The Claudia Winkleman Show

[mumofoneAloneandwell]

On now? Anyone watching?

Its a chatshow in the Graham Norton slot

I was gonna give it a miss but here I am

It was awful. I’ve never rated CW and never understood the hype around her. She’s as flat as a pancake and dull as dishwater. She ruins any quiz show she’s goes on, just isn’t smart or funny. Hopefully the emperors new clothes have finally fallen off with this.

I love Claudia, but this wasn't good. It felt awkward and as others have said, made me realise how good Graham Norton is.

Yep. Wig. Look at the sheen and the way it moves and hangs. It's not natural whatever is going on. So yes honestly.

The wig is the most interesting thing about last night.

I loved him on the radio, but never took to the tv chat show

I'm giving it a watch now. I think there are also issues with the set. Audience are too close and the interactions are terrible. Lighting is too subdued. Claudia's chair is too big. It engulfs her.

Unfortunately she just doesn't have the presence for this. She's too apologetic and uncomfortable.

I think Claudia deserves a chance to find her groove with this show.
I wasn’t keen on the set ups with the audience members joining in.
Graham and Jonathan’s first chat shows were very different when they started out(on Channel 4). Jonathan had quirky variety type acts and Graham used to have people who did strange things on the internet calling in or joining by satellite link.
They’ve had years to hone their formula. I’m pleased we have a female led night time show. Claudia needs to stop telling us how crap she’s going to be and own her talent. She’s fabulous.

Thinking about it a bit more, I think it was really unfair on her to put it in the Graham Norton slot as it just going to be compared to his show. If it was put on a different night maybe BBC2 at 9pm, the expectations would be different and it could be its own thing.

Agree with this.

Also agree that it needs time.

The guests for next one sound better for her.

I quite enjoyed it. Not sure about the audience participation. Will give it another go, interested to see how it will be with other guests and if it is tweaked at all.

I will watch next week. Personally, I thought the guests were a bit limited this time 😉

Claudia's strength is in managing chaos. The problem with a chat show with these type of guests is everyone is out to be polite for the most part. Cos PR and staying on brand. When she did youth chat shows they were chaos because of the characters on them and the levels of drugs and alcohol. These guests weren't shit faced before going on. Instead they were rather vacuous.

Oh, this is such an important point. Riding the wave of imminent chaos is exactly what she did brilliantly on Strictly and on Traitors, and managing the heightened emotions of players on The Piano. I can see that with entirely orderly guests there’s much less for her to exercise her skills on.

She'd be better not trying too hard to be funny (which is why I find her annoying) and not desperately wanting her guests to be funny. So she'd be better on between 7 and 9. The One Show and EastEnders take up the 7 to 8 slot every night but could find 30 minutes somewhere on a week night. And I think 30 minutes is long enough.

Funny a pp mentions Parkinson. Keep watching some of his old interviews and think he was a really poor interviewer, just self important.

I missed it but may try next week - though tbh I’m not a massive Claudia fan, I don’t like her hair or style at ALL and can’t see why she is so highly regarded in the style stakes. I just want to scream at her to get a decent cut (or reposition…) - she comes across as a smart, clever woman but perhaps this (from what you have mostly said) isn’t the best vehicle for her talents

Well they should book Nick Cage on the show & hope he’s wired, like he was for Terry. Now that I’d watch 🤣

You've made a couple of really good points there. Yes, the set needs to be fun rather than luxurious. This just seems to encourage them to sit back and take it in. Secondly, about ordinary people. I remember Wogan interviewed a (British) woman who'd been living in the rainforest with her DH. She'd lost her sight, so she depended on him, and then he'd died. But somehow she'd got herself out of there. It was mind-blowing. So yes, Wogan had ordinary people with extraordinary stories. Often the best part of the Graham Norton Show for me is the Big Red Chair.

Ohhh Parkie was awful. So condescending. But that was the era of pompous twats, I raise you Melvyn Bragg!!!

Poor CW. I haven't watched the show yet but imagine she must have been terrified and wishing her fringe was longer, like a glossy dark Sia.

I get the impression what she excels at is reacting to people around her, rather than drawing them out of themselves which is a different skill set. Her control of Traitors was scripted, so rather different.

I hope she settles into the role.

I think she’s selling herself short to be honest - I’m tired of her false goofiness now and traitors apart she’s becoming a one trick pony for me. I know we’re not talking about Crufts here but she had nothing at all to offer that coverage.
I was hoping that her new chat show would show her in a more serious light - perhaps in time it will but I suspect it’s going to end up just more of the same fringe flicking and faux silliness.
It’s no good blaming the celebrities - with her pedigree she should be more than capable of asking them some serious questions

Parky sometimes had extraordinary people on who weren’t celebrities too. Wogan often had female stand ins, usually newsreaders like Selina Scott(she got the then Prince Andrew to interview), or Sue Lawley.
I remember Nic Cage’s interview! Live TV too, I think?

I quite enjoyed it, although not a big fan of the guests. I thought she was a bit nervous but that just shows she’s human, give her a chance ffs. I hope she settles into it

I find it astonishing how much women don’t like it when people comment on their appearance but then tear into other women’s. Criticising her hair is just being bitchy, she can wear her hair any which way she likes!

The set was too dark. I guess they were going for a sort of glamorous Traitor vibe but it meant the guests didn't stand out and sort of merged into one another. CW's chair was way too big and overwhelmed her rather than giving her gravitas. And why did dog woman sit in it?? That seemed very odd and presumptuous.

Jeff Goldblum dominated the whole chat and was a right old man bore. CW tried at one point to bring Jennifer Saunders back in to the conversation and he jumped in again. CW was obviously aware of it but will have to get better at managing this type of typical male behaviour.

Some of the audience members who had a little spot were so confident I wondered if they were plants. Though I did like acerbic 'Dark Teal Sofa Woman' and her aversion to using drinks as colour names. The interaction between her and Tom Allen was sparky and fun.

The topics of chat came across as dull rather than quirky. Pencils, eggs, Wolverhampton? And spare me trotting on a cute dog for absolutely no reason at all other than to make the audience and viewers go 'aw'. If you like dogs that is.

Tom Allen who I generally find a bit irritating was easily the most entertaining part of the show.

I like CW but I don't think chat show with celebs is her niche. She's lovely and warm on a one to one (see Strictly) and playing scary boss lady role (see Traitors) but wrangling a lot of big egos at the same time made me realise how good Graham Norton is at it.

Is there only 3/4 ppl working as presenters? same ppl doing multiple shows, CW is so banal.

I wish her well but I think it's a bad idea. She was absolutely rubbish on the film program that she presented. That should have been an omen. No film pun intended.

Agree with the boring conversations with the audience. It's teatime material. And it showed how scripted the guest conversations were.

I think it's a wig. No one, let alone someone of her age, has hair that shiny. ( I say this as an older woman so not being rude, hair texture changes). Her natural colour is a light brown as seen on a video clip of when she was young so she would have been dying it for decades too. It definitely wasn't that shiny when she started on Strictly.

There are interviews and articles all over the Internet where her stylist or hairdresser detail exactly which products are used to achieve that impossible shine.

Can’t comment beyond that as I’ve never found myself in her dressing room. 🤷‍♀️