Cruellest TV shows

[Floogal]

These can be present or past shows.
Mine are:
*Supersize v superskinny. Fat shaming and biased. Examples being the music used, cutting comments by Liza Tarbuck and Dr Kristian. Close ups of supersizers eating. Etc

• Graham Norton, particularly the red chair. *Come dine with me. Just the snobbery and bullying. Especially rummaging in people's underwear draws.

He actually sued them! And quite rightly too tbh

What was one one where they holiday swapped poor vs rich? That was awful!

The one where parents followed their adult child on a holiday.

I always thought it was staged until there was an article about a massive fall out between one of the followed and their parents over it.

Matt Lucas tweeted a photo of himself and Walliams last week with their arms around each other sitting at their laptops with the heading "Writing". So not only has he very much not distanced himself, they are writing new material. 😩

Did he? I'm not surprised it was a cruel thing to do.

That was bloody awful.

The entire point of the show was the so-called"reveal". Like, the implication was that that was the only aspect of Miriam worth knowing about. Just nasty.

Plus I think the contestants had actually twigged, some of them. I remember comments and sniggering. So it failed even on its very narrow remit.

This was my first thought too. Jermery Kyle.

The Parliamentary Commitee Inquiry was pretty damning when they quizzed the producers and the lead mental health employee of the show.

Lots of terrible practices came out. But the worst was the poor people were told that if they became uncomfortable or need a break, they could exit off the stage and go back stage to a safe space.

In reality thuis "safe space" was a lie. The camara and Jezza would just follow the distraught person and continue to shout at them while they were in this supposed "safe space".
Horrendous

Though I looked it up and apparently Miriam died in 2019. Possibly suicide but her husband suspected murder.

I never knew any of this, including the lawsuit. I'd forgotten all about the programme.

There’s a good podcast called “There’s something about Miriam” about it. They were all exploited. As with JK even the production team were exploited, they were young working class people on their first job forced to work long hours and follow a script to get people on the show.JK and the producers were the only ones who benefited.

Urgh I thought he had .

Lorraine's Big Fat Challenge with the Chawners.

At the time I remember thinking how awful and bullying it was. Now I'm even more disgusted.

The parents clearly suffered from serious depression. Those young girls were effectively their carers. The girls Emma and Sam had absolutely no support and were ridiculed on a daily basis.
It makes me so sad to think how awful and low those girls were made to feel.
The programme wasn't designed to help them. It was made to mock and laugh at the family. The music, constant sarcastic voice over, 'help' the family was offered was all aimed for the audience to laugh and enjoy the misfortunes of the Chawner family.

Lorraine Kelly should be ashamed that she put her name to this programme.

Apart from some of the others mentioned by pp, Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen is excruciating to watch. I find myself cowering in my seat!

The original 10 years younger was brutal! They all seemed to have a nose job/face lift/boob job/extreme dental work as standard. The current version is much better.

I sometimes wonder what the people who appeared on ‘how clean is your house’ got on once the cameras left, how long did the house stay tidy and clean for? I really think there must have been deeper underlying issues like mental health or ADHD/other neurodiversities to end up living like that rather than just ‘lazy’

I sometimes wonder what the people who appeared on ‘how clean is your house’ got on once the cameras left, how long did the house stay tidy and clean for? I really think there must have been deeper underlying issues like mental health or ADHD/other neurodiversities to end up living like that rather than just ‘lazy’

Yes, I know they did a follow up visit a short time afterwards, but I too wondered if it would stay that way longer term.

I preferred life laundry, I think it was called, where the presenter would try to tackle the underlying issues, and they'd do some minimal redecorating. Better than the no nonsense browbeating from Kim and Aggie.

There was a horrific programme called The Swan.
Each week 3 or 4 women were taken away from their families for several months and dieted, exercised and had plastic surgery. No mirrors in their isolated apartments. Each week, their was a full body reveal, one was pronounced the winner and the others would go home.
At the end of the series their was a pageant for each week's winner and she was crowned the winner.
Imagine going through all that and still being told you aren't good enough!

That does sound horrific, and psychologically damaging, even without the competitive element thrown in.

Trinny and Suzanna pulling off a mother of triplets underwear on screen and watching her shaking and crying in the changing room afterwards has got to be the most unpleasant thing I’ve seen. I never watched them again. Horrible horrible people.

Trinny and Suze, and all that grabbing. Just humiliating really.

There were some good tops among the rest, but we used to think that they just enjoyed taking people out of their comfort zone even if it didn't suit them, to make the most extreme change and difference for TV, and if they were dressed very conservatively they'd find themselves in trainers, and vice versa

Tips not tops