I agree. The polls are also reflecting what is happening in the show, with her being in the top 2 last night. I know what people mean by the "Aisleyene" thing as she was very popular on here, but her popularity was untested on the show to some degree. Tara's has been tested and proven, if last nights results were anything to go by.

Its really not a case of being petty - I think petty is engineering a win at Comic Relief for someone like TPT, a talentless, self-interested product of the reality TV factory - there are more worthy and better candidates than her - you have to draw the line somewhere and I simply hope things havent gone so far that people are fooled in to seeing otherwise.

Its interesting that you should assume that a Tara win is "engineered" simply because it doesn't fit your own idea of the winner.

The simple fact of the matter is that the early favourites in the show, Shaun and Tricia failed miserably to excite the audience thus leaving an opening for any other candidate to steal the show. The early polls showed Tricia and Shaun to have a healthy lead but that has been slowly eroded by a succession of pretenders such as Mel, Tim and Stubbsy. As is always the case with a weak favourite, people naturally look elsewhere and Tara just happens to fit the bill as the only feasable current threat to the obviously better singers Tricia and Shaun.

Tara's popularity was not manufactured by the programme but rather by the populations boredom with Shaun and Tricia (although Tricia's popularity is rising at the death).

If the measure of success for Comic Relief is to pay tribute to a great singer, then I would agree with your comments, but raising money through the ability to engender passion and emotion is surely a truer measure in this particular contest...and only one person is performing that task at the moment.

That person is Tara Palmer Tomkinson.

I don't think it's fair to say they have failed miserably. After all, they are both in the semifinal and both stand a good chance of being in the final.


Well, how success in CR Does Fame Academy should be measured will vary from person to person. We all have our own expectations of a CFA winner, and that's fine. The primary object of the exercise is to raise lots of money for Comic Relief - whether that is achieved by singing ability, comedic ability, or just having an appealing personality doesn't much matter, does it?

I think I referred to them both failing to excite the audience. Of course they have sung well, but that was fully expected of them and I would not wish to denegrate their contribution to the show. I do believe that Shaun will not make the final (simply because its a twosome) and that Tricia will be the other finalist with Tara.

On the issue of what makes good TV and what makes people vote in TV shows, we should never underestimate "passion" as a motivator. The whole success of CRDFA depends not on a tame battle of singing abilities but rather on the ability of the programme makers to engage their audience, and for that they need personalities (good and bad) to produce more than the average number of public donations via phone votes.

Nothing stirs an audience more than controversy and a Final consisting of Shaun v Tricia would represent an anti climax and produce a minimal number of phone votes.
Last edited by desmagee88 : 15-03-2007 at 12:18

Talentless?. She is an accomplished pianist who has done quite a few concert tours, very succesfully.
and commitment, ? the progress she has made in such a short time is amazing, I take my hat off to her.

I agree.

I wonder whether we should we be treating it as a straight singing competition anymore?

The two students who would fit best into the general spirit of the Comic Relief show on Friday are Tara and Colin -- by a long way.

Shaun and Tricia are better singers but they are not as entertaining as the other two.

Putting it bluntly, Tara and Colin would contribute to the general entertainment and humour of the Comic Relief show, whereas Shaun and Tricia would simply provide an interlude in which two below average singers perform without adding any humour or excitement to the show.

Who the hell is "engineering" a win? The public are very very fickle, and it would be a mistake to even think that the type of audience BB attracts will be the audience that watches CFA.

Your contradictory statements are puzzling - you start the thread with a title of "Shaun - Winner by mile surely?", say that the public won't be fooled by TPT, then go on to say that the result is being engineered for her. Which is it then?

Perhaps a more reasoned, solid argument based on facts would be more beneficial to your case. That in itself says more about you and your motives than anything else I'm afraid.
Last edited by mossy2103 : 15-03-2007 at 12:27

Engineered in the sense of a reality TV veteran playing all the right cards, making all the right moves, going through the motions like painting by numbers - it's like watching someone editing themselves and this is why its absolutely no fun, as someone already points out in another thread. We are getting to the point where there is a script for these things thats so rehearsed thatit is bleeding the life out of everything - TPT is the prime suspect in all this no matter how good she is, it is actually lifeless.

In your opinion (an opinion which I do not and will not share)

So why should it matter - you state that
and that someone else will win anyway.

Again, your attempts to justify yourself (and your rather vitriolic attack on someone) do not hold much water.
Last edited by mossy2103 : 15-03-2007 at 13:42

My views on it all

Tricia has a good voice - her performance leaves me cold and totally bores me rigid.

Shaun has a good voice and his performances has improved an either he is now connecting with the song more or he is acting more - whichever it is it is working and is more entertaining than he was.

Colin - I think his voice has improved immensely, he seems to enjoy himself on stage and I think he connects well to his song.

Tara for me has the weakest voice in the competition - however for what she lacks in voice shemakes up for in performance. Personally I think she is the best performer in there- she connects with the song and the audience and makes you belive she is totally feeling the wordsof the song. It makes you forget the bum notes somehow. I do wish she would get over her nerves cos her rehearsal voice is so much better than her final performance voice it really is a shame.

My order of preference is

Tara,Shaun, Colin, Tricia.

There is no right or wrong in this, no matter of fact. Its all about taste and opinion. Someone said above about Ricky Gervias being a real comedian - cannot stand him myself and don't find him the least bit amusing. Thereis little point in arguing the toss about it - whoever wins will be the one who appeals to the most voters - doesn't make them better or worse than the losers, just less appealing to the voting demographic.
Last edited by Cornchips : 15-03-2007 at 14:12

Yes I agree Tara to win all the bookies tonight have her favourite

I can't see the link. Ash displayed a range of personalities ranging from weak to unpleasant and served up, or was served up with, a story that she had evolved when in fact she just crashed from one role to another as circumstances took her.

Tara seems to me to be a perfectly consistent personality who says exactly what she thinks and is genuinely liked by her fellow students which you could hardly say about Ash who turned nearly everyone on BB7 against her. We know what Tara wants - love - she's totally transparent wheras Ash was so hidden that no one including herself knew who she was.Tara is musically talented, sings with the emotion everyone but Mel and Tim lacked and commands the stage like no one else.

Shaun and Tricia are fine, but there were 4 better singers in the last CFA, so it would look a bit odd if someone didn't win this series for performances that were about more than accurate singing.