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Young Talent Time trends on Twitter

Young Talent Time lit up Twitter on Sunday night, which is a good sign for TEN. Now the introductions are over let's get down to business.

It’s far too early to give a formal review of Young Talent Time.

Why? Because we haven’t really seen the show yet.

Last night was part-introduction, part reunion for YTT, delaying its competition element until next week.

That means we have no idea how judges Tina Arena and the distinctly-named ‘Chucky’ Klapow (even I wrote ‘Kaplow’ last week) interact, nor what kind of talent discoveries are in store -although a preview snippet did look promising.

But as an exercise in getting our attention, the re-booted YTT had everybody talking. Many of us grew up with the show and our curiosity got the better of us last night.

If Twitter is any indication, we all had an opinion.

These were the top-trending tweets while the show was on air:

#ytt
#youngtalenttime

#gillardsongs
Tina Arena
Tomic vs Federer
Johnny Young
Rob Mills

Li Na
Chains
John Foreman

Marketing job done there, then.

Both Young Talent Time and #ytt were also trending globally.

They were divided on the show, possibly swayed by nostalgia / lack thereof.

So while I am going to resist a formal review, here are a few brash reactions:

– Very talented kids. Lovin’ the diversity.
– The opening was too cheesy. Is this High School Musical?
– Audience may have been trucked in from It’s a Knockout
– Tina Arena absolutely hit Chains out of the park. Expected nothin’ less.
– Rob Mills: Yes. Less autocue, more improvisation, please.
– Acoustic “Price Tag” number: Wow. Video clip: No thanks -there’s a disconnect you just don’t get with Live.
– Asher Keddie as a once-tiny YTT contestant? Told ya that, last week here.
– Why was the watermark acting like it’s on the blink?
– Johnny Young cloning Bert Newton. But I do like the passing of the metaphorical baton to Millsy Mills.
– For a nostalgic opening we got bugger all of the former YTT members. Darn.
All My Lovin’. Audience swaying is now very hokey. Great to see it once but less is more.
– The show has a good heart. Deserves to find a family audience.

Goodnight Australia.

19 Responses

  1. I also thought that the cheese content of the opening sequences needed a health warning. I enjoyed the show as a young lad, and watched with some interest. I seem to recall the original had a wider range of ages from the young to the mid-late teens. The lack of some older singers is lacking as there is no lower range in the singing. They all sound the same and bland. Hopefully this will be worked on.

    Again, I’m not the target demographic – but I hope they find a good mix.

  2. It’s promising, but I struggled to find any YTT kids that I really liked and would want to see again. They didn’t seem as friendly and down-to-earth as the original team did.

    Maybe I am just looking back on the old YTT with rose coloured glasses. But I remember the first time I saw Lorena Novoa, Vanessa Windsor, Vince Del Tito, Karen Dunkerton and all my other faves and they never seemed obnoxious or precocious.

    I am sure these new kids are great and I will warm to them though.

    I woulda loved to see more of the old gang, maybe they could have performed a song or two. And I would have loved to see much more flashbacks and photos from the old days. Maybe they can incorporate that as part of the series on an on-going basis.

    And I totally support the continued use of closing the show with “All My Loving”, I hope they continue to do so in every episode.

  3. I humbly submit that most of those slagging off the show are not part of the demographics that YTT is aimed at!
    I mean, the producers would love as many folks to watch as possible, but they should not be overly concerned that the grumpy old men/women brigade are not jumping for joy.
    Once the program gets into its stride with its normal format, it shows real promise. Apart from the few grumps out there, there is much goodwill for this type of feel-good production to proceed.

  4. Oh there was another surprise ( I mean as well as the Asher Keddie one) in that one of the new Team members is the daughter of Alissa Jane Cook from E Street. Who knew?

  5. I Loved the accustic song. I actually got to comprehend the lyrics which was great. The kids were great, could not find a fault in any of them and I’m a Millsy fan from his Idol days. Glad he’s finally got leading gig. I can see how the show may be a bit hokey to the modern audience, so that’s a concern. But I loved it.

  6. 100% ordinary. Over staged and over produced. Glad I recorded it and could fast forward. This concept will really struggle in 2012. Dated & Lame! Full marks to Millsy! But please allow him to relax and just let his natural ability shine through. All round everyone tried too hard. Over staged and over produced.

  7. The kids are pretty good but I thought last night’s show was rubbish. The opening medley was dreadfully cheesy and the Gorillaz “band” graphics were crap. Tina was good and ‘Price Tag’ was a nice and simple arrangement, but Millsy irked me with his smirk. I hope next week is better but it’s also up against the men’s final of the Aust. Open, and even though it’ll be Djokovic against Fed/Rafa/Delpo it’ll still rate quite well.

  8. Adults slagging a show meant for children is really lame. The kids I watched with it loved it. I thought Millsy did a great job, and I thought the production was brilliant – Johnny knows his stuff. Also thought the pre-taped video clip was great – in the age of Glee it makes a lot of sense.

  9. And the ratings have spoken ….. barely over the mill. There’ll be some grinding of teeth over at 10 as this means sub-800,000 is on the cards in a few weeks. No nostalgia will mean no rusted-on audience.

  10. I caught up with it online, and i was very impressed with the talent of the kids, the few times i have watch X factor or AGT the singing always seems pretty ordinary, and even flat, I do not know if the kids on YTT were singing live but they are very good

  11. I loved it… great family entertainment and wonderful to see so many kids in the audience having fun.
    Agree would have been good to see a bit more of the old members… a couple of close ups at least!
    I actually liked the video clip… was very Glee but looked really good. The fact that they dont use sets as such on stage (although the screens are awesome) it gave them the chance to play around a bit. Doubt they would have done a food fight on the stage!
    Looking forward to next week.

  12. Agree David, Chains was freakin’ awesome (big Tina fan) as was Price Tag. Loved seeing Johnny again and to see him singing with Millsy was great! I must admit I got a bit moist in the optical region when they started singing All My Loving (I’m from the olden days) and would love it if they did it every week.

    With the way video clips are these days and the over-sexualisation of kids I was afraid the kids costumes and choreography would be unsuitable for the age group but I was impressed with the sweet innocence it still had. Lovin’ John Foreman being a part of it and of course, Tina.

    All in all I loved the show and will be watching every week.

  13. So does trending on twitter equal ratings? How many people actually tweet anyway?
    Wife insisted on having YTT on. Sure they’re all nice talented kids (a little too PC in the mix of races) but will this get old quickly?

  14. As you suggested David it’s hard to review the initial show, but my initial thoughts are: Great set, love to screens all around the audience, good production values and the introductions of the cast aside, the pace was good. Look forward to seeing next weeks. Not sure how this show will go in the ratings over the next few weeks, but good on Ten for giving it a go.

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