The Marriage Ref

The Marriage Ref, Saturday 9pm, ITV1

I had hoped The Marriage Ref would become a new Saturday night guilty pleasure, like Take Me Out, but it's clearly not in the same class (if "class" is the right word to use in conjunction with Take Me Out).

The Marriage Ref (ITV, Saturday) is a new show in which couples air their differences in front of a panel (one of whom is UN ambassador Geri Halliwell) and a live studio audience. It's gentler than Jerry Springer - a lot gentler. So we're not talking things such as: it turns out my wife isn't just a man but my father. This is more like: my husband's pickles take up too much space in the cupboards, but actually I don't really mind. I can't see Marriage Ref: the Opera getting made, to be honest.

More mediocre Saturday night TV with The Marriage Ref

This pointless nonsense could just hack it as a half hour daytime ­panel game. Mr & Mrs without the laughs. But a 60-minute weekend highlight? I don't think so.

This quirky new panel show is based on a format originally created by Jerry Seinfeld, who apparently came up with the idea after persuading a friend to referee during a row with his wife. Unfortunately for him the show initially got withering reviews in America, although it attracted enough viewers to be filed under "cult viewing". Maybe it'll do better on this side of the pond. The idea is that the opinionated panellists (among them Jonathan Ross, James Corden and Sarah Millican) listen to the marital tiffs of real couples, then offer their hopefully amusing opinions before judging who's in the right. The sort of spats they'll pronounce on are whether a wife loves her cat more than her husband (probably) and whether a woman's demand that her hubbie give up skateboarding and grow up is fair (definitely). Ever-amiable host Dermot O'Leary has already tweeted: "Jeremy Kyle punters need not apply."

Dermot O'Leary hosts this noisy new entertainment show, which sees real-life couples air their marital tiffs in front of a three-strong celebrity panel. It's a format devised by US comedian Jerry Seinfeld; the American version, which aired Stateside last year, featured such guests as Madonna and Tina Fey. ITV will be hoping its feisty arguments prove palatable to British audiences: they've ordered a seven-week series and booked guests including Jimmy Carr, Geri Halliwell and Jonathan Ross (him again).

Seinfeld's 'God-awful' game show arrives in Britain

It crashed and burned in the US but surely Geri Halliwell and co can work their magic on The Marriage Ref here...

Dermot O'Leary: 'I have too many bad habits!'

Dermot O'Leary reveals he's getting personal in his new ITV1 show The Marriage Ref...

James Corden & Jonathan Ross to appear on Marriage Ref

James Corden is to team up with Jonathan Ross to give couples relationship advice as the first panellists are confirmed for Dermot O'Leary's new TV show The Marriage Ref.