They did the same with Celebrity Driving School, i'm sure it was on for a few weeks, prior to Red Nose Day. The results seemed to be rushed through, which was a bit disapointing, 'specially when you'd been watching it 3-4 times a week in the run up to RND

My feeling is that everything about the second series of Celeb FA was much more professional and entertaining than the first. I quite liked the fact that the students took their performances so seriously, and really made it look as if they were benefitting from the tuition.

The whole thing was treated very much like the second normal series of FA, and I think that viewers (especially those who followed the Live Feed) got extremely involved in and passionate about the whole thing.

After all the excitement on Thursday night about who was going to win a place in the final, last night was a huge let down. They definitely should have had the final on Thursday night, and then had all the students back performing some of their most memorable solos/group songs without the pressure of having to impress judges. I'm sure that would have led to some donations from the FA addicts.

I am also VERY sure that Comic Relief lost out on a lot of money because the viewers couldn't phone vote last night for their favourite candidate. There are some of us who work for a living, or who have long since given up listening to Radio 1.

I don't mind who won, btw!

Who here actually wants a new FA series?

Did you or anyone else in this thread watch the last Comic Relief Fame Academy? If you's did you must have short memories because it was exactly the same crap. What were people expecting? Fact is that was the trade off for getting the series at all. Exactly the same thing happened with the first celebrity big brother- the final was ruined (though at least that one came from the actual Big Brother Set)

I don't know, my heart says yes, but my head says no on the last night, Ade and Edith were having a talk, Ade was saying he was surprised by how much the production company was treating them like comodities, Edith was talking about the way they were trying to manipulate them with Jeremy etc., and just as I thought we were going to get some juicy bits the sound was cut so if they have no problem treating slebs like that what are they going to do to some poor kids coming in desperate for a career, who more than likely will be willing to put up with anything in order to get a foot on the ladder.

I do love FA, but I think the format needs a lot of changes, and we need several feeds in order to get a better view of what is happening, instead of just getting the Endemol line.

It WASNT just radio one though. Whilst I've been at home these past couple of weeks I've been watching the BBC1 day time programmes and both before and after most of the programmes they've been trying to persuade viewer to vote for Edith. It seemed totally unfair to me especially as technicall Kim also worked for the BBC.

I agree with most people and share their disappointment.

I'd say that we didn't actually have a final.
There was no final show.
It was just 5 minutes now and then which they returned to in intervals.

There was no final Fame Academy show at all. It was just another little section that was split into tiny fragments as part of a bigger show.
Last night Fame Academy was no more a show than Jack Dee was a show with his returning segments during the night.
Comic Relief in itself wasn't that great, and the atmosphere of Fame Academy was ruined by much of the crap that was going on around it.

There was no way I was going to watch all of Comic Relief just to hope to catch 5 minutes here and there of Fame Academy. I caught little bits of hit while I was channel hopping, but I never got to see anything in full.
I wasn't sure when the FA bits were going to show up and had to estimate with my TV listings magazine.

I managed to catch about 3 or 4 minutes of two Fame Academy segments on the off-chance. I missed the rest.
Of the first segment I only caught the back half of it and missed the first two performances, because it was Comic Relief one minute, I left the room for something, and before I knew it they were well into FA and I missed the most of it.

There was no such thing as a Fame Academy final last night. It was more like watching the National Lottery results after the news or something.

I've already spoke about the 7pm deadline for the voting to stop, but here I'm just trying to focus on the actual quality of the Fame Academy final itself.
There wasn't one really.
It was an exercise in disasterous planning and scheduling.
If I knew it was going to end like this I don't think I would have bothered watching it for the last ten days.

They can't just carry people along with the drama and excitement for almost two weeks, and take their viewers on an entertaining journey, really push things so it reaches a great climax, then right at the last minute just say,..."F**k it,...can't be bothered doing a final show".
Well I say they can't, but that's what they've just gone and done.

A couple of minutes of Fame Academy here and there, just scattered all over the place. No,..that's just crap.

Completely agree with what pretty much everyone has said. I probably shouldn't have expected any different after CFA1, but last night was just a complete and utter shambles. The situation with the phone lines was shambolic - what's the point having them perform on the night at all if the phone lines are shut? Not to mention the potential revenue lost..

And then the dismal staging of the whole thing. Fitting it in around awful 'comedy' sketches, 5 minutes here, ten minutes there, completely unbefitting of a series that has been a huge hit with the public. I was baffled that they didn't hold the CFA1 final in the Academy, and even more so last night. As everyone has said, far better to finish it on the Thursday and have a proper final, some actual footage of the final day's action in the Academy and build up some real tension about the final result, and then fit in some extra stuff on Red Nose Night. As it was, the Beeb undid a lot of the good work of the last two weeks.

Well I feel better now, iv'e just posted my comments on the Fame Acadamy website.
I'm sure they wont take a blind bit of notice, but it did me good

Yes I agree. I dont think I laughed once during the whole Comic Relief night! Why don't they just have a celeb fa which is just raising money for charity, and cut it off from Comic Relief. Because I personally think it's relation to CR ruins the whole event!

I agree with the majority. Last night was a real non event for the final of comic relief does FA. Why on earth not have the final on Thursday night if they arent going to open phone lines on the Friday?
It could have been just as special if the celebs then did favourite songs actually on comic relief night. Rather than a flat ending.
Also it does rather confuse the issue about who the winner was. Kim had the most votes on Thursday from the public, Edith had more on Friday , so who was more popular?

No I didn't actually as I have said previously. For charity or not for charity a programme should have a proper ending imo.

Me too. I know it will be ignored but it made me feel better

I'm glad I'm not the only one ! I was so surprised at just how dissapointing the final was, and I had no expectations having not seen the last one. Why hype it so much for 2 weeks and then not have a proper final ? why not give over an hour on Comic Relief night to it ? would have been a ratings winner. Typical BBC - just dosn't have the vision and things are slapdash and feel anticlimactic.

I couldn't even HEAR Edith's performance, so goodness knows how she won on that, in fact the sound problems throughout the night were shambolic. Did anyone notice during Kim's final performance of 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' the saxophone was pratically drowning her out ? the guy was playing right into the mic and it was far too loud.

I actually laughed out loud at the stupidity of not allowing the public to phone in and vote for the winner, isn't that the point of a competition ? maybe I just totally missed something but I heard nothing about having to have it all done by 7pm or whenever it was. Bizarre !

I think the final should have been done in the Fame Academy studio with the Fame Academy fans. Its just didnt have the atmosphere I thought. Normally the people clapping woop a lot and clap because they are enjoying it but hardly anyone wooped and they seemed to be clapping more to be polite. I was also disapointed the way the kareoke was aranged. I thought they would all sing on it and that Dawn and Edith would sing the Proclaimers as well. The BBC were stupid not to let them do that because Edith and Dawn would have got more votes so therefore more money for Comic Relief

They probably all got some more votes because of it, but it would be very surprising if Edith didn't get more than the others. For one thing, the audience most likely contains more Edith supporters, especially for the show Edith nortmally presents with Colin.

And Radio 1 wasn't just "reminding them that they had to vote before 7".

I thought we were going to get a great final. Exactly the right 3 were chosen, IMO, and Kim vs Edith gave us two good and contrasting singers that people could feel passionately about (could and do, if this forum is any guide).

But that was before I realised that it would be mixed into lots of other stuff, and there wouldn't be the usual vote.

Then they made it even worse with the sound problems!

What a shambles.