Endemol UK's production arm, Initial, will put raw, undiscovered talent
through the ultimate training academy for stardom. They claimed that the twelve
students, "Would go through intense training to reach the level of leading
talent such as Robbie Williams and David Gray".
Well it's going to be a long haul if the twelve chosen are to ever make it into
the 'big time'.
The show, which the BBC admits is a mix of Popstars, Big Brother
and Pop Idol, has been ruthlessly slated, and is failing to attract a
large audience.
Its biggest problem is that the twelve aspiring super stars have appeared to
be pretty useless when
it comes to singing and dancing. Vocal coach at Fame Academy, Carrie
Grant, condemned the singing as, "Dreadful", and added that, "I'm a vocal
coach, not a miracle worker".
Those involved with the programme have been the most vocal critics, perhaps
hoping to quell disquiet from other quarters. A massive investment has been
made in this programme, which offers a million GBP first prize recording
contract for the winning 'graduate', and there must be considerable
embarrassment of a programme which appears to be as much of a flop as
Eldorado was.
As well as securing a recording contract, the winner will get to live a life
of luxury for a year; a sumptuous flat in Notting Hill, London, with a weekly
delivery of fresh flowers and champagne, the use of a flashy sports
car, and the services of a personal trainer and personal shopper.
Also promised is a cameo role in a Hollywood movie, membership of a top
London club and VIP tickets to top events including the FA Cup Final, London
Fashion Week and the Cannes Film Festival. There's also a two-week holiday in
the Caribbean and a flight on Concorde up for grabs.
Quite a good deal, and something one would expect to cause all aspiring
Wannabe's crawling from the woodwork to fight for their place on the pedestal
of stardom. Which begs the question, why those who have made it into Fame
Academy seem to be such talentless no-hopers, as some have described them.
Richard Park, 'Head Teacher' of Fame Academy launched a scathing attack
on his own BBC show.
Park said he would give the first programme, "15 out of 100", adding, "If I can
use a football analogy here, after the first show we are 3-0 down at half time".
If he's as sick as the proverbial parrot, he must be well aware as to how the
viewers are feeling having seen the first show. Although there are very few
viewers to be worried about.
Viewing figures for
Fame Academy, which is flooding BBC channels ( BBC One, BBC Choice,
CBBC and BBCi ) has shown it to have been a mighty flop; only 4.6 million
viewers tuned in to watch the first show, compared
to 7.5 million viewers for ITV's Popstars: The Rivals the following
night. With only 300,000 more viewers than BBC 2's Gardeners' World
aired at the same time, some have said that the plants showed more potential
for stardom than the students of Fame Academy.
Park admits, "There is an awful lot of work to do. We need to do massively
better and we are spending every waking hour getting better". Which is no
doubt a euphemism for, I'm tossing and turning in bed each and every night,
wondering how I'm going to explain this disaster to senior BBC staff, and I'm
desperately thinking of ways to keep my reputation at the end of this fiasco.
BBC bosses have been reported as backing Park, saying they were confident
ratings will soar once viewers get to know the students. With this being the
BBC's most high-profile let-down in recent years, I'm sure they would say
that. Having witnessed the students in action, I'd place bets that the opposite
is actually more true. Damage limitation starting so soon is
a bad sign that everything is not going as well as was expected.
The public comments from the BBC are in marked contrast to the private, but
widely reported, views of senior BBC managers that the first show was,
"F--king c--p".
Even web sites set up to support the show, and doing their hardest to remain
enthusiastic and factual, have been near universal in slagging the programme
off. To their credit, the BBC and CBBC sites have not held back from publishing
the harsh criticism that Fame Academy and its presenters have received.
The press has not been reticent in sticking the knife in, with one newspaper
reporting that even the Fame Academy studio audience hated the show, and
some of the attendees had threatened to call the police when security
refused to let them leave the studio in the break between the shows on its
opening night show.
A programme featuring running battles between a studio audience and BBC
security would have made for much more interesting viewing that what was on
offer. And would have been a ratings grabber.
It may seem unfair to place all the blame of Fame Academy's poor
showing at the feet of the BBC, and it is certainly true that it is the quality
of the students which will ultimately make or break the show. Knowing this
though, the BBC are responsible for the choice of students made, or the way in
which they were chosen.
The BBC can't be faulted for trying to get on the Big Brother,
Popstars and Pop Idols, Reality TV bandwagons, but they should
have done it properly. Putting themselves in a position where the whole
concept collapses, because of a lack of talent from its chosen students, or by
using atrocious presenters, are mistakes which should never have happened.
Having spent 4.5 million GBP on Fame Academy, making it the most
expensive 'popular entertainment' programme the corporation has produced, there
were high hopes for its success. All of which must have been dashed on
opening night. Dreams of making a huge fortune from phone call voters, to offset
the cost of production, must have faded quickly.
It is interesting to note that Channel 4, who were rolling in money from Big
Brother voting, turned down the opportunity of taking Fame Academy
to air, believing it was too derivative of other Reality TV shows. A decision
they are probably grateful they took.
As to the students, who are central to the programme's quality and appeal; they
are a depressing bunch talent-wise, although criticism of their skills appears
to be becoming more muted from within the Academy, perhaps to avoid further
damage being done to the show by honest criticism.
My favourite to win the number one place is Marli
Buck ( aka Marilena ). This 27 year old nursing assistant from Lancashire,
who now lives in London, can apparently, "wrap her ankles around her neck and
breath fire".
Now that is something I want to see.
She may not prove to be the ideal candidate to fulfil the BBC's goal, "To
find a new all-dancing, all-singing star", but I can think of a number of
video production companies who may be clamouring to bring her unique talents
to an "exclusive audience" which wants to see that sort of thing.
Marli is also the bookies favourite to win, so they've either seen something
which indicates star potential, or they too have disgusting minds.
On the whole though, the students seem to be a ragged band of hopefuls
who are desperate to secure a recording contract and win the prizes on offer,
rather than being determined to push an existing talent to higher levels.
It is possible that the students of Fame Academy will get better, and
start to show some sign of ability, but its questionable how many viewers will
stick with it along the way, and be there to see it all end.
College Girls
While the BBC may be unwilling to pull Fame Academy, Channel 4 had no
such hesitation with its own 'Fly On The Wall' documentary, College
Girls.Although Channel 4 responded rather late in the day to low audience figures,
scrapping programme five, and jumping straight to the sixth and final episode,
it did at least act to avoid its air-time being clogged up with unwatched and
uninteresting programmes.
Not everyone was happy with the decision; not least the viewers who had been
following the lives of a group of female Oxford University students, and missed
some of the background to the events with which the series closed.
The Principal of St. Hilda's, the only all-female college at Oxford, says the
College is astonished that the decision was taken at such a late stage, and is
furious that Channel 4 did not let them know that the fifth programme was not
to be shown.
Lady English said that, "There will be distress among the girls who participated
in the filming and disappointment among the many people in the college who
expected to see the series in its entirety".
That's possibly true, but Channel 4 don't produce programming specifically
for the St. Hilda's audience, and has to consider its other viewers.
That the girls who participated in filming should be "distressed" by Channel 4's
cancellation of episode five is an interesting proposition, but not one which
holds much water.
Disappointed, let-down and disapproving are all emotions which are to be
expected when something you expect to happen doesn't, but distress ?
Are these girls going to burst into tears, slash their wrists, and throw
themselves from Oxford's spires because their contributions to the programme
didn't make it to air ?
I would hope not, and such a reaction is totally unwarranted. Television and
film editing suites are filled with footage left on the cutting room floor, and
this is the way it always will be.
Programme makers don't use all the footage they shoot, and are responsible for
producing programmes which are interesting and compelling to watch. If no
editing was done, our screens would be filled with the most inane drivel we
could imagine. Out of the many hours of film shot, a huge amount has to go
by the wayside to create just half an hour of good viewing.
In the process, some of those who appeared before camera will find their way
into our homes, but others will not. That's a fact of life, and I would have
thought that the great intellects, of which Oxford University is alleged to be
populated, would be the amongst first to realise this.
I suspect that any distress that has been caused is not simply because Channel
4 chose to axe one sixth of the series, but because those who had taken part in
the programme have not seen the Fifteen Minutes of Fame they were hoping for.
Perhaps if they'd been more interesting, and their lives and thoughts had been
more appealing to an audience, the series would not have been cut short. If
you want fame, you usually have to earn it. One is very lucky if it's handed
over on a plate.
Life's a bitch like that.
