Host The Week /When did you become sick to fucking death of Channel 4?

[yesitsme]

I've seen some promos for this and I don't get it.

What's TV's fascination with improv all the time?  The thrust of the show seems to be 'Whahey!  No one has a clue what's going to happen because we've flung everyone in at the deep end! Won't it be great!'

Probably not.

I don't know who the first presenter is, I think she's a Towie or a Geordie Shore or summat, she might be very good for all I know but I'd be surprised if she's got the skill to prop up a TV show with no script.

Everytime I see someone movie star being interviewed on telly all I hear is 'Did you improvise much?'  It's the 'Where do you get your crazy ideas from' question, normally asked to comedians but switched to movie stars.

'Of course we don't improvise - we're fucking dullards.  Blank canvases who just regurgitate what's on a sheet of A4.  There's a whole crew of thousands on the clock who can't stand around while we piss about.  Be real.'

I can honestly say I hate everyone on Channel 4.  The presenters, the people on quizzes, the utter, UTTER cunts on things like First Dates and One Born Every Minute.  The avaricious twats on Location and all the other bastards who fill the schedules with their bantz and prosthetic legs.

C4 used to be good didn't it?  At least it was 'ok'.  It used to have different shows on it.

Now it's just a cunt's parade.

[Utter Shit]

Na not really, plenty of good stuff on Channel 4. No idea about Host The Week, but then why would you watch something that just from the description sounds like absolute bollocks?

[asids]

How did I know when you mentioned that the presenter was a "Towie or Geordie Shore or summat" I knew it would be that bloody Scarlett Moffat. The way she's been forced down TV viewer's throats over the past year or so is pretty unbearable. She goes from being on Gogglebox to suddenly appearing with Ant and Dec, then on an EE ad with Kevin Bacon, now hosting her own crap shows. I see she's got her own fitness DVD too just to add insult to injury. Nobody asked for her, TV exec cunts. Feel tempted to start a thread about her, a bit like that "when did you finally get sick to death of Richard Osman" thread.

[yesitsme]

How did I know when you mentioned that the presenter was a "Towie or Geordie Shore or summat" I knew it would be that bloody Scarlett Moffat. The way she's been forced down TV viewer's throats over the past year or so is pretty unbearable. She goes from being on Gogglebox to suddenly appearing with Ant and Dec, then on an EE ad with Kevin Bacon, now hosting her own crap shows. I see she's got her own fitness DVD too just to add insult to injury. Nobody asked for her, TV exec cunts. Feel tempted to start a thread about her, a bit like that "when did you finally get sick to death of Richard Osman" thread.

I would but I genuinely have no concept of her.

Still, not knowing anything about a topic has never stopped me having an opinion on it before so why should it start now?

[touchingcloth]

The one who sat on a tuffet?

[Small Man Big Horse]

Na not really, plenty of good stuff on Channel 4. No idea about Host The Week, but then why would you watch something that just from the description sounds like absolute bollocks?

I'm with yesitsme, I mean the channel occasionally creates something interesting but most of the time it doesn't air anything even slightly watchable. I'm intrigued though, what do you think is worth watching?

[touchingcloth]

Cats Does Countdown is a great format, I think. For one you get to play along with Countdown, which is fun enough even in its original guise, and it manages to stay fresh by providing a structure that goes beyond just the usual chances to trot out prewritten jokes. They pull in some great guests as well, I'm always very happy to tune in, above any other panel show going.

[Porter Dimi]

Host the Week was indeed dreadful. Another failed attempt at the SNL formula with none of the bite, and to call it live was a total lie given that Moffat was tweeting during supposed live segments. She is many things, but she is not a television host.

Regarding Channel 4, they do a lot of good (their investigative journalism, for example, puts the BBC to shame), but I find that they play it safe far too often. For a channel that's 'born risky', they're content to put out the same shows with the same faces over and over again. Was Utopia their last great original show?

[Small Man Big Horse]

Was Utopia their last great original show?

I really enjoyed Flowers last year but otherwise I'd agree, Humans showed some promise initially but failed to deliver upon it.

[DrGreggles]

What's TV's fascination with improv all the time? 

It's cheap to make.

[touchingcloth]

It's very difficult to make well without some kind of framing structure, though. Off the top of my head I can only really think of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and Whose Line that do it well on British TV, and the odd troupe like the Comedy Store Players who do a good job of it live. America has a much, much stronger improv scene in universities and theatres, and it's that, along with the budgets that massively outweigh ours, that makes their improv-based stuff so much more enjoyable. I think there's a tendency to showboat when doing improv amongst British comics and actors, when really the magic is made by people reading each other and creating a great scene rather than tossing out zingers at random.

[Porter Dimi]

Humans showed some promise initially but failed to deliver upon it.

And that wasn't even their concept. Based on a Swedish show. Even Black Mirror seems like a distant memory now.

[notjosh]

Cats Does Countdown is a great format, I think. For one you get to play along with Countdown, which is fun enough even in its original guise, and it manages to stay fresh by providing a structure that goes beyond just the usual chances to trot out prewritten jokes. They pull in some great guests as well, I'm always very happy to tune in, above any other panel show going.

Nah, it gets on my nerves. Too much messing about, not enough serious Countdowning. They don't even do a game till after the first adbreak. And sometimes they take the letters off the screen during word games and make you watch Jimmy Carr doing something weird for 30 seconds when you know there's an 8-letter in there somewhere.

It's still better than that Big Fat Quiz though. They don't do any anagrams in that.

[yesitsme]

Well I saw 10 seconds of Host the Week.  The girl was (I think) pretending to be Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, she wished for something (like Dorothy doesn't) and lo and behold Steps were there.  As a big fan she nearly pissed her knickers.  As not a fan I couldn't give a rats arse.

As she fawned over them there was a cut away to someone introducing the break (when did that start?).  His line was 'Isn't she doing well!'

Errr, yeah I suppose.

What's next? 

Hats in a Box.  'We give four randoms a box full of hats and they have to create a half hour prime time sit-com/fantasy/war/gritty police drama from the things they find'?

A pox on Channel 4.

[yesitsme]

It's cheap to make.

i mean improv as more of a fantasy than a concept.  It seems that telly is desperate to totally disregard the writers and push any creative skill direct on the to actors. 

There's a world of difference between 'staying in character' should you forget your lines and 'coming up with spun gold' off the cuff.  I assume that most TV shows are pretty much written and planned out before any shooting starts.  You announcing you're having an alien baby in Act1 Scene 1 doesn't help us get to the bit where Norris short changes Spider in the Kabin does it?

[Blumf]

That went well...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40407219

Channel 4 scraps Host the Week after one episode

Channel 4 has decided to scrap its latest entertainment show Host the Week.

Initially commissioned as a two-episode series, the unscripted and unrehearsed show debuted last week with Gogglebox's Scarlett Moffatt presenting.

A second episode fronted by comedian Jack Whitehall will now not go ahead.

[yesitsme]

They're on fucking drugs aren't they?  On what planet could this EVER be considered a good idea?

If you were going to do this then at least stick that wee twat Whitehall on first.

At least he's been in front of cameras and an audience before.

Mind you it might have exposed him to the nation as the unfunny cunt we know he is.