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Major Channels Come Back to Reality Shows Space Cadets Prepares to Blast Off After the Jungle King or Queen is Crowned

Posted on: Thursday, 17 November 2005, 09:00 CST

By Fergus Sheppard

TELEVISION viewers of a delicate disposition would do well to look away from their screens now. In the last 48 hours, reality TV has returned to claim its place as the crown of peak- time viewing with both ITV and Channel 4 unveiling multi-million entertainment extravaganzas in the run-up to Christmas.

First off the blocks was ITV with I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! which starts its two-week run this Sunday. The now familiar litany of fading pop singers and former TV soap stars are among the ten people heading into the jungle for the programme's fifth series.

Departed cast members of soaps like Eastenders, Emmerdale and Neighbours are well represented (they make up four contestants) and ex-members of the bands Blue, Atomic Kitten and the Osmonds (little Jimmy) make up a further three. Middle-age ballast is provided by the unlikely choice of Carol Thatcher, the journalist daughter of Baroness Thatcher, perma-tanned antiques expert David Dickinson and wine expert Jilly Goolden, who would appear, like former contestants Jennie Bond and Lord Brockett, to be on the payroll as token toff.

Channel 4's offering, announced yesterday, comes from the formidable stable of Endemol, makers of Big Brother. Called Space Cadets, it constitutes an enormous TV practical joke. For ten days, the cameras follow a group of contestants who believe they are training in Russia for a shuttle trip 100km into low-level orbit. However, unknown to them, the entire escapade is a stunt, and they have never left Britain - the Russian base is a fake set in Britain and the shuttle flight is all special effects. Channel 4 is giving the show, which begins on 7 December and is fronted by Johnny Vaughan, a peak 9pm slot.

That start date will ensure that the Space Cadets blast off after ITV's I'm a Celebrity has finally chosen its king or queen of the jungle on Monday, 5 December, giving the British viewer a break from reality TV of at least two days. However, Channel 4 is sniffy about the suggestion the show represents "just more reality TV" and instead views it in the tradition of spoof shows like Ali G and Beadle's About.

Angela Jain, the programme's commissioning editor, said: "I think Reality TV is a slightly overused term - people use it to describe everything from Wife Swap to Big Brother. If you think of Candid Camera live in space, that's a closer approximation to what it is."

However, the usual personality clashes and machinations drive much of this space caper. A large field of contestants is currently being whittled down to 12, from whom a final group of four will be chosen for the space "mission". Expect the usual tantrums and plotting as the would-be cosmonauts go through what they believe is a gruelling Russian space programme. Just for good measure, one of the four finalists is, in fact, an actor.

Whether Channel 4 chooses to describe its show as reality or stunt TV, newspaper readers can expect to see marketing techniques similar to those used on reality shows. The network will not name the contestants in Space Cadets until near to 7 December, so readers can expect a spate of personality stories designed to generate maximum pre-publicity for the show.

That feverish marketing activity is in full swing for I'm a Celebrity with PRs hard at work attempting to place stories in newspapers in a bid to ensure maximum hype for Sunday. Several of the contestants' agents have already attempted to pre-sell their clients' stories to the media, and with average viewing figures of 8.7 million for the last series, they are gunning for lucrative deals.

Phil Hall, former editor of the News of the World and now a PR expert, says that tabloid writers are initially courted by the makers of reality shows with trips to exotic set locations.

"The PRs for the shows effectively buy off the tabloid newspapers by giving them exotic trips to the Caribbean, or Australia with I'm a Celebrity, and almost guarantee themselves positive publicity because the writers are bowled over by the environment and the five- star treatment they get."

However, Hall says the tone of tabloid coverage could turn sharply - often within just 72 hours - if editors get the feeling the show was not catching the public imagination.

"Newspapers can become the enemy very quickly because these days you get quick feedback on viewing figures," he suggests. "Some of these shows peak very quickly in the first couple of days and then die off. As a result the tabloids react to the viewers' reaction - and start knifing it."

Source: Scotsman, The

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