Despite last being seen beckoning the ratings downwards while strapped to the side of the great white whale that was "He's Having a Baby", the BBC decided that this was nothing to do with Davina but rather the vehicle and hence they decide to try her out on her own big weekly chat show. You do have to wonder why because I can't see anything in her career thus far to suggest that she can do this. OK, she interviews people on Big Brother but if anything this should have set off alarm bells because her style there is hyper, exaggerated and forced overacting to play to the howling crowd. That is a lot different from interviewing celebrities in front of a more sedate audience.
Unsurprisingly but still disappointingly she just does her usual stuff which I suppose will please her fans but did nothing for me. She interviews with the same rather manic and needy style that she had on BB and on He's Having a Baby wide eyes, sudden changes in tone of voice (as if that makes what she says funny) and a host of boring questions that provide nothing in the way of insight. I'm not saying I expected her to be Paxman but the chat is so bland, safe and promotional that it is hard to care about what is being said. It doesn't help that her line-up is equally bland and it looked like they maybe struggled to get the guests and had had to use the party whip to get the stars of BBC shows to appear.
So in the first show alone we had people pushing their new BBC celebrity singing show, the star of Hotel Babylon and a couple of uninspiring singers. They all give very rehearsed answers to Davina's bland questions but they work it like their banter is the funniest thing ever which it really isn't. As the guests and questions misfire and fail to fizzle at all, Davina just looks all the more desperate and hammy. I think she knows she is failing to provide anything of interest and thus she lunges headlong into the BB style that she knows well so she mugs, talks over the celebs and forces them to do silly little turns to give the audience something to wake up for.
As a piece of lightweight entertainment I suppose this will maybe do for people who watch a lot of celebrity reality shows because it is empty, bright, noisy and safely free of the requirement to think or pay attention. However as a chat show it does very little right, badly delivering bland questions to celebrities who are only there to sell their new shows. Following the ratings crater that was "Baby", Davina hit the primetime Wednesday slot with viewers of 3.5 million; this means that it had its ass handed to it by The Bill and was even beaten by one of countless property shows on channel 4 (Relocation, Relocation with 3.7, despite having none of the big push that Davina did). By week two this had only gotten worse as, like me, about 800,000 people just couldn't be bothered to waste their time even the Winter Olympics coverage on BBC2 beat it. A £1million contract for your host is a lot to spend to keep people away but for some reason this is the second time that the BBC have done it. As a mean spirited person I do hope that this ends the idea that Davina is a good presenter she isn't, she just rode the BB success story as hard as she can for as long as she could. However I did feel a bit sorry for her it is not nice to be "found out" and her last two series have exposed her.
Unsurprisingly but still disappointingly she just does her usual stuff which I suppose will please her fans but did nothing for me. She interviews with the same rather manic and needy style that she had on BB and on He's Having a Baby wide eyes, sudden changes in tone of voice (as if that makes what she says funny) and a host of boring questions that provide nothing in the way of insight. I'm not saying I expected her to be Paxman but the chat is so bland, safe and promotional that it is hard to care about what is being said. It doesn't help that her line-up is equally bland and it looked like they maybe struggled to get the guests and had had to use the party whip to get the stars of BBC shows to appear.
So in the first show alone we had people pushing their new BBC celebrity singing show, the star of Hotel Babylon and a couple of uninspiring singers. They all give very rehearsed answers to Davina's bland questions but they work it like their banter is the funniest thing ever which it really isn't. As the guests and questions misfire and fail to fizzle at all, Davina just looks all the more desperate and hammy. I think she knows she is failing to provide anything of interest and thus she lunges headlong into the BB style that she knows well so she mugs, talks over the celebs and forces them to do silly little turns to give the audience something to wake up for.
As a piece of lightweight entertainment I suppose this will maybe do for people who watch a lot of celebrity reality shows because it is empty, bright, noisy and safely free of the requirement to think or pay attention. However as a chat show it does very little right, badly delivering bland questions to celebrities who are only there to sell their new shows. Following the ratings crater that was "Baby", Davina hit the primetime Wednesday slot with viewers of 3.5 million; this means that it had its ass handed to it by The Bill and was even beaten by one of countless property shows on channel 4 (Relocation, Relocation with 3.7, despite having none of the big push that Davina did). By week two this had only gotten worse as, like me, about 800,000 people just couldn't be bothered to waste their time even the Winter Olympics coverage on BBC2 beat it. A £1million contract for your host is a lot to spend to keep people away but for some reason this is the second time that the BBC have done it. As a mean spirited person I do hope that this ends the idea that Davina is a good presenter she isn't, she just rode the BB success story as hard as she can for as long as she could. However I did feel a bit sorry for her it is not nice to be "found out" and her last two series have exposed her.
