Comic Relief phone-in scandal
A new wave of interactive TV competition scandals have emerged today; this latest batch courtesy of the BBC. Following the recent Blue Peter phone-in scandal the corporation has been forced to admit to six more serious editorial breaches, one of which relates to Red Nose Day 2007.
During the Comic Relief telethon broadcast on the 16th March viewers were told that they could win prizes belonging to a famous couple by phoning in. The first two callers put on air gave the incorrect answer and apparently, as there were no other callers to hand, a member of the production team posed as the third caller and successfully answered the question.
On hearing the news today one viewer commented: "Comic Relief is meant to be a fun broadcast but that sort of deception is just not funny as far as I'm concerned".
This latest admission from the BBC forms part of a major 'trust in TV' scandal which is currently rocking the British media industry. Richard and Judy's You Say We Pay, Five's Brainteaser, Saturday Kitchen on BBC1, Virgin Radio and the forthcoming documentary on the Queen are just some of the shows which have admitted to deceiving the public. Today the BBC Trust has six more shows to add to the list: Comic Relief, Sports Relief, Children in Need, White Label on BBC World, kids programme TMI and Liz Kershaw's show on 6Music.
The BBC has announced it is will now be suspending all competitions it is running from midnight however worryingly this is unlikely to be the end of it - the BBC Trust has said that information is emerging about editorial breaches in 'numerous' more phone-in and interactive competitions the BBC have run!
Sadly, at the time of writing, The Mint and the other late-night phone in competitions are still on-air. We hate them. Karen Taylor's Cash Cow sketches highlighted the problem nicely we think. Watch Cash Cow on YouTube.
Mind you, not all late night quiz shows are comedy-free as this clip shows (wait for the caller's revelation):
(For those looking for a more serious and in-depth look at these latest 'trust in TV' scandals see this article in MediaGuardian)