10 o’clock live
I don’t know if Channel 4 have called it the UK’s answer to The Daily Show but I wager its pretty safe to say that everyone else has.
10 o’clock live started it’s 15 week run last night. Rather than be a nightly show on four evenings a week like The Daily Show and it’s spin-off (note, by spin-off I mean in the same pedigree as Frasier was to Cheers, as opposed to what Joey was to Friends) The Colbert Report, 10 o’clock live is an hour long show on once a week.
It’s also got 3 hosts rather 1.
I say 3, because if anyone was thinking, “I bet they’re just using Lauren Laverne for eye candy” channel 4 went out of their way to prove the nay sayers right. She’s there as a maternal figure to book end the show and remind the boys why they’re here, without actually contributing to anything herself other than the awful World News Network VT. She has talent, don’t waste it!
Jimmy Carr was great, he’s a pro at presenting and it showed. Tell him where to stand, give him the script and he’ll do it justice. He’s the Colbert of 10 o’clock live, his normal comic performance has the air of a mask he wears, playing a character. His interview technique was in the style of Colbert and Stewart, let them speak, make a joke, have fun, entertain, but always let the guest make their point.
Which isn’t quite how Mitchell did it. Mitchell seemed eager, nervous and with an agenda. On his “soapbox” rant about politics he performed as he does on his pre-recorded rants, but his eyes often asked “are you still filming me?”. Yes we all like Peep Show, but it’s not a good sign when the interviewee appears to have more media training than the interviewer. Calm down a bit fella, there’s plenty of time, a whole hour in fact.
The star of the show was, obviously, Charlie Brooker. The delivery, the wit, the intellectual argument, all there as you’d expect from the host of Newswipe. He should be the host of the show, plain and simple. He is our John Stewart, albeit a more angry and cynical John Stewart, but he is a national treasure in the field of satire.
I have hope for the show, they’ve only done one episode and there are fourteen to go. Jimmy Carr’s “The Word”-esque section at the beginning was great, Brooker’s Tunisia piece was fantastic and the final improv round table with the whole team shows promise. They have an hour for the show, yet the show feels like a roller coaster, short segments, continuously switching the host, like they’re worried all us channel 4 watching hipsters will get bored of a segment which lats more than 10 minutes and accidentally switch over to 4Music or BBC Question Time.
10 o’clock live has potential, give them a couple of weeks and we could have something special. We won’t have The Daily Show (channel 4 chose to reduce it to only the “international edition”) or The Colbert Report (its hidden away on FX still, right?), but we’ll have something. Hopefully with more Lauren Laverne.
Of course after 3 episodes if it hasn’t picked up I’ll probably start a “Bring Back Newswipe” campaign.
