Starting yesterday, and running all this week, sees the Semi Finals of Britain’s Got Talent, the ITV show to find an act for the Royal Variety Performance to show off their talent before the Queen.
This is another show that can be enhanced with the use of Twitter and the #bgt tag to have a conversation and last night amongst the popular trending terms were “bgt” “boyle” and “darth jackson” – three terms that may have bemused any international twitters.
“Boyle” referred to the now international star, Susan Boyle, famous for not being very good looking but being a reasonable singer. If you missed the story you could watch this video which will reveal all the details!
In fairness to her, she was one of the two actually talented acts on the show. The other being Diversity:
The rest varied in quality from a “cute” 10 year old, so the slightly mad Michael Jackson / Darth Vader combination to the utterly deranged Nick Hell and his massacistic tendencies live on ITV.
Exactly why any one would want to watch a madman with a chainsaw live on an entertainment programme is one question, how it got past the “health and safety” people at ITV is another.
It was interesting in the voting as well to see Amanda Holden pass the buck – given the choice of voting for the obviously talented Diversity, or a cute 10 year old who would have been out, she left it to Simon Cowell to give the sensible choice and make the little girl cry on prime time TV.
More talent through the rest of this week. Woo-hoo.
It’s taken me a long time to make any comment about the reality TV show, The Apprentice. I find it interesting watching mainly, like most other people that watch it, because I wonder why the collection of half witted individuals who sign up think they have any chance of actually being good in business.
The problem is the same throughout the early stages, desperate to stand out from the crowd each of the candidates refuse to listen to the others and instead attempt to drive their own agenda, leading to chaos. Also they seem every week to go off half cocked, not researching the tasks or even thinking why they’ve been set it.
Okay, I know the programme is highly edited and the show is there to entertain – otherwise there would be no good reason why Lorraine and Debra would not have been sacked already – but just some sign that the candidates actually think about why Sir Alan has set the task would be welcome.
It is another show that can be enhanced by the Internet. The BBC have an apprentice game where you attempt to predict the person who will be sacked. The game is okay, would would be improved no end if it kept track of users and had tables to compare performance weekly and across the series (there you go BBC, a idea for free – I should get a fiver off next years license for that).
Twitter too can play a part and like with Eurovision last week, following the comments on twitterfall using the tag #apprentice can provide some moments of humour.
My overall feeling however is that The Apprentice is a tired format and, whilst I expect it to be dragged out for another series or two, has possibly run it’s course. Unless people who are actually talented in business sign up instead of candidates who are just a little too bright for Big Brother it might be time to say “Sir Alan, you’re fired.”
It’s upon us, the greatest night of the year on the TV entertainment stakes, Eurovision. There is something about the bizarre mix of European music, tv and voting that makes it gripping television.
The UK, rather bland, entry this year is:
Which remarkably according the bookies actually has some vague chance of not coming entirely last. This has been brought around by the democratic twist that although people can phone up to vote for their favourites, a “panel of experts” will then decide how the voting should go.
Hopefully, in the eyes of the organisers this will help overcome the various voting habits of neighbours voting for one another. Historically the UK has never done well out of “friendly voting”, mainly because we don’t have that many European friends! Whether this change will make any difference only time will tell.
The other big change is the lack of Terry Wogans ironic comments throughout the evening.
His blatent insults of the entries, the scoring and indeed the whole concept has kept Eurovision alive with the British public. Whether Graham Norton will attempt the same, or a more serious approach, only time will tell.
It’s taken me a long time to make any comment about the reality TV show, The Apprentice. I find it interesting watching mainly, like most other people that watch it, because I wonder why the collection of half witted individuals who sign up think they have any chance of actually being good in business.
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