ITV to slash 'Tycoon' series - understandably [BT broadband office]

ITV to slash 'Tycoon' series - understandably

Posted 29 June 2007 at 9:24AM by Simon Dickson in Light relief

With ITV presumably heeding the broadly negative reaction to episode one, Tuesday night's second edition of The Peter Jones Show - sorry, 'Tycoon' - had a slightly different feel to it. But it wasn't enough to save the show from another ratings disaster: data quoted by the Guardian put its audience share at 9%, the same as last week's opener, and well below what ITV would want at peak time. Now it's being reported that ITV is going to drop the show from its prestigious 9pm slot, moving it to a late evening slot - and somewhat humiliatingly, cutting it down to a half-hour show. One step away from the words 'you're fired', if you like.

In between the embarrassingly contrived shots of testosterone-fuelled entrepreneurship - Peter in his private jet! Peter in his flash car! Peter having 'walk and talk' meetings, because he's just so busy! - we had more tales of incompetence, but no hint of continuity. After last week's focus on Elizabeth's inability to name her vodka drink, we were casually told that 'oh, she picked a name in the end.' After an apparently strong first week, hair extension queen Lauren was stitched up by her mentor, who treated her schoolgirl error like it was a war crime. And did we see anything of the two gardening ladies?

Teen newspaper mogul Tom saw his ambitions torn to shreds in the show's underwhelming climax on a Thames jetty. He can't have been too surprised: his failure to produce a decent mockup of his planned publication, with ten grand backing and a month to do it, was unforgivable. His early exit may prove to be a blessing in disguise. (Personally, I was just disappointed that the fired contestant didn't get pushed into the river. That would almost have made it worth tuning in.)

Meanwhile, the Telegraph reports that Sir Alan Sugar has been asked to join a new Downing Street advisory council, meeting several times a year to 'offer advice on the impact Government policies are having on the UK's competitiveness'...

Tags: Alan Sugar, dragon's den, itv, peter jones, tycoon

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Comments

1. At June 29, 2007 5:06 PM, J G Dawson wrote:

Contrary to popular thinking the world is not waiting for the next new idea or invention - far from it - the sad fact is that on average only about 1 in 200 patents ever see the light of day - or put another way - in the UK 995 ideas in every 1000 filed are subsequently abandoned - Peter Jones is just another symptom of a society breast-fed on a need to pillory anyone who dares to stand up - the bigger the simpleton the better...

2. At June 30, 2007 11:48 AM, Brian wrote:

With regard to your last paragraph, and the fact that Sir Alan Sugar may join a panel of business leaders that advise the government on the impact that their policies are having on the UK's competitiveness. I notice that the names listed are all from high profile, high profit organisations. The view from the seats of all these people is almost certainly different than the view from the seat of a low profile, small business owner, who has no representation at all.

It will be interesting to see what comes from these meetings around the 'bargaining' table. A cynic could easily see it's main objective as a way of creating more profit for the companies in exchange for higher donations to the Labour party.

Another question might be, where will they find a venue big enough to accommodate all these high profile egos?

3. At July 4, 2007 1:12 PM, adrian cohen wrote:

What's even more worrying is that Sugars business "empire" is floundering badly due to bad management, so other than appearing on a rubbish tv show what has Sugar got to offer the nation at all?

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