I choose great weekends to go away, so here's a post which unfortunately involves discussion of The Voice.
Originally Posted by D.M.N.:
“Outside of London, there are also sport events/matches of some sort in...
- Buckinghamshire (canoeing and rowing)
- Dorset (sailing)
- Essex (cycling)
- Glasgow (football)”
Originally Posted by 5 a day:
“All the big events then!”
Yes, because we actually win gold medals in rowing, sailing and cycling.
Originally Posted by happy tv:
“Will.i.am was the only good thing about the show. He was the only entertainment on it last night”
True enough, I don't know why people have been slagging off Will, I have found him highly entertaining and his gurning at the camera when Reggie and Holly were saying goodbye was hilarious. I think audiences have liked him, my mum certainly thought he was good fun. He's a showman, I know he can sound ridiculous but that's all part of the act, and his criticism always seemed constructive.
Originally Posted by VirginMediaPhil:
“I actually thought You Cannot Be Serious was quite funny. I have always enjoyed Alistair McGowan's impersonations and they fit the TV Burp format quite well. It was an enjoyable show. Just needs to be tweaked slightly”
Yes, I said here the other day I wanted this show to be a hit and Alistair is so talented, he's the only impressionist I've ever heard who's managed to get David Mitchell right and his other impressions are all fantastic. And I loved the fact one punchline revolved around an impression of Mike Dilger from The One Show. In fact my main criticism is that he didn't do enough impressions.
However, it is WOEFULLY unsuited to a Saturday teatime slot, I know TV Burp worked there but this is far more niche. I complain about there not being enough pre-watershed comedy and then when there is one it's something that should be post-watershed because it's all very low-key. And also it got nothing from being after the England match, they showed one trailer in the ad break and that was it, Adrian Chiles plugged the Isle of Man TT on ITV4 but didn't mention it was coming on next and surely that was the whole point of putting it on then. They should have had Alistair in the studio doing impressions or interviewed at halftime, I know that sounds gimmicky but Alistair knows his football and football fans know and like him. And the scheduling of the next two shows is idiotic, it's about the worst possible slot you could put it in.
Originally Posted by Chris1964:
“Interesting to see if there is a spike in SKY figures tomorrow -or whether its just trendy to say you have switched to SKY!.”
There's something about this because when I was a stupid kid and didn't properly like football I remember watching the Cup Final and England vs Germany in 1990 on ITV purely because I wanted to be contrary and wanted the novelty of not watching it on the default channel. And I think that does still remain a draw for some people.
Originally Posted by Agent F:
“I personally really liked ITV's royal wedding coverage last year. They will never be able to compete on the same scale with the BBC when it comes to outside broadcasting but it was a really slick, well polished alternative coverage. I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. A breath of fresh air from the BBC's (quite rightly) more traditional approach.”
I don't know why people should be surprised with ITV's approach, they've always done this. I've got a TV Times from a few weeks after Charles and Diana's wedding and they spend a page quoting loads of brilliant reviews from the papers about ITV's coverage. And it's exactly what ITV should be doing, because before they made it their business to actively repel their loyal viewers they knew what they wanted to see. My gran used to watch ITV all day every day, as surely did everyone else's gran.
Originally Posted by Brekkie:
“The show sold itself on being all about the contestants and was quite happy to have a dig at The X Factor for all the focus on the judges, but on TXF at the end of the day the contestants were always the star, while with The Voice they are almost secondary to the judges (sorry, "superstar coaches").”
What were these digs and slights at The X Factor that everyone's pointing out? All I ever heard was a few suggestions that they have a different way of doing things and people might choose to use them instead, Danny Cohen said he thought it was a bit nicer and more positive and Holly said once it was the biggest show on TV, when it was. You make it sound as if they spent the entire show flicking the Vs at Simon Cowell.
The show involved some giant swivel chairs, as obvious and as knowing a gimmick as The X Factor, and there were plenty of jokes in it, mostly from Will. And of course the coaches were going to get more airtime because they're big stars and they've done it and they were clearly involved at every stage. If you've got a famous singer as a judge why wouldn't you let them sing with the contestants?
Originally Posted by Kapellmeister:
“Unfortunately I don't think too many people realise that you can get Sky News on Freeview and probably stuck with the BBC thinking there was no other option.”
Perhaps if Sky told people they were on other platforms instead of ignoring every viewer not watching on Sky who weren't giving them any money they might get more viewers.
Originally Posted by Brekkie:
“Exactly - for many people ITV Sport is all about football and this is showing it can do other sports justice too. I'd imagine if you asked people their opinion on ITV Sport last weekend and this weekend their views might have somewhat changed.”
It says something about ITV Sport if we're apparently supposed to be giving them kudos for just showing a sport. I seem to recall them showing a Rugby World Cup or two, and they used to do F1 before they deciding to get rid of it to show more football. And why shouldn't the coverage be good? Of course they were going to cover it competently, like they cover all sport competently, nobody was expecting Ant and Dec to present it. It mostly seems to be staffed by former or current BBC employees anyway. It baffles me how ITV Sport gets massively overpraised for doing what they're supposed to be doing anyway.
But as mentioned, the French Open hardly picks up much interest in the UK, they used to show the finals on BBC2 and they never got much. And even during Wimbledon BBC1 never showed tennis non-stop from 9.30am to 6pm, so why ITV1 were prepared to do that I don't know, other than a cheap way to fill hours of daytime opposite a massive show on the other side.
Originally Posted by NeilVW:
“I remember in summer of 1999 (I think), after News at Ten was moved, ITV played out all the Bond films chronologically and they did really well, up to 10m on warm nights. A different era.”
OO-Heaven! On Wednesday nights in 1999, although they shoved some of the less interesting ones (George Lazenby) on Saturday teatime, and cutely showed Thunderball opposite the first ever Thunderball draw. And then a year later I'm pretty sure they showed all the Connery ones again on Wednesday nights. And they've been doing it again on Sunday afternoons again, they showed Dr No the other week, presumably for the last time.
”
) be amalgamated into a 60 minute show and then maybe the first Downton Abbey from series two should be aired between 8.30-10pm.
