After two weeks of following the show and getting really involved I feel very cheated with the shambles of last night's programme.

They should have ended it on Thursday night or had the sense to see that they needed phone lines on Friday night. They lost a big opportunity to cream off a lot of money from people who couldnt pledge big sums of money. It could (and should) have been a big spectacle but ended up a low key shambolic Karaoki slot.

Dont get me started on the terrible sound quality (there was no excuse for that).

At the end of the day even the result was a farse by being affected by radio 1 constantly plugging away all afternoon and reminding people voting closed at 7pm (which the majority of viewers would have overlooked). Before anyone says "sour grapes" I didnt really want Kim to win but it just made a mockery of the "competition".

I would have thought that the majority of viewers who followed the students (and they amounted to millions) felt very cheated out of a big finale last night. Its like supporting your team to the FA cup final and finding out that its been reduced to 5 minutes either end. Hell even that sounds better than what we had last night.

I couldn't have put it better. It seems like it was a complete waste of my time watching and supporting the students when we ended up with the show we did Before it finished I was hoping for another Celebrity version but now I think it is a bad idea if they are going to end it on Comic Relief night again.

Couldn't agree more!

The Final deserved it's own show and would have raised lots more cash for Comic Relief if they had given us the chance to vote!

I agree too. Although I enjoyed it for the most part anyway, I think it was a terrible mistake to not have a few phone lines at least available for voting after the performances. Like you say, if I wasn't using this forum I wouldn't have known that you couldn't vote after 7pm. It's such a shame that a great couple of weeks ended with a shambles like that.

I'm in agreement too. For me, it was really a flat ending to an excellent show and some members of my family lost interest. We didn't like the fact that FA was broken up into segments throughout the show. I'm sure I missed some of the FA segments because I kept channel hopping.

I also didn't like the way in which the show played with my emotions. One minute I was laughing at something and the next they'd show e.g. a family (baby/toddler/mother) sleeping on a pavement and then e.g. Jonathan Ross/ Chris Evans was back to entertain me.

The ending was really flat - a total shambles.

The giving of the 'winning' envelope to Edith just seemed rushed and not really thought about.

FA has been a great show, providing huge amounts of entertainment and insight into these slebs as well as providing huge amounts for RND .... its a shame they could not take the time to do a half way decent presentation to the winner .... of the envelope

I think the reason they did it that way was to make sure people kept on watching while they were waiting for the final. It was just as bad last time.

The show wasnt even funny. These celebs think they can just turn up and throw anything together. They are living off old glory and have forgotten how to turn it on. Being heckled by Jonathan Ross to give money just p's me off. I've done my bit for Red Nose day but last night they were heavy handed and tacky.

If you're implying by this that Edith won because of the amount of plugging that was done on Radio 1 then I think you are insulting the GBP. Do you really think Kim and Ade fans would have voted for Edith just because Radio 1 was reminding them that they had to vote before 7? Isn't it more likely that all 3 got votes that they would have lost otherwise?

I haven't listened to radio 1 in 30 years ...since the days I used to tape the top 40 on my dads stereo ..... but I don't watch Eastenders either didn't have a clue who kim was ( or Debra for that matter ) before this show started.... Its just good to see that the GBP are not all charitied out since the tsunami and we all should be proud for having a generous nation , including those that set them selves up in the FA ...in the name of charity

I was gobsmacked when they did the final in the actual comic relief studio, rather than the academy. But I'm not going to repeat what was said, but I will say this, it seems to me that there was more hype over Kim, than Edith when the winner was announced. They asked the audience to give a huge aount of applause for Kim, whilst only given Edith the envelope

I don't see that as hype - it's only asking people to show their appreciation for the runner up - it's courteous. Kim afterall, had not been in the bottom 3 throughout the show and to lose out on the final night....

I agree with the OP, it was a confused messy ending to a good show. That and the fact that the voting was messed up (whoever it did or didn't favour), was a big let down.

I know ultimately the show and, everything surrounding it, is about raising money, but you have to get the entertainment side right, or the money raising is not going to be what it could be.

Someone standing on stage telling awful jokes is not going to attract the viewers and ultimately the donations won't be that good. FA was used because it obviously generates a lot of viewers, who will then contribute willingly toward a good cause. Messing it up leaves a bad taste and people feeling like they were robbed of a good final.

I too feel really cheated with the lack of a real final, we've followed & voted for them over the last 10 days, then when told (or rather some of us found out, the others found out when it was too late) we can only vote up until 7pm BEFORE anybody has sung a note.

Then in 4 hours of last night's programming we get 15 minutes to text vote!

Have the final on the Thursday night and in the academy!

Keep the normal voting lines open & have a proper deserving final after 10 days of competition.

It may of been for charity but it was still a entertainment programme that millions have followed!

Have the winner sing on Red Nose Night & the FA karaoke with the rest of the students at peak time!

Fingers crossed for FA3!

Tez

I agree entirely. I love watching the live feed and feel robbed as we would say in football. The show was bitty, and didnt give the Students full credit really for how hard they had worked. I dont know if I missed it but I didnt see the students leave the house, did they show it?

Shame about Kim, she is a lovely singer and I am sure it will open doors for her sooner or later.

So shame flat end to a good show as I did like all the celebs apart from that Al, and jenny who they soon got rid off.

It did raise lots of money too, but feel robbed.
Sheila

There's a video of it on the BBC FA site.

But it wasn't shown on TV

Tez

Yup they should do a proper finale inside FA and then on the Friday have the whole troupe in to sing and the 2 finalists doing a couple of numbers...all for no votes..how can anyone vote on Friday when numbers are for donations.Silly..

That's typical of the BBC, one team goes and produces CRDFA makes it successful.

While the other plans the Comic Relief night.

Sadly I don't think the two teams communicated very much, it felt more like just then at 21:00 we have Fame academy for 10 minutes then Wossy will…

So on the night of the final FA was treated like spare d*cks at wedding.

So 10 days of competition followed by anti-climax!

Tez

I also felt that the final was an anti-climax & that they lost 1000's of £s by not having phone-lines available. Neither do I have a problem with Edith's win - she's less serious than Kim & so combined comedy & singing but I texted quite a few votes for Ade & haven't received one receipt, so wonder if they were even counted.

I don't want to get into who should have won, etc., except to say it seems there was no advantage in winning to coming second, either way you stayed till the end.

And yes, CRDFA got mixed up in the general hubbub and what should have been a glorious ending was rather buried.

I agree that the final could have been Thursday, with the reward to do a solo spot with Jools Holland's band and maybe a duet with a "real" artist on the Friday. Instead of the late-night drunk karaoke and the final heats, there could have been some duets, and maybe a team song with some laughs thrown in.

I have read on various threads that it doesn't matter who wins or what the final was like as it was for Comic Relief, which it was of course. However, I did not watch Celebrity Fame Academy because of this. I watched it because I have enjoyed every other series (bar the first which I missed sadly ) and was looking forward to this one. Which is why I am so disappointed with the final format. I don't think I am alone in this. So to me the fact that all the proceeds went to Comic Relief is brilliant, but that wasn't the reason I watched most of the streaming and all the live nights on BBC1. I am a Fame Academy fan and wanted the final that the rest of the series deserved

I watched only the announcement of the result but I wasn't concerned about missing 'the final' because I remember how disappointing it was two years ago and didn't expect anything different this time.

If they do CFA again, they may do it differently. This years main shows seemed better planned than 2 years ago and as a result it has been much more professional.

Same here, I actually got 8 receipts back, but I did something like 30 texts.

I agree with everything that's been said.
It was a real anti climax.
I have a couple of mobile phones but I only use them when I'm away from home so they were in the drawer not charged up.
I really could have plugged them in to the charger but I couldn't be bothered as I don't often send texts so it takes me ages.
As someone who has phone voted several times a night all week (for Debra And Kim). I would have voted several times last night if I had been able to.
There are lots of older people like me, who even though they have mobiles, don't use them often, don't know how to text and some who don't even have a mobile at all.
I don't know to what extent it would have changed the result, if at all, but there must have been a lot of money lost for charity.

nope course fans of the other wouldnt vote for edith! but i think those that wouldnt normally vote but that are fans of shows such as colin murrays or jo whileys or scott mills would have been inclined to put a few votes in for edith purely coz of the amount of times her no/ was given out and being told how important it was to vote before 7! Also a lot of edith fans are bound to have been listening to her show at 1pm (as she is interview on it at 3 everyday) so they would have known to vote before 7 whereas people that support ade and kim but dont watch interactive probably would have had no ide abaout it.