ITV's Tycoon: boom or bust?
Posted 21 June 2007 at 3:49PM by Simon Dickson in Light relief
ITV jumped on the business telly bandwagon this week, with the first episode of 'Tycoon' - in which half a dozen entrepreneurs compete for Dragon's Den panellist Peter Jones's venture capital. Starting in the week after the conclusion of The Apprentice, and in the same 9pm timeslot, comparisons with the Alan Sugar show are inevitable - and I'm afraid it was no contest.
As with Dragon's Den, it's real business people playing with real money out of Peter's pocket. Elizabeth wants to launch a range of vodka drinks, but can't think of a decent name. (She's fantastic at thinking of terrible names, though.) She also reminds me a bit of Katie, which is not necessarily a good thing. Page Three girl Lauren wants to be inspirational in hair extensions. Teenager Tom left school to become a newspaper mogul. Cathy-and-Helen seem inseparable, and want to create a lifestyle brand around gardening; although it probably wasn't smart to tell the nation just how much markup you're getting on those £45 polo shirts, ladies. Justin promises an end to plastic bag anguish, whilst Iain reckons we all want a remote-controlled helicopter. They all tell us how desperately they want to be 'Britain's next Tycoon'. All fairly mundane, to be honest; we've seen much more exciting ideas in the Den.
But the contestants themselves came across merely as bit-part players. There was no doubting who was the star of the show: Peter Jones himself. With The Apprentice, you got a spoonful of Sugar at the start, a big dollop at the end... but crucially, in between, it was all about the contestants. Not so here - it's all Peter, Peter, Peter. The moments of high drama seem to feature Peter calling someone downstairs for a quiet chat, or Peter chairing a meeting, or Peter inviting someone up the jetty with the implicit threat of being pushed into the Thames. I think I'll complain to the production company - who were they again? Ah yes, Peter Jones TV.
Reactions were not favourable. The Times called it 'a shameless rip-off'. The Herald called it 'a pallid photocopy of The Apprentice - with the added problem of Peter Jones. Essentially he's too bloodless to carry a show. He criticises his aspirant entrepreneurs bluntly but not grippingly, and waxes wooden when reading from the autocue.' But perhaps most damning of all, the ratings put it bottom of the five main channels - beaten by Lenny Henry, Andrew Marr, our mate Gordon Ramsay, and a Channel Five episode of CSI.
It's all rather disappointing. The show's rules lack the brutal clarity of The Apprentice. He might close down a business this week, he might not. He might give out some extra cash, but it probably won't be a make-or-break decision. There were great opportunities here - with the products being sold 'for real', it was a rare chance for the general public to actually interact directly with a reality show. We could have bought the products, and formed our own opinions; or we could have had real-time business blogs by each contestant. Instead, it all feels a bit rubbish. Episode two had better be better.
Tags: dragon's den, itv, peter jones, The Apprentice, tycoon
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Comments
2. At June 22, 2007 5:32 PM, John wrote:
It's kind of taken the mediocre bits of all the other shows and meshed them together...
3. At June 23, 2007 5:49 PM, Dave Benoy wrote:
One does wonder 'Why do these guys do it" (Sir Alan/Peter et al). Easy to see why for the contestants - they actually believe that this is the way to go for commercial sucess - bless them! But for Sir Alan - OK, it rings true, and my business would not have started or suceeded but for his briliiance in introducing sensibly priced PC's - and it is a bit of fun for him, over which he retains as much control as a TV program can permit (!) - however I think that poor Peter has a little to learn himself - despite his riches, which will slide unless he gets his eye back on his balls.
4. At June 27, 2007 2:22 PM, John Smith wrote:
I have been privileged to act as an independent judge at regional finals for Young Enterprise for several years now and the contestants at these events, who year 10 to 12 students, make the contestants on Tycoon look amateurish and half baked. I think that if Peter Jones or some similar business person looked at what goes on in Young Enterprise they would see far more talent and probably find a far better vehicle with which to further their own public presence.
5. At June 28, 2007 8:13 PM, Niamh wrote:
Surely the object of the exercise from Peter Jones TV standpoint is to make the contestants look half baked. Close ups of quivering lips is what they want to show versus him as Mr Super-Human.
That poor girl that divulged the price of her hair pieces to Sir P Green this week is a case in point. Where is the training on how to make and receive sales calls? No, just chuck them in and tell them off and don't tell them how it should be done.
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1. At June 21, 2007 7:19 PM, J G Dawson wrote: