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Don’t Stop Believing flops in UK

Five's new talent show has been dumped from its primetime slot as the show sheds viewers and critics circle.

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One London newspaper is calling it “the biggest telly flop of the year.”

Don’t Stop Believing has been dumped from its UK primetime slot of 8pm to 5:45pm on Channel Five after pulling in a dismal 587,000 viewers on Sunday night.

The singing and dancing show lost more than half those who watched its premiere last month, while Five hit its lowest all-time and prime-time audience shares for a Sunday since 1998 -just 3% and 2.3%.

The talent show, branded by one critic as an “X Factor spoof,” was also slammed for its amateurish production values by some viewers.

Digital Spy in one editorial lays the blame at the judging panel, an overdose on the sob stories (“surely every group can’t have helped save a member’s life?”), host Emma Bunton, and the addition of the Supergroup for whom viewers have “no emotional investment.”

“We went to watch it live last week and it’s a slick production with one of the most impressive stages and productions we’ve ever seen on a live reality show. The colour scheme may be a bit lurid, but the show as a whole makes the likes of Strictly and Dancing On Ice look a bit stuffy and old-hat. And like we said at the start of the piece, there is definite potential in DSB,” it wrote.

Don’t Stop Believing was recently announced as a new project for TEN in 2011 before the Five series had debuted in the UK.

David Mott, Chief Programming Officer at TEN said of the show, “We have had incredible success in identifying and airing excellent high impact performance shows and this is bigger and better than any we have ever undertaken.”

Unlike the UK format, the local production promises to launch the show’s resident Supergroup prior to the show’s premiere. It will be produced by Shine Australia.

Source: Mirror, Digital Spy

18 Responses

  1. What Ten has going for it is they also broadcast Glee. Five don’t, hence it’s clearly bandwagon jumping (and they’ve got a controller who is known for lacking originality!) – and they go to great lengths to ensure Glee is never mentioned.

  2. Another talent show, I mean come on…do we really need another one.

    TEN may have it’s first flop with this…then again, the kids may lap it up.

  5. it’s hardly worth making a local version of an overseas concept if before season 1 starts people are wanting to change everything about the concept. why don’t ten just make an original concept?

    i realise that shows like the biggest loser and masterchef were completely reinvented for Australia despite going under the same name. that is part because naming it a big international brand followed by “australia” gives it a level of credibility to the public, (the other part being because that is what the production company has got). in this case the “don’t stop believing” brand will only act as deadweight chained to it’s ankle. they are better off starting from scratch with a new brand. otherwise it is going to be one tough sell for ten; y’know that uk show that was the biggest flop since ’98.. we’re spending millions on a local version.

    another thing, ten should tone down all the “next big thig”, “biggest show you’ve ever seen” ect. i know ten think they are huge risk takers but it’s only going to make it more embarrasing if it doesn’t rate huge numbers, which is more than likely, a bit of caution might go a long way.

  6. Considering Fremantle changed Masterchef considerably compared with the UK version and now Shine Australia who’s headed by the same two people, there still could be hope for this format yet.

  8. Ten can look at the flaws of the concept and iron them out in time for the show’s local debut next year.

    A clever way of doing that really – although critics will have a go it at no matter what it does.

  10. “(“surely every group can’t have helped save a member’s life?”)”

    I don’t think I could sit down and watch the show for 90 minutes without a 30 sec skip button: these sob stories go on longer than the performances!

    “host Emma Bunton”

    She’s bland and looks out of her depth, but she’s really not the problem. And neither are the judges.

    “the Supergroup for whom viewers have “no emotional investment.””

    The Super Group also sucks more than many of the acts. TEN needs to get the Supergroup to perform as well as the Glee Live tour (which was allegedly pretty good) plus they need the camera work to be choreographed (Five mange this), every performer to have a mic (they manage this) and to appropriately mix that audio (they don’t this).

  12. Master Chef is not a total flop in the UK, its just not the single greatest thing on UK TV, like it appears to be in Australia.

    A Glee lead in, could certainly help TENs Dont Stop Believing.

  13. Its not a fair comparison- Channel 5 in the UK is widely recognised as the shi* channel for its amateurish production values. Nobody watches it and its no surprise they couldn’t pull this off.

    TEN have only bought the format, but as seen by masterchef, anything is possible. They bought this format, heavily rejigged it and turned it into a ratings juggernaut. The show in the UK is nowhere near as successful as it is here so I wouldn’t read too much into this flop- especially with the Glee audience TEN have at their disposal

  14. I still think the concept of the show is ok and can be executed right; TEN have a knack of doing it so i won’t knock Ten till I see their version. Though variety is not that big on the TV Watch list for me; I turned off idol years ago only form of variety I enjoy now is Your Gen.

  16. yeah maybe someone should have told TEN, that Five reailty shows, have always looked cheap and been a flop, before they invested in “Dont Stop Believing”

    however the promo posted on this website, should have been TENs first clue

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