Wednesday 27 June 2007

My Name's Peter Jones, and My Idea is to Create a Highly Derivative TV Show That Nobody Wants to Watch

Today, ITV1 have announced that their Apprentice rip-off Tycoon, starring business guru Peter Jones, is being relegated from its hour-long Tuesday evening slot to one more befitting its dismal ratings, late on Monday nights and cut down to half the length. This will make watching Jones close down the contestants' failing ventures deliciously ironic. Also gone is the programme that follows it, Tough Gig, in which comedians are put into unfamiliar situations and forced to perform stand-up routines. The one I saw, with Dara Ó Briain doing comedy for a group of real-life Fantasy Role-Players, was excellent (what I saw of it anyway; the reception went for a bit owing to the Great Rains) which is highly unusual for a show on ITV. Probably they've only got rid of this one because they need a ninety-minute slot free to fit in their emergency A Touch of Frost repeats, which I like to imagine are kept in a red wall-mounted case behind glass in the scheduling department at ITV headquarters, with a sign reading In Case Of Viewing Figures Emergency, Strike Glass Hard With Hammer. That hammer's been getting a lot of use lately.

If you especially care, you can watch Tycoon online at itv.com/tycoon.

1 comment:

antonz said...

NO!!! YOU'VE LOST THE PLOT!

Tycoon got more viewers than The Apprentice and Dragons Den did in their first few episodes. Tycoon was one of my all time favourite shows. Stephen, do you or have you ever run a business? Do you show entrepreneurial flair? No? Thought not.