bar revolving around the friends, a spoof could take on any life of its own but linking to the friendship which is why I didn't understand the editorial decision to keep it for the few weeks in December after the boys had left rather than ending on the wedding episode.

A brilliant sketch idea rather than eminemmerdale.

One thing about SM:TV was that Ant & Dec felt they had to treat the kids like grown-ups and not talk down to them. It's a shame that MoM, when it first started at least, did exactly that.

I've always felt like MoM's original idea was to have an "edutainment" focus, which is why they had such things as the awful "spelling bee" as the climax, the Doctor segments (which thankfully became more humerous and bizarre as the show went on) and the abosutely dire Tutenstein cartoon (which Discovery Kids UK never even showed even though it was one of their shows!). Whether that was the case, it's the impression I always had, and it's certainly not the sort of thing kids really want on a Saturday morning- especially after having a week of it at school. The show obviously revamped itself very quickly.

And on another MoM note, I've always been suprised at how Michael left- as there was no mention he was leaving until about 5 minutes before the end of his final episode. I've never really understood that, usually we knew in advance and presenters had a proper send-off.