Hey all,
I've lived on this interesting planet for the last 22 years, and although there are many different aspects of our lives; including the social media galaxy, cinema and the 'real world'...some people forget about the television industry, and how so many influencers and celebrities we know nowadays have come from the most random but also quite globally spoken about shows?
Surely people are aware of Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber who got their big break from YouTube, but people also know of the likes of Scarlett Moffatt who became a world sensation after appearing on Gogglebox, a television show, where they watch television? Fascinating stuff...but it turned her into a great star! Shows like Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor have also had their fair share of unknown members of the public who are now known in the media and talent industry! Those include Rylan Clark-Neal, who not only cut all his hair off and had a teeth job, he also appeared on other reality shows including Celebrity Big Brother and is more recently known for presenting Supermarket Sweep, an old favourite! Others include Jake Quickenden, who also featured on a variety of other reality shows including I'm a Celebrity and Dancing on Ice, has appeared in Hollyoaks as a 'sexy builder' and is now looking forward to the birth of his first child with girlfriend Sophie Church!
And let's not forget, there are some television shows and programmes specifically for celebrities which ordinary people can just watch from home...such as Strictly Come Dancing which saw the likes of Saffron Barker, a YouTube personality, content creator and ambassador for a variety of companies - who also created a clothing/home range with the likes of Primark, or The Love Machine which was a not very long lasting dating show...hosted by another X Factor finalist, Stacey Solomon...who now is one of the panelists on daytime television show Loose Women!
There are many people who think it's very difficult to get into the television industry, and it is, but once you appear on one show or feature in one documentary, as long as people like you for who you are, and accept the morals that you stand for and believe in; you'll have more than your '15 minutes of fame' that a lot of Internet and television stars have nowadays...but there are just so many stories of people transitioning from that ordinary lifestyle to being in the public eye 24/7- but I'm sure I'll have a post TRULY dedicated to some of my favourite people!
This blog post is specifically to highlight a variety of television show, quiz shows and even some old children's programmes (some of which have been discontinued, but some will always be remembered by my generation as being some of the best kids shows to have existed in our time!)...
Let's begin with a show I've already mentioned...'The Love Machine' which was aired between 2012 and 2013 with hosts Chris Moyles and Stacey Solomon. It was a very interesting type of dating show, as the lucky singleton who appeared on the show would simply have the wheel spun in-front of them, and based on initial attraction, decide to 'Ditch' that person and spin again or 'Date' that person!. It was quite a brutal show which obviously didn't air for very long, but the main premise of the show was to find people their 'true loves'...
Once they picked who they wanted to date, there were a few questions to test out how much they knew eachother...and then it was upto the singleton to decide whether to go on the date, or ditch, and spin the wheel one final time and date whoever it landed on! Like I said, it was an interesting show and it definitely gave Stacey Solomon a further career boost for other opportunities!
Up next is 'Golden Balls', probably one of my FAVOURITE quiz shows to date, hosted by the wonderful Jasper Carrott. The aim of this show was to simply win money, and there would be 4 people starting out on the show, hoping to get that step closer to winning! The show included a variety of skills such as being able to gamble, being able to lie and most importantly being able to persuade! In the first round each of the contestants received 4 golden balls; two for the front row and two for the back. They had to then reveal to the others what they claimed to have on their back row; and whether it was high amount of money or those dreaded killer balls (which a lot of people didn't admit to having)...
It was down to the others who they didn't trust, and only 2 could get to the final to play 'Bin or Win' and 'Split or Steal'. For the first mini game, they had to simply 'bin' a ball and choose a ball to 'win' alternatively which would reveal the total prize those final players were competing over; then they would have some time to discuss and choose whether to split the money equally, both steal the money and therefore go home with nothing, or one person who would steal the entire prize pot from the other! Like many of the quiz shows, I did want to apply...but I was too young!
'Deal or No Deal', a show that doesn't really need much explanation, but I thought I'd add it to my list! The game was all about choosing the right boxes, trying to remove the low amounts of money and try to leave with the £250,000 cash prize! Hosted by Noel Edmonds with a regular feature from 'The Banker', lots of people gambled and saw big, and others ended up with little to nothing! One of the memorable moments from the show was when British comedian James Cordern appeared on a celebrity special of the show, and won £30,000 for a chosen charity of his back in 2014! It was a simple, yet complicated show, but I'm sure the programmes and new gameshows we see will just continue to be more and more complicated but also more and more updated!
Another one of my favourite shows was '1 vs 100' which was as simple as 1 contestant against 100 others, in order to win cash...they had a variety of powers to try and make the questions easier called 'dodges' and could also use the 'double' option if they thought a lot of people would get their answers wrong! One wrong answer would see them eliminated, and would result in host Ben Sheppard randomly finding another contestant to try and win some money...The show was aired on Saturday along with other shows in collaboration with The National Lottery Draws; including 'Who Dares Wins' hosted by Nick Knowles and 'In It To Win It', hosted by Dale Winton
Other great quiz shows or programmes that have now discontinued include;
'Duel', '101 Ways To Leave A Gameshow', 'Million Pound Drop', 'Black or Red', 'Bullseye',
'The Bank Job', 'The Colour of Money', 'Fifteen To One', 'Dirty Money', 'The Price is Right',
'The Weakest Link', 'Odd One In', 'Pressure Pad', 'The Exit List', 'The Crystal Maze',
'Cash Trapped', 'Break Away', 'Perfection', 'Minute to Win It', 'Clever Dicks' & 'High Stakes'
And finally, 'Big Brother' and 'Mr & Mrs'!
Phew, that's a lot of television shows! But don't worry I've only got a few more...
Some of the more 'common shows' and those that are still on air (or are temporarily not on air for one reason or another) include the variety of dating shows...
'Take Me Out', 'Love Island & 'The Bachelor'...which all help to find young people, love!
TMO has a variety of single ladies who stand behind podiums, and the guys have to try and impress with their little video messages that are obviously pre recorded before the show, showcasing any little talents they may have...and potentially being cheeky and flirting, to try and bag the girl of his choice! If they are lucky enough to have more than 2 girls remaining (those who don't turn their lights off), the single man has to whittle the girls down to two before choosing who he'd like to go on a date with...to the Isle of Fernandos!
On LI, the 'Islanders' are all put on an Island, somewhere in the world and every so often they're asked to couple up, with the public voting off the weakest islanders/weakest couples! There are lots of twists and turns, when 'love triangles' are formed or if people are wanting to pursue something with the same people...The added twist to the show is Casa Amor which sees 6 new guys and 6 new girls enter the other villas once either the original guys or girls are sent to another location, to test if their relationships are loyal, or if they can build a better bond with someone else! At the end of the show one the winners are announced, whoever has the envelope with £250,000 has to decide whether to steal all the money or split it with their partner...
...And to finish our little trio of love shows, TB is usually hosted by a male (The Bachelorette is the switched version with a female host); and the guy has to whittle the girls down week by week, giving roses to one/two less people to see who is the most compatible for him. He hosts private 1 on 1 dates with the girls, some of them ask for private time to speak about how they are feeling and to try and sell themselves emotionally to the single guy, and again, it's another show with twists, turns and a lot of tears...
To continue with my list of favourite shows, I'll add some that are still ACTIVELY LIVE ON TELEVISION!!!
Talent shows, including 'The X Factor UK', 'The Voice UK' and 'Britain's Got Talent'!
Cooking/'Other' types of show, including 'America's Next Top Model', 'Masterchef Australia' (for some reason I was obsessed with the Australian format of the show, and I probably preferred the accents too)...'Come Dine With Me', 'Dinner Date', 'Total Wipeout' & 'The Circle'.
...And finally the quiz shows, including 'Countdown', 'Tipping Point', 'The Chase', 'Tenable', 'Impossible!' and 'Only Connect'!
And a final throwback to those in my generation (anywhere near 1998), here's some of my favourite children's shows!
Probably my favourite children's programme was 'Trapped', which was a show that saw 6 'unfortunates' who had been trapped in a castle, complete a variety of different tasks and challenges, to get themselves to freedom. They weren't actually trapped, but that was it was part of the dramatic effect of the show! On each floor, the voice with purple lips would make somebody the saboteur, and their job would be to mess up the challenge, without letting the others know that was their task, and one person would be trapped on every floor with a battle at the end between 2; asking them questions about their time in the tower. Whoever got the most questions correct would be set free, and the other would be trapped!
Another one of those shows that not a lot of people knew about was called 'Brainjitsu' where there were a group of young people who completed a variety of challenges in the 'dojo' and whoever did the worst, was eliminated from the show! (Similar to the previous show, but no saboteurs!)
'Keep Your Enemies Close' was one of those classic shows that I watched almost all the time! 4 teams of 2 battled it out in a variety of different challenges to see which pair were the best, but after reach round the losing pair would be out, and have to cheer on their partner from the sidelines! Once 2 pairs lost both of their spaces in the show, the final 2 pairs went head to head in a battle, which resulted in lot of gunge...and we found out the winning pair from the show!
Moving on to a different type of show, we had 'Hider in the House' which saw a celebrity guest take part in an interesting series, where they would team up with a member of an ordinary family, and have to complete challenges without being spotted by anybody else in the family house! It was a great show which included celebrities such as Ray Quinn, from The X Factor UK, Nadia Sawalha, now a Loose Woman and Craig Revel Horwood, television personality and known for his role on Strictly Come Dancing as a judge!
'Bamzooki' was another one of those interesting shows, which saw teams of children bring on their robot creations, and have them compete in little fights with other robots, to see which ones were the strongest! They varied in size, colour, speed and ability and it was quite a tense programme which was my biggest form of entertainment when I was younger! I loved watching it to see all the funny names for the robots too!
One of the shows that was on for a few series' and has been presented by X Factor's Lauren Platt was a show called 'Got What It Takes?', a singing programme which saw 8 hopeful singers compete against eachother week by week, to see who was the best singer both vocally and through their overall ability to cope with pressure, and skyrocket their singing career! The best example of this was Lola Young, who didn't win the show, but has since gone on to release her own music, hosted a variety of different tours and is now also verified on social media...meaning that she's been able to build up an audience pretty quickly!
And the final show I'm going to highlight on the list is 'Are You Smarter Than A 10 Year Old?', another quiz show which saw adults playing for prize money, with 5 of the smartest children as competitors who could either be used as lifelines to help the adults win money, or see them losing the money if they went with different answers! It was a fun and entertaining quiz show which always got a variety of ages of the family engaged with the show, and it's a shame the show has now discontinued!
Just before I finish this blog post and get some well deserved rest, I'll just list some of the other shows that I used to watch, and continue to reminisce about to this day...
They include, 'Prank Patrol', 'Raven', '50/50', 'Best of Friends', 'Escape from Scorpion Island', 'Friday Download' and 'Copycats'!
And that's it! Most of the programmes that I watched when I was younger, or some of those great shows as I was getting older. I'm sure there will be a 'gap in the market' for some new television shows as well as presenters, and it's definitely a job role I wouldn't say 'No' to! Let's see what happens in the future, but I've written this blog post so I don't forget about the shows!
Anyways, until the next time...Goodbye!
Brandon
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