Sunday, October 14, 2007
The return of Have I Got News For You.
Have I Got News For You returned on Friday night for its 34th series on BBC1. I like this genre of television programme, current affairs coupled with satire. It is great to watch a programme that pokes an awful lot of fun at the week's news. This is not the only programme on television of this type. On BBC2 there is Mock The Week and on Channel 4 there is 8 Out of 10 Cats.
This genre of programme must not cost a lot of money to produce. The raw content is provided free of charge from existing news media. The panelists then write some comedy about the featured news items. When you consider the comment already on the internet provided free by bloggers everywhere you can see just how easy the show will be to produce. The editing of the programme is a standard television industry routine.
I watched Have I Got News For You on Friday and enjoyed the programme as much as the last series. However I did not think that it was as good as both Mock The Week and 8 Out of 10 Cats. The humour of Mock The Week is the best and sharpest of the three programmes with 8 Out of 10 Cats coming second in my opinion. Mock The Week has raised the bar for this type of programme. The humour is really refreshing and adult. No issue is taboo and the writers are prepared to take risks with what the viewer may call acceptable.
What is strange is that both ITV and Channel Five do not have this cheap to produce genre of programme. They are missing out here and I feel there is room in the market for them both to do one of these comedy programmes. The public like these programmes and I am sure that advertisers will too.
Have I Got News For You returned on Friday night for its 34th series on BBC1. I like this genre of television programme, current affairs coupled with satire. It is great to watch a programme that pokes an awful lot of fun at the week's news. This is not the only programme on television of this type. On BBC2 there is Mock The Week and on Channel 4 there is 8 Out of 10 Cats.
This genre of programme must not cost a lot of money to produce. The raw content is provided free of charge from existing news media. The panelists then write some comedy about the featured news items. When you consider the comment already on the internet provided free by bloggers everywhere you can see just how easy the show will be to produce. The editing of the programme is a standard television industry routine.
I watched Have I Got News For You on Friday and enjoyed the programme as much as the last series. However I did not think that it was as good as both Mock The Week and 8 Out of 10 Cats. The humour of Mock The Week is the best and sharpest of the three programmes with 8 Out of 10 Cats coming second in my opinion. Mock The Week has raised the bar for this type of programme. The humour is really refreshing and adult. No issue is taboo and the writers are prepared to take risks with what the viewer may call acceptable.
What is strange is that both ITV and Channel Five do not have this cheap to produce genre of programme. They are missing out here and I feel there is room in the market for them both to do one of these comedy programmes. The public like these programmes and I am sure that advertisers will too.
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