I always feel bad voting things 'worst'.
So the only one I did this year was Phone Shop, I think.
Comedy.co.uk Awards 2010 Page 8
He wasn't really that involved.
And not involved at all with this year's series.
(Correct me if I'm wrong.)
Quote: Griff @ January 15 2011, 2:55 PM GMTI never saw that. I did plan to, and I hoped it was going to be good, because I liked the phone shop bits in Extras and I mostly like things Ricky Gervais is involved in. I'm guessing it wasn't.
I seem to recall that he wasn't actually involved with the series. He only script-edited the pilot.
Quote: Tim Walker @ January 15 2011, 10:51 AM GMTWell it was Aaron, obviously! You'll notice how the results are grudgingly announced, before the author goes on to point out all the reasons us voters are fools. Democracy just doesn't work, does it?
(That'w why I was wondering)
Quote: Griff @ January 15 2011, 2:43 PM GMTWell, one of my few remaining morals is that I don't vote Worst things I haven't seen. And as I'm unlikely to watch COA Series 3, it's safe from me at least.
I didn't vote anything worst that I hadn't seen more than one episode of. I abstained on the ones where I didn't feel like I'd seen enough.
Quote: Aaron @ January 15 2011, 2:14 PM GMT
Let's just say it's an instinct I have! For example, the kind of people who vote for The Trip as the best new sitcom, don't strike me as the same demographic who would even try watching a single episode of Coming Of Age, in order to vote it 'worst'. Would you disagree with that analysis?
(Of course people can skip categories so they're not necessarily voting for both, etc etc, but you get the point.)
I voted for The Trip as the best, and COA as the worst IIRC. I watched all of the The Trip, but only saw 2 episodes of COA, which was more than enough for me to make my decision.
Quote: Tim Walker @ January 15 2011, 10:51 AM GMTYes, many of them are obviously wrong, but what's new?
Like you say, what's new Tim?
Awards, polls and things can never get it 'right' with everyone, as it's unlikely the poll results will exactly match what any one person opted for - particularly if you're a strong knowledgeable fan of something, but a 'mainstream' audience is also voting at the same time. Some of the results certainly don't match my own opinions, with popular shows muscling out more obscure gems/duds (although the relatively non-mainstream The Trip winning was a surprise).
Also, clearly BCG has missed some sections of society out (people who don't use computers for starters - my Last Of The Summer Wine loving Gran didn't put forward her opinion for example) so can't be considered conclusive or anything!
I think generally though the awards do reflect what was roughly considered good and bad in the year in terms of general comedy fans, as I think it fair to say most Britcom fans visit the site at least one a week now.
If nothing else, it helps hint that people still think something like Peep Show is great, whilst a certain BBC3 teen sitcom is not.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ January 15 2011, 12:21 PM GMTI like the idea of there being a 'worst of' category, it's important to mark out the real stinkers but I'm not sure if it gives an accurate picture of viewers' opinions overall.
You're absolutely right Alfred - a big weakness is that the rightful 'winner' of the category might not be something many people have seen so doesn't get voted for. It's the same with almost all public polls, and works the same with the 'positive' categories too. For example, Gayle Tuesday (which I didn't see myself), could have been the best or worst bit of telly ever... but, either way, as it was tucked away in the schedules hardly anyone saw it so it's never going to pick up many votes.
Hopefully people do realise that as this is based on a public vote, and so the end results reflect mainstream opinions. So maybe there was something worse than Coming Of Age on telly, but generally Coming Of Age disappointed the biggest proportion of people.
Quote: Griff @ January 15 2011, 2:05 PM GMTWhat evidence is there that people chose to vote Worst programmes they hadn't watched, purely on reputation?
Obviously we'll never know without adding a "did you watch this" button (and even then people could lie!)... but I bet some people did indeed vote just on reputations. Maybe it's a bit unfair, but received opinions come from somewhere - they're normally adopted from people whose judgement is trusted (e.g. a friend who has a similar comedy taste and is warning you not to waste your time watching something).
Equally though, a lot of people probably did watch the vote they voted for - a look at the BCG Coming Of Age thread suggests a lot of people gave Series 2 a try but couldn't make it through an episode.
The abstention for giving a negative vote in the radio categories was high, suggesting people weren't just using their negative vote for the sake of it.
At the end of the day (to use a horrid cliche), the results are probably as accurate as we can get them. I think if Coming Of Age and Peep Show were the other way around there may be some alarm bells and we might need to be discussing our accuracy a bit more.
At least, if nothing else, we tried to be more accurate than those polls you sometimes see in the papers. I seem to remember one dodgy 'survey' last year from an insurance company or something that named James Corden the funniest man on TV... based on a poll of 100 people.
Quote: Ian Wolf @ January 15 2011, 9:54 AM GMTThe Comedy.co.uk Awards have mentioned on the site that must not be named.
Interesting that there's no mention of The British Comedy Guide, like they've gone out of their way to avoid it! 
Dan
I noticed that. Just comedy.co.uk with no link. Ha!
Ha, how pathetic!
What site was that on?
THE SITE THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED.
I thought I would just mention that voting for the 2011 awards is open now.
Quote: Ian Wolf @ January 9 2012, 10:22 PM GMTI thought I would just mention that voting for the 2011 awards is open now.
Surely it deserves its own thread, Wolf?
Pretty easy to vote as there were few real standouts jostling for position. Imagine if you had to vote for 'Best Returning American Sitcom'. That would be a challenge.
Quote: chipolata @ January 9 2012, 10:32 PM GMTSurely it deserves its own thread, Wolf?
It does, but only Mark and Aaron can start off threads in this section of the forum, so you'll have to wait for one of them to do it.