And The Lucky Winner is...

[the ruffian on the stair]

Faked BBC phone-in competitions


The BBC has revealed new details of six shows in which production staff passed themselves off as genuine viewers or listeners, or invented fictitious winners.

COMIC RELIEF - 16 MARCH 2007 ON BBC ONE

In a section of the appeal programme, viewers were invited to donate money to Comic Relief and were informed that by calling in, they could win prizes that belonged to a famous couple.

The first two callers taken on air gave incorrect answers. The other waiting callers were lost and a third caller was heard on air successfully answering the question. This caller was in fact not a viewer but a member of the production team.

TMI - 16 SEPTEMBER 2006 ON BBC TWO AND CBBC

Following a production problem with a live competition, viewers were led to believe that a member of the audience was involved and won a competition open to the public.

In fact, the caller was a member of the production team. The programme team failed to seek proper advice before running the competition.

SPORT RELIEF - 15 JULY 2006 ON BBC ONE

Viewers were led to believe that a member of the public was involved in and won a competition open to the public, whereas the caller was in fact a member of the production team.

The BBC has found evidence that this action was planned as a contingency in advance and that the physical infrastructure of the competition meant that it would have been impossible for it to be run as was described on air, and warnings about potential difficulties in conducting the competition were ignored.

This incident was not referred up nor was it declared to a BBC audit in March.

CHILDREN IN NEED - 18 NOVEMBER 2005 ON BBC ONE SCOTLAND

In a segment called Raven: The Island in the BBC's Children in Need appeal's Scotland broadcast in 2005, viewers were led to believe that a phone-in competition, open to the audience, had been won by a viewer.

In fact, due to a technical mistake, calls from the public did not get through and the name of a fictitious winner was read out on air.

THE LIZ KERSHAW SHOW - 2005/6 ON BBC 6 MUSIC

In pre-recorded programmes, presented as if they were live, a competition was announced that appeared to feature genuine listeners phoning in to take part, one of whom would win a prize on air.

In fact, in recorded programmes, there were no competitions or prizes and all of the callers were actually members of production team and their friends. A new producer took over the programme in December 2006 and stopped the practices as a matter of priority.

WHITE LABEL - WORLD SERVICE UNTIL APRIL 2006

A weekly pop music preview programme on the English Service. On more than one occasion, a fake winner was announced for the CD prize when no winning entries had actually been received.

I love that quote on the BBC News along the lines of nothing was done for the purpose of personal gain. Fuck off you crooked bastards! Believe that and you'll believe there's no nepotism at the Beep (Peter and Dan Snow taking work away from Gabby Roslin, the cunts! )

[Mr. Analytical]

I'm amazed that the police haven't been involved in all of this.  Apparently every single broadcaster has been trousering money under fraudulent circumstances but the police do nothing.  Maybe they're too busy lobbying MPs on cannabis reclassification and holding without charge.

[duckorange]

A number of producers &c have been suspended over these. And I doubt if L. Kershaw will be allowed on air for the forseeable.

[the ruffian on the stair]

I'm amazed that the police haven't been involved in all of this.  Apparently every single broadcaster has been trousering money under fraudulent circumstances but the police do nothing.  Maybe they're too busy lobbying MPs on cannabis reclassification and holding without charge.

I think all of this will change when Fern Cotton takes over the running of the BBC in 2010 (and another one for the nepotism list, related to former BBC executive Sir Bill Cotton)

[Milo]

Bafflingly, even the Popmaster quiz on Radio 2 this morning has been suspended cos of all this.

[rudi]

Bafflingly, even the Popmaster quiz on Radio 2 this morning has been suspended cos of all this.

Oh piss - I love popmaster.

There's no way they're faked - I meet those personality-vacuums every day.

"Can I just say hello to a few dozen people please Ken...?"

[mothman]

I wondered if Popmaster would be stopped. Which means that the Wright excrescense's Big Quiz will likely be too. How will the tosser fill the gap? More anodyne 80's soul and burblingly cheerful non-judgemental celebrity gossip, presumably. (of course, he's on holiday at the moment, but in all honesty the replacement quiz run by stand-ins Radcliffe and Tarbuck is so ramshackle it's unlikely to be missed)

[sick as a pike]

Is that the quotes/impressions quiz?  I'd miss it (if I was listening, which I can't be).  I thought it, and they, were fantastic.

[aaaaaaaaaargh!]

It's the Liz Kershaw one that astonishes me.  I mean, who really cares if a show has a competition?  I can sort of understand it in a live programme environment where the producers might be bricking it that nobody's calling in, but for a pre-recorded show it just seems like madness.

[niat]

the replacement quiz run by stand-ins Radcliffe and Tarbuck is so ramshackle it's unlikely to be missed)

I always tune in to Paula Radcliffe and Jimmy Tarbuck, a fine show.

[MissInformed]

Is that the quotes/impressions quiz?  I'd miss it (if I was listening, which I can't be).  I thought it, and they, were fantastic.

Me too.  They've done a grand job and I almost don't want Steve Wright to come back next week.  Liza Tarbuck is class.

[ziggy starbucks]

its amazing that this non-story is on the front pages of the papers and headline news on the tv and radio. Who really cares about this. It appears that most of the trickery was done for convenience as a result of technical problems rather than a desire to defraud.

Another example of the media being obsessed with itself

[buttgammon]

It's officially the start of the silly season.

Mind you, it seems to be the silly perennial with how bad most of the British media is.

[Ambient Sheep]

It appears that most of the trickery was done for convenience as a result of technical problems rather than a desire to defraud.

What about all the people who rang into the Liz Kershaw one when there was never a prize at all that day?  (That's if it was premium rate - if it wasn't, then it's not nearly so bad, as there'd be no profit for the BBC.)  Like aaaaaaaaaargh! said, that one in particular seems mad.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

But it's OK because she took the drugs 25 years ago and knows it's wrong now!!

[ziggy starbucks]

What about all the people who rang into the Liz Kershaw one when there was never a prize at all that day?  (That's if it was premium rate - if it wasn't, then it's not nearly so bad, as there'd be no profit for the BBC.)  Like aaaaaaaaaargh! said, that one in particular seems mad.

yeah that one's bonkers. There is no apparent reason for it. But how many people listen to liz kershaw on BBC6? Not too many I imagine, so the number of callers must have been very small.

It appears just to be that every show felt obliged to run a competition everyday, probably under some BBC remit to be 'interactive', and some producers didn't have either the prizes or the technology to run these competitons properly. So short cuts were taken.

[Zod]

Another example of the media being obsessed with itself

Completely.

Also Non-BBC news services love an opportunity to have a pop at the BBC, regardless of how trivial the matter may be.

I don't believe ITV/Channel 4 and other broadcasters have been fully exposed yet either. This isn't a BBC people issue, it's a people-that-work-in-Telly issue.

[SOTS]

What i've heard is that they've even suspended online competitions... which doesn't really make sense as they're normally free to enter and there has been no problems surrounding the way those ones are handled.

[chand]

I don't believe ITV/Channel 4 and other broadcasters have been fully exposed yet either. This isn't a BBC people issue, it's a people-that-work-in-Telly issue.

Well ITV gave several hours a night to snidey quiz shows that ripped people off.

[duckorange]

ITV have asked Deloitte to prepare a report into their own phone-in shenanigans, which won't, I gather, see the light of day before October at the earliest.

[George Oscar Bluth II]

It's quite amusing how trivial some of these things turn out to be when you get past the CHILDREN IN GREED headlines.

CHILDREN IN NEED - 18 NOVEMBER 2005 ON BBC ONE SCOTLAND

In a segment called Raven: The Island in the BBC's Children in Need appeal's Scotland broadcast in 2005, viewers were led to believe that a phone-in competition, open to the audience, had been won by a viewer.

In fact, due to a technical mistake, calls from the public did not get through and the name of a fictitious winner was read out on air.

But the money still went to charity, right?

Compare and contrast with ITV, who've taken several million quid from people in barely legal late night competitions, and GMTV who picked winners before lines closed, and Richard and Judy, who did the same and you see quite how serious this is.

Not very. But then where the BBC is involved people don't seem to have a sense of proportion.

[rudi]

I enjoyed the DG of the BBC say he's considering compensating people. It'll cost more to post 'em the 50p cheques, surely?

[Hank_Kingsley]

That anti-Zod tag is a bit harsh no? Smells like jealousy to me....oooh, yeah I went there.

[hymen spaz]

Having worked in the media, both TV and Radio, no body calls for most quizzes.... however big the prize is.

No one can be arsed/thinks they are gonna win - which is why some people keep calling repeatedly as the odds of winning are so high once you realise how many people don't call. And this applies to quite big radio shows and most sattelite TV shows as well.

We used to get repeat callers all the time (on a TV show) so we'd have to lie and put a researcher on otherwise we'd have been giving away the weekly prize to one of the same 3 people week after week.

TV and Radio have always manipulated quizzes, its just that now they make mnoey off the people calling where before they were not actually taking money out of the pocket of the caller, just dashing a few hopes.