Reality TV used to be so straightforward. Chuck a few attention-seekers in a house, film everything they do, and hope they start bickering about teabags. It was television gold, and its evolution was rapid. Eventually, reality TV ballooned into a monster, hoovering up formats at speed, mining the attention-seeking prowess of people who were already famous – because there’s little risk of them not performing. Which is why Anthea Turner is on a sort-of competition with Lee Ryan from Blue attempting to do entirely invented “challenges” from a 1987 film that featured no challenges, as far as I can recall. Welcome to The Real Dirty Dancing (Monday, 9pm, E4).
In recent years we have seen celebrities attempting to row boats around the British Isles, celebrities dating other celebrities and also non-celebrities, and on primetime Saturday nights, celebrities dressing up as cartoon creatures to belt out a tune using a disguised voice until Davina McCall shouts: “Take it off! Take it off!” at them. Has anyone else wondered whether celebrities might need our protection? Is it time to intervene, call a moratorium on letting famous people sign up to anything that suggests it might require a hint of a waiver?
