Reality is, it was an excruciating night on the box.
Big Brother and I Will Survive served up some startlingly vapid telly as primetime entertainment.
- Published by David Knox
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As Reality TV goes, last night was pretty excruciating.
Big Brother and I Will Survive served up some startlingly vapid telly as primetime entertainment.
Nine’s Big Brother, having teased us with the arrival of new Intruder Ava, proceeded to unravel this week’s challenge: a ludicrous “animal wilderness documentary” that saw housemates mimicking jungle animals in the backyard.
Under instruction from a ‘David Attenborough-mimic’, they were down on all fours wearing animal headgear. Michael roared like a lion. Angie smeared banana over her body. George and Josh rolled around in the mud. After some clever challenges in previous weeks such as the “Yes / No” task and the fake second house, this was banal primetime entertainment.
There were even moments of Bradley and George in drag (shouldn’t they be on TEN or The Footy Show?).
Nine appears to be borrowing some inspiration from The Block, which attracted a large following amongst kids for the moments when adults adopt very silly behaviour.
The whole time Intruder Ava -who could have added some conflict- was kept away from the pack, now to be revealed tonight.
I can’t help but wonder whatever happened to Andrew Backwell’s claim that, ““We’re casting for interesting debate rather than mindless chat” and ““We want relationships, adults who relate to each other, rather than just people looking to hook up.”
It’s not what I’m seeing on my screen.
I’m seeing people actively encouraged to hook up.
Please address the storytelling.
Meanwhile I Will Survive threw up some improvisation acting monologues in the outback, that were larger than life on the small screen and awkwardly intense. One bloke was even playing two roles in a break-up scene at the same time. Triple threat or triple personality?
Ok maybe this show isn’t vapid, but it is decidedly awkward. Hugh Sheridan is awkward as host in this premise. I Will Survive strikes me as the ultimate “you had to be there” show, but I just find the whole thing over the top under the magnifying glass that is TV.
Thank goodness The X Factor stumped up with some A-List stars and some talented kids instead.
Maybe I should have been checking out Poh’s Kitchen?
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- Tagged with Big Brother, I Will Survive, Poh's Kitchen, The Block, The Footy Show, The X Factor
32 Responses
I’m glad I’m not you and have to review shows. I’ll admit I was happy at 7.30pm watching Doctor Who on ABC2. Normally I’d be watching Who Do You Think You Are? On SBS. But the episode enticed me. I’ll admit I then flicked the TV off and waited for the Doctor Who repeat at 9.30pm. Thanks Aunty for the repeats as well as the new episodes.
Big Brother is unwatchable. What was promised hasn’t eventuated. Worst casting ever in the Big Brother Australia franchise. The best season of BB was with Reggie, Dan, Chrissie and co. Australia fell in love with normal people having normal conversations. Watching people acting like hippos rolling in mud is hardly entertaining.
IWS – Last night’s monologue/song challenge was particularly excruciating TV, only rivaled by the “tell a deep dark secret” challenge of a few weeks ago. The best thing about this show is the relationship to the movie and the drag acts, and that should be the focus of the show, rather than challenges playing sports, wooing ladies in a bar or singing country songs etc… Also, it might be improved by only being 1 night a week rather than 2. I tend to tape and fast forward though most episodes.
I reckon “I Will Survive” is worthy of better ratings. It is well made and Unique. How many of the current higher-rating reality offerings merit the word ”unique” (or innovative or edgy or captivating or anything other than just another variation on the same old theme)? IWS is suffering from, sad to say, TEN disease (no decent platforms for cross promotion of programs). If TEN were to get some high-rating sports rights and save the credibility of its once excellent news department (i.e get rid of Bolt & Henry at least), that would be a good start.
Why anyone would want to BB watch it is beyond me. The initial concept of the show is a long and distant memory, what they are airing is total dross. Andrew Backwell should be sacking the people who were so ‘off brief’, interesting debate and adults who relate to each other – I don’t think so. As for IWS, while some of the performances were awkward last night there were just as many that were fabulous, in fact there were a quite a few performers who were brilliant. I’ll keep watching, it’s entertaining on many levels.
Poh’s Kitchen was sort of okay – she didn’t really do anything much – just sort of mentored some formerly homeless kids in the hospitality industry.
Highlight of the night was definitely Episodes. And Smash, which (unannounced) morphed into 2 episodes back to back, finishing about midnight. About the same finishing time as Suits the night before. Three really good programs, treated with distain by the programmers.
I never cease to be astonished by anyone watching BB.
I’m done with Big Brother for the most part – will watch the odd eviction and ‘nom noms’ but the rest is too juvenile for me now which is fine I suppose, I am 43 years old.
Good luck to Nine, it’s delivering good numbers for them so they’re obviously giving the audience what it wants.
Roll on all the new US TV about to launch. I know what I’ll be spending my time watching.
If I called Funniest Home Videos trash…fall down..hit head..hit head and fall down…lose pants..lose pants and fall down,someone would pipe up..aww c’mon it’s harmless fun.So I won’t pass judgement anymore..but just glad it’s part of your job David,and not mine, to have to watch some of this stuff.
David, you’ve hit the nail on the head (once again). I watched both Big Brother and IWS last night and was thinking the exact same thing. I’m a vocal and rigorous defender of both but was left very disappointed by the insipid drivelling we were dished last night, especially by BB.
While I understand the David Attenborough idea would have looked good on paper, the reality was that it was shamefully embarrassing. Watching the housemates pretend to be animals was excruciatingly painful and completely unfunny.
As for IWS – I think the idea again is great (and in keeping with the show’s ‘triple threat’ theme) but the over-dramatic theatricality of the challenge made most of the episode, again, hard to watch. You know things are going wrong when even the viewer wants to hide in shame and embarrassment from watching the TV. Both programs last night came terribly close to jumping the shark – in the case of BB, literally!
I haven’t caught the episode yet, but I watched a few of the videos online.
I reckon the Narrator task if hilarious! The David Attenborough-mimic is fantastic.
Loving the light-hearted humour 🙂
nrc_02….it does look like she may have entered… who knows if she did why they didn’t show it. A mystery production at times indeed. I didn’t know ‘family friendly’ meant directed at small children humour though but that seems to be it…with some pushing for relationships which adds a slight adult edge.
I’ve read comments online from ‘loved it’ to…’is this show about ACA’..(over abundance of ads which seems to be 9’s thing)…to…’Romper room for 5 year olds’.
Thought this a decent summation of many views “A confabulation by Big Brother for ratings and another PG-rated “relationship” on unreality TV”. They have built up Ava for 3 days…they had better let her in before the issue becomes an anti-climax which some already feel it is.
Another disappointing week in the BB house, I was so bored with the show last night, if i wanted to see that behaviour id stand out the front of a primary school watching kids be kids. Am I right in saying that they showed ava entering the house as an end teaser? So we get 2 day old footage now? BB has been a complete lie.
I lost interest in BB a couple of weeks ago. Apart from the initial meet and greet it really has become a snooze fest. I have a terrific idea for next year though, do people get paid for ideas?
BB’s tasks overall have been highly entertaining. It’s pushing the limits without making it smutty or cringe worthy. Nine have stayed true to the “family show” and I don’t have kids and was a big fan of the original BB series but I am finding BB on Nine highly entertaining and creative in the tasks. BB’s personality is some what “moody” – you never know what your going to get. The Animal task is fantastic! Can’t wait to see what they make them do next
Ok well I am always happy to hear other points of view.
Angie smearing banana all over her body will gain her nomination points unless the banana was squishy or over-ripe.
David I watched a brilliant show on Tuesday.
At about 12:02 in the morning, Seven showed two hilarious episodes of 30 Rock.
I had missed this show for ages because of the ludicrous timeslot Seven gave it, but I couldn’t sleep and this certainly didn’t bore me to sleep like BB would have.
C’mon Seven – you put rubbish like American Pickers and Swamp People on prime time on your other channels.
Can’t you give quality programmes like 30 Rock a decent time slot on 7two???
This is what Australian TV has come to? God help us. No wonder we don’t watch main channels in early prime time, it is all mindless rubbish.
BTW my 3 year old daughter called X Factor boring and was excited to watch The Block NZ when I gave her the choice. The kids don’t mind I Will Survive either when my wife watches the show.
Nah – go The Block NZ with yet another “twust”. GO! Tue 7.30 and Thur 8.30 – although with figures of 68,000 I’m scared they will dump it (note to GO! – fair enough ratings are low – so please at least air outside of prime time rather than dumping – thanks!).
Ratings suddenly have dropped now that NZ have had the shows’ final auction (last Thursday). Not to mention the last minute programming change a few weeks ago that added Thur 8.30pm.
Poh’s kitchen was just OK. I think it will get better though.
Very high brow compared to what 10 and 9 offered.
Don’t mind Big Brother at 5pm on Go!
not really prime time tv but good enough to watch for a guilty pleasure
Poh’s Kitchen wasn’t that great. I don’t think the format of this new series is right for her, because I enjoyed her previous series, even though I’m not a big fan of cooking shows.
As usual, however, the best TV of the night was on SBS, with the double punch of Insight and Dateline.
Well, my house (full of teenagers) thought BB was highly entertaining LOL. Poh’s Kitchens was compelling television…one to catch up with iview if you missed it.
I can’t help but wonder whatever happened to Andrew Backwell’s claim that, ““We’re casting for interesting debate rather than mindless chat” and ““We want relationships, adults who relate to each other, rather than just people looking to hook up.”
TV execs once again…..at times we appear to be cursed with such people in the Aussie tv industry. Too much ego….too little brain