2010: A year in showbiz

BY JASON WRIGHT

2010 was another crazy and outrageous year in the world of showbiz, so here are the big talking points of 2010.

JANUARY – Katie Price & Alex Reid – A Match Made In Heaven?

HAPPY: Can Katie and Alex's marriage survive?

One is a reputable hard man and has perhaps put the death-defying sport of cage fighting into the public spotlight.  The other is a glamour model/TV personality whose high profile celebrity split in 2009 made her become “The Nation’s Bitch”.  So when Katie Price (a.k.a. Jordan) and Alex Reid tied the knot in Los Angeles, it was expected but also surprising considering they hadn’t formally reconciled after splitting up a few months beforehand.  The marriage took place just days after Reid had won the last series of Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother and the public’s perception on him was changed completely.  Since the private wedding in the Atlantic, their relationship has hit the rocks so many times with conflicting reports of the couple’s separate work commitments getting the upper hand of their private life.  Despite this, they held a second public wedding to prove their love back at home but still these questions over how long it will last remain today.  It will be remarkable if they make it past the end of next year, let alone the seven-year itch.

FEBRUARY – Cheryl & Ashley Cole – End Of the Line

All too often enough, many footballers can’t resist the odd one night stand now and again but none more so than Chelsea’s Ashley Cole.  He had already gotten away with it in 2008 as wife, singer and X-Factor Judge Cheryl Cole decided to give him another bite of the cherry.  That was bitten right off at the start of February with another tabloid exclusive from a bar stripper claiming he had an illicit romance with her.  Days later, several more girls sold stories of their experiences with the defender and after another tough week’s worth of thought, which included a downbeat appearance at the BRIT awards, Cheryl finally decided enough was enough and announced a split between them, formally filing for divorce soon after.  This came as no surprise really, Ashley had been dicing with danger for long enough but as before, he gave into the temptation and it cost him the girl of his dreams.

MARCH – The Oscars – Mighty Minnow Outfoxes the Giant

The start of March brought the stars of LA out in force for the 82nd Academy Awards.  The past twelve months had been record breaking in the world of movies and coming into the big ceremony itself, it had been widely expected that the epic 3D smash ‘Avatar’ would sweep the board.  However, everyone was wrong as it only took three gongs, mostly for its special effects.  Instead the honours went to ‘The Hurt Locker’, a compelling drama based on a US army experience of the Iraq conflict and made on a paper-thin budget.  It won six awards including the prestigious ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’ for Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to win the award.  To make it even more remarkable, Bigelow had been previously married to James Cameron, who was behind Avatar.  It just goes to show that sometimes a big budget isn’t necessarily required to make a massive blockbuster.

APRIL – Adrian Chiles Switches Sides – ITV Get Their Man

SCRUTINY: Adrian Chiles had a tough transition to ITV

When ITV earned terrestrial rights to FA Cup and England football from 2008 onwards, on a four-year deal, they wanted to get in someone who had the pure knowledge of the beautiful game, Adrian Chiles.  The BBC weren’t willing to let him go without a fight.  The start of the year saw cracks beginning to show between Adrian and the BBC, when the former refused to shave and grew a huge and ugly beard, which he finally was forced to give up on if the Sport Relief campaign raised more than £20 million on the night.  Then the Beeb didn’t do themselves any favours when they announced that popular Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans would take over hosting The One Show on Friday nights from the autumn.  Chiles was livid and despite the compensation of being offered a two-year extension to remain at the corporation, he put pen to paper on the contract to join ITV.  As part of the move, Chiles replaced an unhappy Steve Rider as the main man of the channel’s football coverage and present a revamped breakfast show from September.  As far as ITV are concerned, they were happy to have got their man at last but Adrian’s dry wit and humour that made him popular on MOTD 2 and The One Show has not worked out at his new home so far.  Things have got to improve before his reputation is destroyed totally in 2011.

MAY – Britain’s Got Talent – Time for a Change?

CLASS: Spellbound were the stars of BGT in 2010

The fourth series of ITV’s hugely popular talent contest ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ was anticipated to be the biggest and best yet but in the end, it coughed and spluttered its way throughout.  Though the show produced a deserving winner in gymnast act Spelbound, throughout the show’s run, several questions were asked by the media as to whether the show was suffering by having rarely changed its format and adapted successfully to any change over the last couple of years.  Sure enough, show creator Simon Cowell announced his intention to stand down from the auditions phase of next year’s series, only judging from the live semi-finals and Piers Morgan later also quit, focusing on his increasing commitments in the US.  Comedian Michael McIntyre and David Hasslehoff, who is the lead judge in the American version, are to join the show next year which has promised massive changes and surprises.  Let’s hope it works because if it doesn’t, the show will certainly hit the skids.

JUNE – Lindsay Lohan – A Fallen Star

There is some wasted talent in the US from time to time but none more so than Lindsay Lohan.  Since 2007, the actress, famous for roles in The Parent Trap and Herbie: Fully Loaded has rarely been out of headlines for her erratic behaviour when not at work.  It got much worse in June when she was sentenced to 90 days behind bars for violating the court terms of a criminal probation.  She would only serve 14 days of this conviction before being bailed for a yet another stint in rehab.  The amount of times that Lohan has ended up in court on criminal charges has now become beyond a joke and it is still amazing that she is still in showbiz today.

JULY – Cheryl Cole – Fight For Her Life

Cheryl Cole had undergone a traumatic first half of the year and was just hoping it wouldn’t get any worse. In one week in July, it nearly got cut short.  The week started with a simple story of the Girls Aloud star collapsing at a photoshoot for her upcoming new album, at first harmless as it seemed like it was just a case of exhaustion through overworking.  Just 24 hours later came more shocking developments when The Daily Mirror broke the news that she had contracted malaria following a short break in the African country of Tanzania with close friend Derek Hough.  Worse still, the next day, another newspaper scoop in The Sun formally announced that Cheryl had contracted the most lethal strain of the disease and was given just days left to live.  At that point, everyone believed it was over and were simply waiting for the news that she had succumbed to the illness.  Then a week later, treatment in a specialist hospital for tropical diseases like malaria worked and before long Cheryl was back and fighting fit again.  Her experience no doubt raised the issue of malaria into the public spotlight and she later told broadcaster Piers Morgan in an exclusive interview of his popular TV show ‘Life Stories’ the full extent of her illness.

AUGUST – Time to Say Goodbye – Three ITV favourites breathe their last

FAREWELL: The Bill was one of a number of departures on ITV

Towards the end of August, emotions seemed to be running high at ITV as the broadcaster bid farewell to three of its most beloved and popular programmes.  First to go was ‘Heartbeat’, a popular drama set in fictional Yorkshire village in the 1960’s.  It had been on the air since 1992 and despite the obvious dwindling figures of recent, it was still a regular fixture of ITV’s Sunday night schedules.  The programme was killed off due to ITV’s budget cuts within the Yorkshire region.  Next was the closure of ‘The Bill.’  Centred on a fictional London police station, Sun Hill, it had been run continuously for 27 years.  Again in recent times, the programme had been suffering from a decline in viewers.  A massive revamp of the show last year failed to halt this slide and sure enough, the axe swiftly fell on what was considered as one of Britain’s best drama shows.  Finally, the last week of August (stretching into the first few days of September) was to be the end for a morning classic.  Having woken up the nation since 1993, GMTV was put to bed.  In these current times it had been constantly outperformed by rival BBC Breakfast and bosses decides to give a total revamp to help compete better.  A full takeover by ITV late last year sealed the deal and GMTV departed on September 3, to be replaced by Daybreak on the following Monday.  There is no doubt that these farewells have signified changing times at ITV but just how much more can it take of this in the future.  We shall have to wait and see.

SEPTEMBER – George Michael – Banged Up For Getting High

Another celebrity who has seen controversy taken over their status in recent times has been singer George Michael.  September saw him achieve his lowest ebb of his distinguished career as after a long night of partying, he stupidly got behind wheel of his car after taken excessive amounts of marijuana.  The result was inevitable as he crashed his motor into a Snappy Snaps outlet in West London.  He subsequently had his driving license revoked and was jailed for two months for illegal possession of drugs.  It was another embarrassing moment in the recent history of the former legend of music.

OCTOBER – Katy Perry & Russell Brand – Hitched In an Indian Delight

MATCH: Russell Brand has met it in Katy Perry

One of last year’s hottest and unusual new couples was US singer Katy Perry and British comedian Russell Brand.  Their unruly love for one another meant it would soon be inevitable that they would tie the knot.  Months of planning came and went and finally they got married in a private and traditional Indian ceremony in Delhi.  The photographs and stories from the wedding reportedly fetched over $2 million, proving how much attention the pair have received from the media throughout this time.  Considering Russell’s rather controversial past, it seems like his love for Katy has actually changed everyone’s personality on him for the better.  Many will hope they stay together for a long time.

NOVEMBER – Jason Manford – Sex Shame Ends His Dream Job

Jason Manford seemed to be enjoying himself more than ever before.  After landing, to the surprise of many, Adrian Chiles job of hosting The One Show; it looked like nothing would get in his way, or so he thought.  The tabloids once again had a celebrity when the guard was let down and it was revealed he had sent several sexual text messages to five strippers.  Of course, most people would just stay silent but with his reputation called into question, Manford decided to do the honourable thing and confess it was true.  He then resigned from his position on The One Show to focus on rebuilding his relations with his loved ones and focus on his upcoming stand up tour.  It is a shame that it had to come to this but at the end of the day, Manford did the right thing.

DECEMBER – Coronation Street – 50 Years Is No Time for A Party

DERAILED: The tram crash bought carnage to Corrie

Coronation Street, Britain’s and the world’s longest running soap opera hit the big 50 milestone before Christmas month and it did so with an almighty bang.  For the anniversary week itself, producers wanted to run a storyline that had the nation gripped for the entire duration.  The week started with a massive explosion that destroyed the recently opened Joinery nightclub before a tram derailed from the damaged viaduct above and smashed onto the cobbles.  The disaster claimed the lives of popular characters Ashley Peacock (Steven Arnold) and Molly Dobbs (Vicky Binns) whilst several others were injured and scarred permanently over the experience.  It earned Corrie its highest ratings in years and will surely receive a spate of awards next year.

So there we have it. It has been another massive and explosive year on the showbiz front.  Let’s hope 2011 is just as sensational as the one gone by!

A Fond Farewell To GMTV

Today marked the end of an established era in breakfast television, as GMTV bid a fond farewell to our TV screens after seventeen years of dedicated and professional breakfast TV.

GMTV (Good Morning Television) started on Friday 1^st January 1993, and has been presented over the years by the likes of Fiona Phillips, Eamonn Holmes, Michael Wilson, Anne Davies and Ben Shepherd.  Today, it was former Sky News presenter Emma Crosby, Richard Arnold and Andrew Castle who bought down the curtain on such an emotional day for everyone involved with the company.

GMTV took over from the very popular TV-AM as the ITV breakfast franchise, following the controversial 1991 ITV Franchise Awards, which spelt the death knell for regional television symbols across the corporation.  GMTV will be replaced by Daybreak on Monday, which will be presented by new recruits from the BBC, Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley.  Some of the GMTV regulars, such as Dr. Hilary Jones, Kate Garraway and John Stapleton will still be around on the new breakfast show, though whether it will have the success that GMTV has created for a national audience is hard to say.

In the show’s final moments, Castle said the following:

"Like all families there have been squabbles along the way, but there have been no shortage of love, effort and perseverance, and we just want to say to the viewers who have been with us loyally for a long time, thank you so much."  "Fingers crossed for them, really good luck."

Thank you GMTV for giving us so many memories, you will profoundly missed by everyone.

Bleakley Departs For ITV - Where's The Loyalty?

Last night, ITV announced that they had poached the services of the popular One Show host, Christine Bleakley.  The deal is rumoured to see Bleakley earning £1.5million a year in her new role, which will see her partnered again with old co-host of The One Show, Adrian Chiles on the new ITV breakfast show, which will begin this September.

Christine has been at the centre of a major bidding war for weeks now, between the two major UK broadcasters and part of the deal will not only see her be part of the new breakfast programme, replacing GMTV this summer, but other prime-time projects, including new entertainment and lifestyle shows.  Bleakley, also being well-known for the high-profile girlfriend of prolific Chelsea and England footballer Frank Lampard, was only earning £100,000 a year with the BBC, which wonders how much she had sold out for?  The BBC did offer her a new, much more improved deal, but it seems like that money and the close bond with Chiles seems to be more important than loyalty and trust in her case.

When Adrian Chiles quit the BBC two months ago, largely to replace Steve Rider as the new figurehead of ITV’s football coverage, their plans were to remodel the One Show firmly around Bleakley – whose contract with the Beeb expired this September.  Popular breakfast presenter Chris Evans and comedian Jason Mannford had been signed up to co-host the show, alongside the Northern Ireland golden girl.  They had given Bleakley a new £450,000 a year deal, and a week to mull over the future.  With no contact from Christine, the BBC felt there was little option but to withdraw their very tempting and more secure offer.

The departure of Bleakley follows Chiles out of the BBC door, and with Jonathan Ross also leaving the corporation when his contract ends next month, leaves the nation’s favourite TV channel facing a bit of a shortfall in presenting talent.  The BBC insist that they have made the right decision, by not entering into a bidding war with their main rivals, for a presenter’s services.  I believe that they have made the right decision.  After all, no presenter is more important than the service of the BBC to the British public.

The Bleakley/Chiles combination is no doubt going to be a winning one, and will pull more audiences into ITV at breakfast time, which has suffered from the stale progress of the award-winning GMTV in recent times.  However, the massive money deal that it is giving Christine suggests that they are putting a lot of faith into her abilities, and there is no guarantee that it will definitely work out.  This is a massive gamble for her career and for ITV as a whole, as it will be seen as an expensive flop should things not work out.  Although ITV have won this battle, I think the BBC has made a shrewd move and time will move on with new presenters and new talent, to replace Bleakley and Chiles on The One Show. 

Some must question though, how important is loyalty?  

Media Changes Aplenty - Adrian Jumps Ship And Some Aren't Happy!

Following the news of Adrian Chiles departure to ITV on Monday night, there have been many upcoming changes, which have promoted anger with some highly-established presenters and turned the BBC and ITV into a Spring Transfer Window Service, rather than TV organisations!

Chiles’ decision to leave the BBC was not of great surprise, as it has been widely tipped that he would quit, after finding out that Chris Evans would present the daily evening programme, The One Show on Friday nights.  However, not many predicted he would switch to ITV as a result.  Although he does leave The Apprentice and Match of the Day 2 behind, this could be a brilliant career move for the popular Chiles, one of TV’s most common stars in recent years.  He has been part of The One Show furniture since it began over three years ago, first with Myleene Klass and now with Christine Bleakly.  In his new four-year deal, he will front breakfast show GMTV five days a week and become the much-needed new face of ITV’s growing football portfolio.  Chiles will begin at ITV with their coverage of this summer’s World Cup finals in South Africa, and will front the FA Cup, the UEFA Champions League and England internationals from next season.

This move has angered ITV’s main sport face, Steve Rider.  According to some media sources, Rider is planning to sue ITV in the High Court, as his £500,000-a year contract states that he will be the leading face of ITV’s World Cup efforts this summer.  He was absent from ITV’s Champions League coverage in midweek and should he not be at Rockingham this weekend, for ITV4’s British Touring Car Championship action, then presume Rider is preparing to leave ITV.  Reportedly, he may be planning to move back to the BBC, to front golf, tennis and rugby coverage, should things not work out with ITV.

The shake-up at the BBC has continued, with the news that Katie Derham is to leave ITN News to join the BBC, though not on the BBC News team.  After twelve years with ITN, Derham will front the BBC’s coverage of the Proms, plus other daytime programmes.  Chiles future replacement at The One Show has not been officially confirmed, though Strictly Come Dancing winner and BBC breakfast host, Chris Hollins is to fill the post for now.  BBC Radio 1 presenter, Colin Murray will be the new fresh face on the MOTD2 sofa from next season.  He already has connections with BBC, though his Radio 1 show, plus presenting the popular ‘Fighting Talk’ programme on BBC Radio Five Live.  Of recent times, he has been fronting Football on Five’s coverage of the UEFA Europa League.

Finally, the concertina effort has continued over on ITV, at GMTV.  Helen Fosparo, currently a host of the GMTV Newshour programme is expected to become Chiles full-time co-anchor from late on this year.  With new bosses having come in at the end of last year, GMTV is going through a major revamp, which has already led to the departure of Penny Smith and Krypton Factor host, Ben Shepherd.  Other anchors, Andrew Castle, Emma Crosby and Kate Garraway are also all expected to be wielded the axe in the coming weeks.

Watch this space for possible further movements in the TV market in the coming weeks; this has certainly been a week full of change, instead of the traditional continuity that we associated BBC and ITV for.  

The Krypton Factor - Is It The Toughest Gameshow In Britain?

Tomorrow on ITV1 at 7.30pm marks the Grand Final of The Krypton Factor.  The rejuvenated second series, hosted by GMTV’s Ben Shepherd has seen nine weeks of punishing torture, torment and craft and now four individuals stand on the verge of becoming, Krypton Factor champion 2010.

The show was a popular hit in ITV’s schedules for over eighteen years.  Initially presented by Gordon Burns, the ‘K’ logo and its demanding games won fans alike, for its entertainment and competitive nature.  It drew at its peak, 13million viewers.  Sadly in 1995, Burns decided to quit and the show was axed by Granada Television, the then producers.  It was a sorry and dismal decision….

Luckily, Krypton Factor fans got a second chance, when together with ITV Productions; business partners Sage regenerated the show, with flashy graphics, a new upbeat theme tune and a hi-tech 21^st century studio layout.  Four games remain from the original series, all as challenging as they were in its first run.  Mental Agility is the first round, where contestants are locked inside The Krypton Factor cube and have to beat the clock, whilst solving complex puzzles.  These games are fun for the audience and viewers at home to play along with, and if you think you can do better than the actual contestants, then go to to the ITV Krypton Factor website to try your luck.  After that, the Observation round takes place, where a classic clip from ITV’s archives is shown and the contestants have to memorise what they can, in order to win the round.

The next round is the toughest physical course ever seen to human eyes.  Forget the Eliminator course on Sky 1’s Gladiators, The Krypton Factor assault course is the toughest challenge known to any contestants.  Freezing water tanks, demanding rafts, steep, leg-zapping hills, and the course has the lot.  Please don’t try this at home!  You must be incredibly fit to tackle this beast of a course and those who complete, deserve a load of credit for just getting round in one piece.  The final round is General Knowledge, when contestants buzz in to answer questions in just ninety seconds, against one another, in an attempt to win the round and the episode. 

After seven morale-sapping heats and two tense and exciting semi-finals, tomorrow night sees the final of the 2010 series.  The crème of the crop are semi-final winners Ed Brimms and Pete Thompson and runners-up James O’Driscoll and Malcolm McKinnon.  All have strong points and weak links, but any of these four could take the crown on the night, anything is possible.

Is the Krypton Factor the toughest show in Britain?  It’s a debatable question, with a complex answer, but certainly, whoever takes part needs a lot of steel, nerve, determination and physicality to be successful.  This isn’t a gameshow just based on brains and intelligence; this is a game of strength and skill too.  Whoever wins The Krypton Factor has the right to call themselves, the ultimate champion….tune in to find out who that will be.

Don’t miss The Krypton Factor Grand Final tomorrow night on ITV1 at 7.30pm

Play the actual Krypton Factor games on the website, www.itv.com/thekryptonfactor