Originally Posted by Andy23:
“Can anyone remember what the staple of BBC1's saturday nights were between the ending of Generation Game/Noel's House Party and the start of Strictly/Doctor Who?”
Yeah, BBC1 were in a bit of a state at the time, Saturday teatimes were a bit of a no-go area until the lottery and Casualty showed up. Friends Like These was probably their longest runner, but Dog Eat Dog managed to get three series out in twelve months, which is quite impressive. Didn't last much longer, though.
Passport to Paradise wasn't so dreadful, if you put any of the features on Saturday Night Takeaway you probably wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. But Johnny Vaughan has always been an acquired taste so to pin your Saturday night hopes on him is doomed to failure.
Originally Posted by Score:
“Also in 2004 there was a dreadful Saturday night gameshow called Simply The Best, which got about 2m, and Celebrities Under Pressure, involving celebrities taking on challenges that would put them 'under pressure'. This one also flopped with about 2-3m and never returned.”
It did actually, they got a couple of series out of that - and it had at least two presenters. Of course it was simply a rebranding of Moment of Truth. Celebrities Under Pressure is probably more famous now for being the concept behind John Fashanu's Undercover on Takeaway than the show itself. Like how more people remember the Reeves and Mortimer parody of Noel's Addicts than do Noel's Addicts.
Despite Simply The Best flopping big time, ITV even extended it halfway through the run from ninety minutes to two horrible hours. But the final was shoved at 3.30.
Originally Posted by gottago:
“And I thought The Vault was good! They did get a few series out of it!”
Yes, but it was always rotten. The hosts were crap, the questions were way too hard - they were always very big on asking the names of cabinet ministers - and the contestants were too think to answer them. Nobody won and when they did it was someone you'd never heard of on the phone. And the format was so shoddy that the brokers kept on giving answers without requesting payment because it was so complicated.
Originally Posted by
gottago:
“I quite like this talk of mid-2000 ITV flops! There was one called Vote For Me which was featured on Charlie Brooker's Newswipe last month. It had members of the public who fancied themselves as politicians making their own manifestos and whatnot before presenting themselves in front of the phone voting public (
). The winner would receive a load of cash so they could stand as an independent in the next local elections in their area (I think). Much to ITV's and everyone else's horror, a far right contestant was voted the winner and the show was never heard of again.”
Yes, Rodney Hylton-Potts, for it was he, actually stood against Michael Howard at the last election, and got 153 votes. The Monster Raving Loony Party got 175.
”
