Coronavirus effect on the production of tv shows

[Brekkie]

It's not due to start till mid-January again (as this year) anyway so still a month away yet. TBH not much point in pushing it back any further - highly likely another major variant or two will transpire before the final anyway.

[rkolsen]

Saturday Night Live here in the US for the third time in history had no musical guest, the majority of the cast members called out, no audience and a limited crew. The host Paul Rudd joined the five timers club where Tina Fey and Tom Hanks joined him on stage presented him with his jacket.
The only two cast members that were there were Kenan Thompson and Michael Che, needless to say they couldn’t do the sketches, so they had Paul, Tina, Kenan and Tom all introduce live sketches from before past Christmas episodes. However, they did show two new recorded shorts that were in the can aired - one finished at 5AM Saturday Morning and another filmed on Thursday.
Weekend Update was done minus the set/graphics with Tina Fey joining Michael Che on the main stage quickly going through jokes - with their audience of Tom, Paul and Kenan heckling them.

With so many cast members calling in sick or worrying about omicron after there was an outbreak on Saturday afternoon I was impressed they were able to get a show on. Now granite the show’s live elements seemed to come from one camera and probably didn’t need a full gallery as usual.

[Brekkie]

Beginning to impact our screens once again - Lorraine is being folded into Good Morning Britain again with Andi Peters replacing Ranvir Singh, who had been due to host it this week.

[XIII]

I'm surprised they decided to have Lorraine the programme on at all this week given the likes of Loose Women and This Morning are off for two weeks.

[London Lite]

Politics London reverted back to having all the guests on Zoom with only the presenter in the studio. However some other regions still had guests in the studio including Politics Midlands.

[Brekkie]

The Trafalgar Square New Year event, which had replaced the usual New Year Fireworks, has now been cancelled. In it's place BBC1 will show "a live broadcast celebrating London and its defining moments of 2021."

[XIII]

I expect we'll still be getting a display of some sorts like they did before.

[Gary Baldy]

Not sure if it's COVID-related (I didn't watch last year), but this year's Royal Variety Performance fell very flat- it doesn't feel like the spectacle it once did. I never thought I'd be missing Max Bygraves performing....

[RDJ]

Beginning to impact our screens once again - Lorraine is being folded into Good Morning Britain again with Andi Peters replacing Ranvir Singh, who had been due to host it this week.

Never thought I’d see the day GMB would be hosted by Andi Peters… The V/O was ready to go which I think was only recorded months ago as Andi said he wanted to hear his own V/O.
Eitherway I forgot how lonely that huge desk looks with only one person there - I’m not sure why they don’t use GMB’s soft part of the set instead.

[Brekkie]

Not sure if it's COVID-related (I didn't watch last year), but this year's Royal Variety Performance fell very flat- it doesn't feel like the spectacle it once did. I never thought I'd be missing Max Bygraves performing....

I don't think that's an issue that can be put down to covid.

[Neil Jones]

Not sure if it's COVID-related (I didn't watch last year), but this year's Royal Variety Performance fell very flat- it doesn't feel like the spectacle it once did. I never thought I'd be missing Max Bygraves performing....

I don't think that's an issue that can be put down to covid.

I presume [mention]Gary Baldy[/mention] is aware that Bygraves died in 2012 (and had moved to Australia) so if he's still on the performance after his passing then somebody either has the same name or the gateway to the next world after this one lives at the Royal Albert Hall (or the more common venue for this show, the London Palladium)

Anyway Bygraves from what I can see hadn't performed at the Royal Variety Performance since 1986 - he was more prolific on it in the 1950s and 1960s. Then you had to be a variety performer - these days you just have to win BGT.

[XIII]

I imagine it's due to theatre availability but the RVP always seems more at home at a theatre rather than the Royal Albert Hall which doesn't suit it. It'd be great if it went to the Royal Opera House one year.

[Gary Baldy]

Not sure if it's COVID-related (I didn't watch last year), but this year's Royal Variety Performance fell very flat- it doesn't feel like the spectacle it once did. I never thought I'd be missing Max Bygraves performing....

I don't think that's an issue that can be put down to covid.

I presume [mention]Gary Baldy[/mention] is aware that Bygraves died in 2012 (and had moved to Australia) so if he's still on the performance after his passing then somebody either has the same name or the gateway to the next world after this one lives at the Royal Albert Hall (or the more common venue for this show, the London Palladium)

Anyway Bygraves from what I can see hadn't performed at the Royal Variety Performance since 1986 - he was more prolific on it in the 1950s and 1960s. Then you had to be a variety performer - these days you just have to win BGT.

Bygraves performed on there when I was a youngster, which is what I'm referring to- I was never a big fan of him even then, but the atmosphere of the show the other night really wasn't there at all. No eventful feeling anymore, and yes, unfortunately BGT has probably caused the Royal Variety to lose its 'event' status.

[Score]

Don’t see how BGT has damaged the Royal Variety in any way. All it does is fluff it up and promote it, and then the winner gets a maximum 5 minute slot out of a two and a half hour show. There wasn’t even a BGT performance at all this year so it really did have nothing to do with the show apparently being flat.

If anything the added promotion and relevance from BGT has probably helped the Royal Variety over the years.

[XIII]

The RVP is cost effective as a TV programme, ITV apparently paid £5m to broadcast it for ten years back in 2011 so roughly £500,000 a year which is comparable to Eurovision on the BBC which is around £300,000.