To think that contestants should be banned from telling us their sob stories on game shows?

[mumofoneAloneandwell]

Now i am secretly rooting for the other person to beat you 😬

Bring back contestants who want the money for a boob job!

I know the one you mean. Seemed to be a bit of good cop vs bad cop (i.e. Linda plant) set up with Claude having the middle ground & mopping up the remains.

I agree the interviews have gone downhill in recent series but in fairness the proposed businesses have been pretty dire, plus most of the contestants have more of a big brother quality about them.

Definately.
I blame the likes of X factor and BGT.I
We all go through stuff, each and every one of us, that's how life is.

They seem to double up with Karren and Tim as team supervisors, or whatever their official title is.

Surely it can't be accidental that Tim is so nice whilst Karren is... much less so?!

I like the sound of 'Sewing or Throwing'! A show in which sad contestants tell us about their sadness and then are allocated to either sewing a dress or throwing some darts to see which activity draws them more effectively towards cathartic tears of grief-tinged joy (or joy-tinged grief or whatever).

I remember when Judith Keppel won the million and they were trying to hype it up with, “What will you do with this life-changing sum?!” and she politely responded, “Well, we’ll have a nice Christmas.”

But it’s the same with Pointless: Alexander asks “And what are you going to do with your £1,473 ?” and each of the pair describes how they’re planning a trip to Patagonia, a new kitchen and giving the rest to charity.

Lol me too and they were not going to give up their minimum job in a factory getting up at 5am everyday because they enjoyed the work and company
They might splash out on a new tv and week away in Rhyl but that' would be it 🤣

Oh my god, yes, I agree so much. I don’t even want to watch Dragons Den any more because of the applicants swimming in self pity and faux heroism.. it’s horrendous. Emotional blackmail, lack of boundaries, sob stories galore.. YUCK! Let’s start a ‘ bring back dignity’ campaign.

Yes. I’m with you. Normal life events treated like traumatising catastrophes.

😂😂😂

Tbf, the ones who do leave their old life behind and buy a big house etc etc tend to be the ones who end up miserable/divorced/bankrupt

Even when there isn't a sob story, I am increasingly irritated by the obsession with the contestants' lives. I love Sewing Bee and Pottery Throwdown, but am bored to tears when we get to the final and they pad it out with relatives talking about how amazing the contestant is, etc.

I'm really not interested in how they always loved art at school and made their own clothes at the age of five.

I loved the first series of 'The Piano', and, much as I get the 'healing power of music' theme, it started to irk me that, talented as they were, the ones that got chosen all also had some big backstory of overcoming odds. Of course the little blind girl in series one was absolutely stunning, but some of the decisions definitely felt more as though the judgement wasn't about the playing so much as the importance of the piano to the individual according to the judges.

It was also annoyingly ageist. I think somebody must have said something, because in series two they actually chose an older gentleman, who of course had a dementia story. Dear old John who just loved playing the piano at 70 didn't have a chance against the child prodigy or the attractive 20 - something with mental health issues or a troubled home life.

It sounds really callous, I know, and it isn't that I don't appreciate success in the face of adversity, it's just the feeling that the considerable ability of these people is getting swamped and the real competition is who has suffered the most trauma.

That made me laugh too. @MinnieCauldwell The Despair Shop! 😆

😆

There's a contestant, George, on this year's Strictly who was obviously uncomfortable going for the sympathy vote and even refused to disclose in his intro that he was injured one week. But they somehow got him to dedicate a dance to his mum and talk for five minutes about her cancer diagnosis. I do wonder if he now feels ashamed, as I would hate myself for using my mum like that.

I'm willing to risk it.

I used to like that quiz show 100% on Channel 5 where the only time any of the contestants even spoke was the winner confirming that they'd return for the next show.

This is why I have given up on strictly. The stories detract from the dancing. I watch it to see the dancing and the progression, not to know about the backgrounds. ‘Race around the world’ does it as well. There is no getting away from it.

Your ‘bring back dignity’ campaign can run alongside my ‘get a grip’ campaign.

When Millionaire first started, the early rounds whizzed by with quick fire answers. So much better.

I've only recently seen a couple of clips of The Piano programme and assumed you had to be disabled or disadvantaged to apply.

I don't miss TV, it sounds exhausting.

I read an article not long ago that had the UK as the second most depressed nation globally, this will be one reason why.

Add in the pinky plonky music and the I'm doing this for ,add in a relative ,dead friend.
Nope you're doing it for yourself🤮

I'm guessing it must draw viewers or they wouldn't do it. But it certainly puts me off watching.

"The piano of doom"