British TV Celebrities are dying out

[Padfootnprongs]

It suddenly struck me today, that today’s TV celebrities are the last generation, as people just don’t watch TV like they used to and there aren’t really any new household names coming through. The youngest TV personalities that I can think of are Ant & Dec, Holly Willoughby, Matt Baker and Dermot O’leary, and they’re all in their 40s.

Kind of the same with TV comedy, now I come to think about it.

You have to have a body of work to become a personality don’t you? If you are straight out of stage school, and young, who knows you?

My viewing is broader than yours. I would include Claudia Winkleman, Gary Lineker, Bradley Walsh, Fiona Bruce and Clare Balding.

Err what's the average age of your list though?

Bradley Walsh is 63! How are you including him in a list if young TV celebrities?

Scarlett Moffat? Jamie Laing? How old is Joe Lycett? Then there are people like Big Zuu who are becoming more mainstream as they get more opportunities.
How old is AJ Adoudu? (She is getting over exposed if anything though, she seems to be everywhere!)
I wonder if tv audiences are just getting older though - do younger people spend more time online rather than watching telly? So older presenters are more popular.

Stacey Dooley, Stacey Solomon are in their 30s. I’ve definitely seen that the love island type celebs have presented some shows, ones got one coming out soon about showmances. I think it’s just a different type of show that younger people watch and those light family entertainment shows have always been presented by people of a certain age. Les Dennis, Bruce Forsyth, Jim Davidson etc.

Yes agree, I think viewing habits are very different in young people, and ‘old favourites’ are more likely to bring in the existing viewers.

I like these low-key british celebs. Not world famous or mega-rich (yes I am sure they are paid extremely well, but not like A-list music and movie celebs) and they often seem quite relatable, unlike the likes of Kim Kardashian. There is something nice about seeing Ant & Dec or Matt Baker on TV, who I grew up watching on Blue Peter and Byker Grove. But nobody new on the scene for today’s young people, on TV at least.

Sure there will be people on YouTube and Tiktok or whoever that young people look to, but I have no idea who they are, they are not people that the whole family or the whole neighbourhood would recognise.

I just think it’s sad that another unifying aspect of British life is slowly slipping away.

You are watching the wrong TV shows that's all! Plenty of TV stars are younger.

Who are they?

They’re all on TikTok now instead of TV, and us oldies have never heard of them!

This!
Social media is the platform for the younger generation.

TV as we know it will cease to exist in the future, once us oldies (50+) are gone.

😢
That’s so rubbish.
When I’m 90, I won't even be able to spend my days in front of the box, I’ll be faffing with whatever the TikTok equivalent is in 2070.

Sorry! Missed the word “young”. It still stands that teen or early 20s people haven’t had time to be personalities. I just gave a list of people we know who have been around since their 30s. Unless you watch tv for kids, who’s going to be young? Quite a few sports presenters are young as they retired from sport fairly young. Some actors are young. Jodie Comer? James Norton? They aren’t just tv though. There’s loads of young actors in Coronation Street.

This is why whenever the Strictly or I'm a Celebrity lineup gets announced, it's always us 'oldies' saying who the fuck are they?! The younger audience watch YouTube/ TikTok etc... so if TV producers want to engage that audience they choose the big names from that world.
(And in true old woman style, I just tried to list some of the names that have been on strictly and the only one I could remember was Joe Suggs! Menopause brain sucks!)

I'm not sure I think of Ant and Dec and Holly W etc. as 'unifying aspects to British life'. That's almost like calling them 'national treasures'. I find them all boring and a bit rubbish, if that sort of thing is dying out then that's a good thing IMO.

I think this is the same with movies too... I can't think of any 'names' really coming through. Action movies are still being made with Tom Cruise, Sylvester Stallone, Brad Pitt etc (and these are old now!)... Thrillers with Anthony Hopkins, Ian Mckellen etc...

There are a few 'youngish' actors like Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, but none coming through like I'd say Jennifer Lawrence, Orlando Bloom and even Leonardo DiCaprio back in their day. When they were at their (young) peak, they were in everything!

But I think a big part of this is a bit of a cinema lull... Marvel/Disney has virtually crashed in recent years. I haven't gone to the cinema in a year, and I'd have gone pretty much every month before...

Joel Dommett?
Rylan
Alison Hammond

I don't much like any of them but they seem to be turning their hand to a variety of work

BTW, I realise you said British TV... I was just commenting on the parallel in movies. I think the big thing with TV is that 'live' TV doesn't appear to be as popular - everyone is binge-watching series on Netflix, no-one really has the patience for waiting a week for one-off things like game shows anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if soaps died out in the next few years; these are where many start. I think once Holly, Ant and Dec, and the 'remnants' like Aemon Holmes go, British TV will probably just fizzle out.

I would include people like Maya Jama, Barney Walsh, Roman Kemp (breaking into TV from radio), Rochelle and Marvin Humes all on mainstream television. There's probably lots of others.

I notice people from reality shows becoming more mainstream "celebrities". I think they are relatively young