TV Review – Beat The Star Series 2 (ITV1)
Ordinary Folk take on Famous Faces to Win £50,000
For anyone unfamiliar with Beat The Star it’s a bit like Gladiators meets The Krypton Factor in that a fitness obsessed Joe Public goes head-to-head with a famous athlete or celebrity in several mental and psychical games for the chance of winning £50,000. It sounds like the usual knockabout Saturday afternoon fare, but somehow it has ended up on Sundays. Probably so that Piers Morgan can laugh at 50-year-olds on Britain's Got Talent on Saturdays.
On the first episode of series 2 London factory manager Glenn Clarke went up against former England rugby international and Strictly Come Dancing 2008 quarter-finalist Austin Healey. Although it looked like a mismatched competition it was a tense contest that went down to the last shot of the final game - basketball hoops - before Healey scraped the win.
Vernon Kay as Host and a very Odd Scoring System
Beat The Star is much of a box ticking exercise than anything. It has normal people, celebrities, sport, a quiz element, a studio audience, down to the wire battles and a host known more for his appearance than his talent.
Vernon Kay is far from being the best presenter on TV but with his straight talking and Bolton accent he does exude an everyman quality, that is if the everyman looks like he could be a catalogue model. What is good is that there’s no sequences in between rounds where Kay delves into unnecessary background about the participants or patronises their children with daft questions. It just moves straight form one game to the next, with the intrusive ad breaks of course.
The scoring system also makes little sense. Instead of each contestant getting one point for winning a game the number of points depends on which game it is. So if they win the first game they get one point, if they win the second game they get two points, third game gets three and so on, for no reason whatsoever. It really is a strange concept where you can end up in a situation where the one who won the most games loses overall. Makes perfect sense, except it doesn’t.
Perfect Saturday Night Entertainment that’s on a Sunday
It’s very easy to sniffy about shows like this and dismiss them as lowest common denominator rubbish but it makes a change to see a watchable and fun ITV game show that doesn’t need to rely on the presence of the “nation's favourite TV presenters” (TM) Ant & Dec. On the whole Beat The Star is hearty Saturday night entertainment. Except that it’s on a Sunday. It shouldn’t be this confusing.
Beat The Star is on every Sunday (not Saturday) at 6.45pm on ITV1.
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