Sunday, 24 December 2023

LAMMY Awards 2023: Committee's Special Award

Yes, a special award goes to Clive Myrie, who had the mortifying experience of having 2 celebrities in the same show fail to score any points in their specialist rounds on Celebrity Mastermind last Friday. What made it worse was that I don’t believe that anyone has ever failed to score in their specialist round before. No, I’m no going to name the celebrities. I don’t think that they should be held up to ridicule just for trying to earn a few quid for a worthy cause.

There’s an interesting debate over on the Contestant Hub on Facebook about Celebrity versions of quiz shows. It’s a tricky one. While sleb versions of The Weakest Link, Pointless, Bridge of Lies etc. are perfectly watchable, Sleb Mastermind can be an uneasy watch at times. To compare it with UC at Christmas, he teams are made up of journalists, writers and academics for the most part and I’m still ofen surprised by what they don’t know. Which I really shouldn’t be, because they’re not quizzers. But at least in that show the contestants are part of a team, and it’s easier to laugh off a bad performance as part of a team.

Yes, I know that anyone going on Celebrity Mastermind really should know what they could be letting themselves in for. But when it becomes an uncomfortable experience for the viewer as well as the poor sleb in the chair, then you have to question when this stops being entertainment.

So well, done to Clive Myrie who did his level best to maintain the positive atmosphere and the bonhomie in this particular edition. It can’t have been easy.

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