Quote: AngieBaby @ February 22 2010, 7:45 PM GMT

I have been on holiday Duckie, but were talking about 3 celebrities and their 'jobs'.

Reg Hunter gigs pretty much every day of the year, I don't see him giving up 4 days of potential income to sit in a 'bubble', away from family and friends, without a huge financial incentive.

When you factor in bills for hotels, flights, trains, taxi, meals, per diem expsenses etc it becomes expensive. It's much easier to get the guests to pretend they've been in isolation.

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No, they really did stay in a country house.

I enjoyed that one. I loved the rant about the fish.

Quote: Kevin Murphy @ February 27 2010, 11:55 AM GMT

Taiwanese, I think. They did a Tiger Woods one that got a lot of hits too.

http://vodpod.com/watch/2621802-taiwan-news-show-recreates-tiger-woods-crash

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Apple TV in Hong Kong, I heard. They updated to include the story about throwing a tangerine.

Anyway. There was quite a lot of talk about the goings-on in the house this week: arguably some of the funniest stuff of the night. Unfortunately, it was largely cut from the broadcast.

For me the format is not really working; the laughs are all coming from the discussion of the events in the house, or when they go off topic, rather than from the news stories.

Apparently in other countries the format uses ordinary members of the public rather than celebrities. Perhaps a sign of British TV culture, that rather than putting the effort in to make the format work, they just recruited in a load of professional funnymen to paper over the cracks.

Quote: Timbo @ February 28 2010, 9:15 AM GMT

Perhaps a sign of British TV culture, that rather than putting the effort in to make the format work, they just recruited in a load of professional funnymen to paper over the cracks.

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I think they *successfully* covered over the cracks.

Quote: Timbo @ February 28 2010, 9:15 AM GMT

Apparently in other countries the format uses ordinary members of the public rather than celebrities.

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This just got me thinking: how come you never see celebrities and joe public mixed up in these reality shows?

Surely there's a market for I May Or Not Be A Celebrity But Get Me Out Of Here Regardless, Celeb/Non-Celeb Big Brother, the Pro-Am X Factor, etc.

Why this divide between the celeb and the pleb?

Quote: Kevin Murphy @ February 28 2010, 11:26 AM GMT

This just got me thinking: how come you never see celebrities and joe public mixed up in these reality shows?

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They do it on HeadJam, the quiz which Vernon Kay presents. I've only seen one, which had Joe Cornish in it; the problem was, the clebs did all the talking, and the public sat there doing nothing.

Because the public aren't funny or interesting compared to most celebrities. That's why they are celebrities.

Have you ever heard public phone ins on the radio? Aren't you just sitting there willing that section to end? Members of the public stammer, mumble, ramble, and generally take up valuable air time.

Keep them off telly I say.

Sarah Millican had to cancel a load of gigs to go in "The Bubble" (think she's on this week) so I think they really do get isolated.

I wonder how much they get paid for it to be worth her while cancelling a number of (presumably) long-standing shows?

Lotttts!

Quote: Aaron @ February 28 2010, 12:59 PM GMT

I wonder how much they get paid for it to be worth her while cancelling a number of (presumably) long-standing shows?

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Maybe the repeat fees from it being shown endlessly on 'Dave' will make it all worthwhile.

The exposure must be worth quite a bit too of course.

Quote: Aaron @ February 28 2010, 12:59 PM GMT

I wonder how much they get paid for it to be worth her while cancelling a number of (presumably) long-standing shows?

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Well three days of shows for someone of Sarah's stature would probably be somewhere in the region of £1000-£2000 of work, so enough to make turning that down worthwhile.

Quote: Aaron @ February 28 2010, 1:12 PM GMT

The exposure must be worth quite a bit too of course.

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This is surely the big factor. The erudite on the BCG know who Sarah Millican is but the more she gets on national TV the better for her career.

The show itself is decemt enough viewing but they don't really use the format very well. One problem for me is that the "true" stories they use have tended not to be big enough. Wouldn't it work better if almost all the audience knew the real story while the panellists didn't? As it is we have too many slightly obsucre stories being used.