The Applause Thread

I'm probably showcasing my obsessive-compulsive traits shamelessly on the Internet here, but hey ho.

Something that really irritates me on TV is out-of-place applause. For example, on that Clive Anderson's Brain Boxy Thing Whose Name I Can't Remember earlier this year, whenever a new contestant appeared on the set, they were greeted with complete silence. However, there was generally rapturous applause at the end of the round - either do it properly or play the game in silence!

The same goes for the National Lottery Draws . The fact that any applause they do play is canned cheapens it somewhat. When the lottery shows were live, the audience used to cheer each ball as it was selected - now the fact that there is complete silence until the end makes the draws feel boring and empty.

Then there's The National Lottery - This Time Tomorrow , in which Tess Daly cracks awful jokes with live sheep living on her bicep. I can't be bothered to dig out who it was who initially made the comment, but they said that they had to

[quote]clap like seals[/i]

and that before the show started they had to record ninety seconds of solid applause so it could be spliced in later. The apparently constant applause made the audience seem incredibly scary - almost as if they'd been pulled straight out of the Two Minutes Hate in Nineteen Eighty-Four . Honestly, I was surprised the FM didn't ask them to start chanting "T-D! T-D!"

Anyway, your thoughts, please.

You are!

Applause adds to the 'theatre atmosphere' for the lonely viewer sat at home watching with only the dog or cat for company.

There are always the mute or stand-by buttons if you find the experience so objectionable.

I think he means the inconsistency of it all - how one, say, contestant gets applause yet the next does not.

Quite correct.

That said, This Time Tomorrow is currently on BBC1. And God, is that audience scary - even though they seem to be unusually quiet tonight, with very messy fade-ups.

He didn't make that clear, if that was his point. I certainly haven't noticed the apparent inconsistency.

I tend to subconsciously ignore applause on TV programmes unless I'm actually excited about a particular event - in which case I view it as confirmation of my reason to jump off the sofa or 'clap like a seal', much to the annoyance of my dog.

For the record, none of Tess Daily's jokes got clapped when the show was getting recorded.....if anything they were greated with stonewall silence. They re-edited the applause from other moments in the show.....quite poorly, it would seem.

And I thought the BBC weren't faking things anymore.


Generally though canned applause is even worse than canned laughter, and so often not required. A decent music bed usually does the job much more effectively, especially on things like the National Lottery.

To be fair though the jokes are probably written by an "hilarious" freelance writer*

*Must point out I'm not putting the majority of freelance writers in this catergory but there are some that are just rubbish

I think what cheapens the Lottery Draws is the fact they always have made far too much out of it. It takes 5 mins to introduce the draw, do it and say goodbye. That's all you need, no audience, no applause, no stupid game shows wrapped around it, none of that. Get it out the way and get on with the real telly.

I agree, no one gives a toss about the actual show tey just want to know if they've wasted another quid or not

To be honest I thought they had got rid of lottery shows ages ago

The only Lottery show that worked fairly well was Winning Lines, which was Philip Scofield's opportunity to host Talking Telephone Numbers Mark II, at least after Simon Mayo had had a go. When Jet Set followed it, it seemed pretty dull to me, as were 1 vs. 100 and In It to Win It.

The only ones I remember are the very first show in 1994, and the one where they really tried to pull out all the stops back in 1998 with the Big Ticket event, where they had 6 doors being blown apart at the end. I thought that if they were going to do something based around the draw, then going all out was the only way to do it, and although it seemed like a great idea, reviews appear to suggest that it was quite haphazard.

Even Winning Lines were using canned laughter/applause for all their shows back then as there weren't a studio audience. Unlike Jet Set, In It to Win It, Who Dares Wins and 1 Vs 100 all have studio audiences present.