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Have panel shows ALWAYS been so stale?
felixrex
Posts: 7,307 Forum Member
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Have panel shows always had a habit of such repetitive guests, or is it a fairly recent development?
I can't say I really took much notice of panel shows - such as Have I Got News For You, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Mock the Week, Would I Lie to You- until about 4 or 5 years ago, but recently I have noticed that the variety of guests these shows have on seem to be growing ever staler. There seems to be the same group of around 15 'comedians' and ex-singers/actors who do the rounds on these shows (usually telling the same jokes each time), and it's not a rare occurence for me to flick through the TV to see the same people on about 3 different shows in one night.
So I'm wondering, have these shows generally always operated like this throughout TV history? Have we always had a certain contingent of people who circulated the TV Panel Show circuit while they were enjoying popularity; or is it only recently that panel shows have become quite so stale and dependent on rehashing the same old guests over and over again?
I can't say I really took much notice of panel shows - such as Have I Got News For You, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Mock the Week, Would I Lie to You- until about 4 or 5 years ago, but recently I have noticed that the variety of guests these shows have on seem to be growing ever staler. There seems to be the same group of around 15 'comedians' and ex-singers/actors who do the rounds on these shows (usually telling the same jokes each time), and it's not a rare occurence for me to flick through the TV to see the same people on about 3 different shows in one night.
So I'm wondering, have these shows generally always operated like this throughout TV history? Have we always had a certain contingent of people who circulated the TV Panel Show circuit while they were enjoying popularity; or is it only recently that panel shows have become quite so stale and dependent on rehashing the same old guests over and over again?
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Lets pick one at random ......... lets say 8 out of 10 cats.
Has anyone in the history of mankind ever thought ...... 'God I hope Sean Locks team wins tonight!'
And at the end of the show has anyone ever thought 'Yeah! Sean's team won! Get in!!'
Its bizzare ......... its like ...... no-one actually cares about the 'scores' at the end of the game, so why do we even have them?
Stop emailling me about the scores. They're just made up!!!
There didn't used to be so many panel shows in the old days; it was after Have I Got News For You became so popular it spawned a host of imitations. I haven't watched many of them but I think they have always had the same guests on all of them since they got started.
I think Michael McIntyre's apparently meteoric rise to fame was revolutionary in that respect, and agents are now encouraging their clients to replicate that same trajectory of success. Even as recently as five or six years ago, pre-McIntyre's 'boom', comedy wasn't the massive industry it is today -- but it was getting there. And panel-hopping -- which McIntyre did to great effect in his earlier days -- is a strategic way of getting noticed and selling tour tickets.
Additionally, there are a lot more panel shows around today, and in order to make them a success, producers will gravitate towards a safer selection of guests. However, unless the format is particularly innovative (e.g. WILTY), this only makes the panel show an even more indistinguishable blur from all the others. Furthermore, the greater the frequency of panel shows, the thinner guests (and quality of their content) will be spread.
So you're not imagining things, OP. And unless producers grow a bit braver, it's only likely to continue.