This is not an actual review, because I didn’t watch it. What I did during the whole run of the show and now at work is working through as many comments and reviews as I can to get a bit of an idea how the online community feels after the first 10 O’Clock Live news broadcast. I think it should give a good idea of what people liked and disliked and I think it could even make clear where the show went well and where improvement is (desperately) needed.
I like to kick off with noting it was a first run of a new show with at least 3 out of the 4 hosts with minimal (just 1 show) live presenting experience. Of course the show wasn’t going to get to its feet and run off. Just like any baby it fell flat on its face a couple of times, but got up and made a new attempt. What I’ve been saying is, give them a chance to get used to this new vehicle of entertainment; there’s definitely a promise of a good show.
I read Twitter throughout the whole run of the show. The show was reported every second by someone giving the reader a clear view of what happened and how people (not in the studio) experienced it.
The start of the show was very wobbly and not appreciated much and downright disliked by many. I don’t think I read 1 positive comment about Jimmy Carr’s standup routine, if you can call it that. Can I call it that? From that point on people were complaining about how unfunny it was. About how wooden it seemed and how no subject was given enough time to be properly explored. This went on for 30 minutes. It wasn’t all negativity; some Mitchell and Brooker action spawned some positive reactions, but it couldn’t hold the attention of many. Unfortunately, the show only turned around somewhat around the 30 minutes mark; unfortunately because many viewers had just left around the 20 minutes mark to turn over to bbcq (not sure what that is).
Around the 30 minutes mark the C-bomb fell. From that point on suddenly everything started to speed up again (on twitter that is; the pace in the show had finally settled I believe) opposed to the slow down from 10 minutes into the show to the 30 minutes mark. Both Charlie Brooker and David Mitchell did something, I don’t know what. Because Twitter feed sped up it was harder to keep up and to remember what was said; I only know it definitely felt like the turning point. I think, if I remember right, Mitchell did quite good in his interview with MP David Willetts. Brooker did something good, but I honestly can’t remember what, because at that point I was getting excited again. Something about a monologue he did?
All in all, I went to bed a pretty contented little twitter sniffer, thanks to the 30 minutes turning point. It has to be said though, Twitter (and that is people who tweet) tend to exaggerate; when things don’t go as expected it’s called “shite” and when something better happens it’s a “show saver”. I’m not sure how much value I should give it. The reviews seemed milder.
Remarkable Observations as in that everybody seems to agree with the below points:
1. Jimmy Carr’s standup routine was not found successful due to the feeling he was doing jokes that had been circling on Twitter for the past few hours. It also felt like he was trying too hard to show he followed the news.
2. There was no cohesion in the show since the format kept jumping around between the 4(?) hosts.
3. No time was taken (in the first half) to explore a subject properly. Too many subjects were too old to be called news in the week that was. Too many subjects were introduced for a more in depth and informative show.
4. Even in the longer subject handling not enough time was taken; they kept having to cut because time was up.
5. Lauren Laverne was terribly underused. If you want her on the show, give her something of substantial to do.
6. There was too much audience. They were too loud, too frantic and eager to laugh hysterically at anything (probably drunk?) and too many (view) cuts to the audience.
Those were the 6 main negative points I see returning in almost all comments and reviews.
Overall not a bad start for a live show with 3 inexperienced presenters and the token female who doesn’t get much to do, but be the token female. There’s definitely a promise.
Online reviews
1. The First Post
2. The Guardian
3. The Independent
4. Beehivecity
5. New Statesman
6. the Telegraph
7. publicservice.co.uk
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