Pushing it too far

Now if you have been talking about TV this week the chances are you have been talking about Derren Brown and his lottery trick. Last week live on TV he put together a show where he proclaimed to have managed to predict all six lottery numbers that were going to be drawn. On the show you saw a set of balls on screen but could not see the numbers and then after the lottery had happened Derren turned them around and they did in fact match the lottery numbers that were shown, however this doesn’t mean he predicted them.

Regardless of whatever technique you were to use to predict the lottery numbers the percentage chance you had of predicting them all correctly would still remain the same which is approx 1 in 14 million as there are that many different combinations that can come out. However Derren’s show was crafted so well that he got many people believing he had actually predicted the numbers.

This isn’t the first stunt Derren has pulled, over the last few years he had done Russian Roulette and a show on mind control how he managed to get people to do things they wouldn’t normally do. Now both of these tricks might like his recent stunt be fixed but these two were plausible that he could actually pull them off, with Russian Roulette you never have a worse than fifty percent chance of getting it wrong and the idea that you could through the art of suggestion get someone to do something is again very plausible. However with the lottery stunt I think he has tried to push the envelope too far and it has come unbelievable.

In the human spirit there I something that wants to believe that there is someone out there that could do something amazing and we would all love to be able to predict the lottery which is where Derren gets his fan base. I think if Derren tries too many of these stunts, too often I think he will lose any credibility he has. In my opinion Derren is a great TV presenter an a great illusionist but as for having the powers he proclaims I’m not too sure, I will however give him one thing he is great at getting people talking and if this show has caused people to try their hand at maths and problem solving to try and prove or disprove his trick it will have done something good.

I think it is a wise lesson for young people to learn from Derren Brown that if you push things too far that you may become unstuck so always be sure to think about what you are going to do and your next move before you do it because as soon as you lose your credibility then you’ve got problems.

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Big Brother Celebrity Hijack

Last Thursday the latest series of Big Brother kicked off but with a twist this time instead of the housemate being celebrities they are a group of talented young people who could go on to be celebrities. Some of the housemates include a MoBo nominated singer, the Chairman of the Scottish Youth Parliament and one of the top young fashion designers in the world who have had their work showcased at New York Fashion week. You may remember we broke the news on this series many months ago on the blog when the production company were looking for housemates but now I am going to talk about how the series is going.

The first we need to ask ourselves is would this series be going ahead in this format this year if it wasn’t for last year’s race row? And if it wasn’t for last years race row would this series still be on Channel 4 and not E4? All the questions aside no young person with talent can’t afford to look a gift horse in the mouth and need to seize on opportunities when they arrive, so even though it’s only on E4 I’m so glad this series is happening.

Now down to the format of the new show. Instead of like previous series of Celebrity Big Brother when the celebrities were housemates this year they are not in the house and unlike previous series of the regular version Big Brother is no longer in control. The Celebrities are now in control of the house playing the role of Big Brother. Celebrities take it in turn each day to set tasks for the housemates and to listen to their problems.

Now to get the viewing ratings they have to use celebrities which has shown by the drop in viewing ratings from last years Celeb Big Brother by not having celebrities in the house itself. Saying this though for my personal tastes they pay too much attention to the celebrities well at least they did in the first night instead of putting the focus on the housemates but again I understand why they do this. I would have much preferred for them to have put some of the celebrities in to the house as I think this would have been an interesting learning experience for the housemates.

Going in to the show you knew that it was a reality show and that was going to be a fundamental part of the show so the producers were going to want to create conflict and interesting situations to keep the general public gripped. I am however loving the conversations in the house that centre around their talents and how they got to where they are today with them all seeming interested in each others achievements and learning from them. They really seem to be inspiring each other which I think is going to be a positive effect of the show.

I cannot however recommend the show to our younger viewers as there are some things on the show which aren’t suitable to the young audience. The one thing that the young housemates need to remember is that they have all worked hard to get their talent to the stage it is now so it is important they don’t let any of their actions on the show takeaway from what they have already achieved or to hinder their future development as sometimes what has taken years to build up can be taken down in a matter of seconds. On the other hand if the housemates are able to communicate positive messages about themselves to the audience at home their time spent on the show may help accelerate their path towards their dream.

I think it’s great that these young faces will now be known on a larger scale and on a scale they deserve but I just hope this programme doesn’t harm any of them in their pursuit of their dream. The longer the young housemates stay on the show and the more pressure they are put under I hope they don’t act in a way in the heat of the moment that may put them in a bad light.

What do you think of Big Brother? Are you enjoying the new series? Please let us know by getting involved on our topic of the week in the forum by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=307

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com

Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack

Over the last 10 years our TV screens have been bombarded by reality TV shows and TV Talent contests. The names of the programmes have changed and the situations the contestants on these shows have changed over the years but the formula has never changed.

Times are changing though as now the guys behind the TV series ‘Big Brother’ have come up with a new concept titled ‘Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack’. The show is due to air in early 2008 instead of the usual yearly celebrity Big Brother series.

This time round they are asking not for the most outrageous young people like they usually have in the regular Big Brother series but instead they are asking for young people with talents and young people with inspiring stories to come on the show.

What the show will entail is still under wraps but this is one of the biggest opportunities given by a reality TV series for young people with talent to get some major prime time TV coverage. I take my hat off to the guys behind this programme as this is just what we need. If you read my blog I wrote about Big Brother on the first week of the last series you will see this is exactly what I was calling for.

People in the past have played around with the Reality / TV Talent show idea in the past like Fame Academy on the BBC but that was first and primarily a talent show with the reality side of it just being a side point. It is completely fresh for a TV programme to focus on the reality side first with a talent element involved. As Endemol have proved with Big Brother that you can get some get incredible ratings and gain national interest through reality TV and if they can use that expose talent to the nation then it should make for a brilliant programme. At the end of the day regardless of the format it is about getting the most people possible tune in on the TV to watch these talented young hopefuls as it is only by getting a lot of people watching that they will have a chance to launch their careers.

It’s going to be brilliant to see a reality TV show which isn’t about people who want to be celebrities and famous just because they were on Big Brother but instead talented people who want to use the Big brother experience to showcase their talents to the world.

If you are aged between 18 and 21 and want to apply go to:

http://www.channel4.com/bbhijack

If you want to talk about this show or Talent / Reality TV join in our topic of the week on our forums by going to:

http://www.talentedyoungpeople.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=215

Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation
www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"

www.talentedyoungpeople.blogspot.com