TV

Phillip Schofield is following the modern celebrity redemption playbook. Here it is | Mark Borkowski

Published

5 hours ago

September 27, 2024

In what feels like the blink of an eye, Phillip Schofield is heading back to our primetime screens.

He never was a casualty of cancel culture – this was a spectacular career collapse sparked by a serious HR violation, an abuse of power and a betrayal of his inner circle, not to mention millions of viewers who saw one man and realised he was another. “I have brought myself down. I am done. I have to talk about television in the past tense, which breaks my heart,” he said then. But that was then.

Now, 16 months later, here he is, a contemporary Lazarus, gearing up for a comeback as if nothing had ever happened. In the fame business, it seems that even the most spectacular falls from grace have a reset button.

After last year’s debacle involving a tawdry affair with a much younger colleague on ITV’s This Morning, Phillip Schofield, the TV veteran, is somehow clawing his way back into the limelight.

This time he’s washed up – both figuratively and literally – on a desert island in a three-part Channel 5 special, Phillip Schofield: Cast Away. Note the narrative: here he is as an embattled survivor.

It is a very modern form of public therapy in which a disgraced star seeks redemption through the absurd theatre of manufactured reality. But in this chaotic ecosystem – of TV, of public opinion, of social media – the gambit might just pay off.

Let me tell you, from what I know of PR and strategic communications, what’s going on here.

The first trick is the apparently confessional format of the show. The solitude allows Schofield to tell his side of the story that dethroned him without dissenting voices interrupting. Then there is the setting that unsubtly symbolises both humility and victimhood – all clearly designed to propel Schofield into a redemption arc.

He went quiet for a time after the scandal hit. That, too, was strategic. These days, the public’s attention span is about as long as a TikTok clip, and the news cycle is just as fleeting. A full 80% of online news stories hit their peak within 20 hours, meaning that we collectively forget them faster than we scroll past useless ads. Borkowski research confirms that even a major scandal only holds our fragile interest for two weeks, tops.

This collective short-term memory loss is the perfect breeding ground for long-term amnesia. In that negative space, fractured reputations are painstakingly rebuilt and disgraced characters miraculously rebrand themselves – as if we wouldn’t remember the trainwreck they caused last Tuesday.

Can it go wrong? Of course it can. Consider the version of this strategy being conducted in parallel in the US with fellow cancellee Ellen DeGeneres, who lost her primetime show amid internal bullying allegations at odds with her much-loved catchphrase to viewers (“Be kind”). Her comeback vehicle, a widely derided standup Netflix special For Your Approval, should act as a cautionary tale for Schofield. She, too, picked a format she could control and in which she was the only voice – a platform on which she could give her side of the story unchallenged, and one on which she could paint herself as the “real” victim in her cancellation.

But she’s been panned. “No apologies and not particularly funny: Ellen DeGeneres’s shameless return to standup,” was the Guardian verdict. DeGeneres’s comeback vehicle appears to have lacked the necessary subtlety and balance to rehabilitate her public image. She compares her experience of being cancelled with the ostracism she experienced when coming out as gay in 1997. Gun, foot, bang.

Schofield must avoid these pitfalls. But however well pitched his comeback strategy, Cast Away is almost certainly going to be a success for Channel 5, whose decision to platform Schofield has thrust it into a spotlight that generally eludes the minnow of UK terrestrial television. Also worth noting: its achievement in preventing the show’s existence from being scooped by a tabloid until just days before broadcast, when the publicity suits it.

We are a harsh, judgmental culture, and yet we enjoy a redemption story. The headlines generated by the mere prospect of Schofield’s onscreen return demonstrate that we are on some level still fascinated by the character even while recognising his wrongdoing and his trajectory. He’s got our attention instantly; his challenge now is to maintain it without sustaining further damage to his already battered reputation.

If Cast Away is to launch him out of showbusiness purgatory, Schofield must put in the performance of a lifetime. The programme will need to feel raw and authentic.

Facing a morbidly curious but largely unsympathetic public, Schofield must walk a tightrope of humility, contrition, grace, thick skin and self-awareness, while also reminding us of the prodigious camera presence that made him a star in the first place.

No tantrums, no indignation at his downfall, no navel-gazing. He must be sincere or at least construct a sincerity – and then keep his fingers crossed.

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TV

Maggie Smith shared brilliantly blunt reason she never watched Downton Abbey before her death

Published

3 mins ago

September 27, 2024

NewsAdmin

Maggie Smith shared brilliantly blunt reason she never watched Downton Abbey before her death

Dame Maggie Smith was often open about her lack of time or interest in watching her performance as the Dowager Countess of Grantham in ITV’s hit period drama, Downton Abbey.

Smith, who died peacefully in hospital early on Friday (Sunday 27), aged 89, starred as Violet Crawley in every episode of the popular six-season show about the aristocratic family and their domestic servants in the early 20th century.

She later reprised her role in the two movie spin-offs: Downton Abbey (2019) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022), alongside co-stars Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael and Elizabeth McGovern.

Even during her time on the series, she wasn’t afraid of admitting in several interviews that she had never watched the show.

In 2013, months after the series aired its third season, Smith told 60 Minutes presenter Steve Kroft that she had “never watched it,” confessing that she would find it too frustrating to watch her performance and nitpick over how she could have done things differently.

“I will look at it when it’s all over, maybe, because it’s frustrating,” she said at the time. “I always see things that I would like to do differently, and think, ‘Why in the name of God did I do that?’”

Following the show’s conclusion, she expressed relief that it had come to an end.

“I really am [relieved],” Smith said on an October 2015 episode of The Graham Norton Show. “Because, honestly, by the time we finished, [Crawley] must’ve been 110. I couldn’t go on and on. I couldn’t; it just didn’t make sense.”

In the years after the show’s finale, she revealed that she had been gifted a Downton Abbey box set but still hadn’t gotten around to watching it.

Maggie Smith once said she would find it too ‘frustrating’ to watch and nitpick her performance as Violet Crawley (AP)

“I haven’t got time,” she joked to actors Joan Plowright, Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins in their 2018 documentary Tea with the Dames. “I shall have to hasten otherwise I won’t last long enough to see the wretched thing!”

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Throughout her decades-long stage and screen career, Smith gave life to a host of memorable characters, from Muriel Spark’s passionate Edinburgh girls’ school teacher Jean Brodie, in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and most notably to Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film franchise.

She also appeared in other film hits including Steven Spielberg’s Hook and the Sister Act franchise.

In a statement issued via her publicist, Smith’s two sons, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin, announced her death, saying: “It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith. She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning.”

Remembering Smith as an “intensely private person,” they shared she was surrounded by “friends and family at the end.”

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TV

rebutan tv

Published

36 mins ago

September 27, 2024

NewsAdmin

#shorts gini ni kalo rebutan remot, masukin tv aja sekalian

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TV

Emmerdale fans predict surprise pregnancy for unlikely character with a bombshell paternity twist

Published

1 hour ago

September 27, 2024

NewsAdmin

Emmerdale fans predict surprise pregnancy for unlikely character with a bombshell paternity twist

LOVE triangles are a fundamental part of soap-land, but which ones have become the most iconic?

EASTENDERS

Bradley/Stacey/Max: Stacey Slater began an affair with boyfriend Bradley Branning’s dad Max in 2007.

Despite their romps, Stacey still married Bradley, but their deceit came out in an iconic Christmas Day episode that year.

Grant/Sharon/Phil: Heading even further back in Walford history, EastEnders fans were gripped in the 90s as Sharon Watts had a one-night stand with her brother-in-law Phil Mitchell.

Sharon confided in best friend Michelle Fowler – not realising it was caught on tape – and her husband Grant eventually found out and played it in front of everyone at the Queen Vic.

Syed/Amira/Christian: Syed Masood was engaged to Amira before realising he had feelings for another man, Christian, which he confessed to him on his wedding day.

A devout Muslim, Syed refused to admit his true sexuality and went ahead and married Amira anyway, but when they returned, the two men started an affair before being caught in the act by Amira.

CORONATION STREET

Shelley/Peter/Lucy: Peter Barlow took the concept of a love triangle and ran with it in Coronation Street – extending it to bigamy.

He was in a relationship with Shelley Unwin but started dating Lucy Richards, and quickly married her after she fell pregnant with his son, Simon.

But it didn’t stop him also marrying Shelley, but he was eventually caught when Lucy turned up in Weatherfield and the two women confronted him.

Ken/Deidre/Mike: Back in 1982, Deirdre Barlow started sleeping with her husband’s nemesis Mike Baldwin in secret, before confessing all a year later.

When Mike turned up at the marital home, Deirdre was being throttled by her husband who then kicked her out, but years later they reconciled.

Maria/Aidan/Eva: In 2017, Aidan Connor started sleeping with girlfriend Eva Price’s best friend, Maria Connor.

Eva eventually found out and she decided to take revenge by faking a pregnancy, spending his money and planned to confront him on their wedding day.

But she had a change of heart when a remorseful Aidan confessed, and decided to marry him anyway, only for Maria to arrive and expose her fake pregnancy.

EMMERDALE

Ross/Debbie/Pete: Debbie Dingle found herself torn between two brothers, Ross and Pete Barton in 2015 in Emmerdale.

She eventually decided to marry Pete but yet again, a soap wedding day was ruined when the groom learned of his bride’s betrayal via a recording played at the wedding.

Chrissie/Robert/Aaron: Robert Sugden was married to Chrissie White and all seemed well – until he began a steamy affair with Aaron Dingle.

Robert’s ex Katie Sugden almost exposed the affair – but fell to her death before she had the chance.

However, a guilty Aaron eventually cracked and told Chrissie about the affair – after which she announced it to the whole pub.

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TV

Elite Cameraman’s Search History

Published

2 hours ago

September 27, 2024

NewsAdmin

subscribe to me blud

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TV

MrBeast’s game show staff call for YouTuber to be ‘blacklisted’ for ‘unprofessional’ incidents on set

Published

2 hours ago

September 27, 2024

NewsAdmin

MrBeast’s game show staff call for YouTuber to be ‘blacklisted’ for ‘unprofessional’ incidents on set

The controversy surrounding MrBeast’s new game show Beast Games is contiuing, with staff who worked on the show calling for the YouTuber’s team to be “blacklisted”.

MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson is the biggest YouTuber in the world but is facing increased scrutiny for the upcoming series, reportedly the largest reality show in history, which has been produced for Amazon Prime.

Earlier this month, a class action lawsuit was filed against him by contestants on the show claiming they were subjected to “chronic mistreatment” and sexual harassment.

Now a lengthy report from Las Vegas 3 News, says that staff who worked on the show have called it “beyond embarrassing” and that it was the most “unprofessional” production they had ever worked on.

One production worker Rick, who worked as a contestant wrangler for the show said that communication on set was “terrible” which caused a number of problems, including with the medics who struggled to monitor what medication was required for various contestants.

The report claims that contestants were not allowed to bring any belongings, including medication, with them into Allegiant Stadium, where 2000 contestants were based for a preliminary qualifying ‘episode’ for the show intended for YouTube.

The majority of contestants were staying at the Rio and Luxor casinos where the production medics were also based but they had “no idea that [some contestants] were at other casinos”. Those contestants had their items collected by production staff that promised to deliver them to the “appropriate department”.

A medic named Mona claims “their stuff was supposed to be turned into us and never was” and that “everything was on the fly. We didn’t have a real understanding of what they expected, or even if they knew what they were expecting. I don’t think that it was planned out because all the information was not given.”

Another contestant wrangler, Kara, who worked at Allegiant Stadium between 18-21 July, said there was also a huge sanitary issue with the portable toilets used on set.

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She claims that she only saw the portable toilets emptied once during the four days on set which resulted in overflowing. Kara added on the third day: “We had a guy come up to us with his sleeping bag, and his sleeping bag was covered in excrement.”

Kara also said that an unnamed contestant wrangler was threatened with “termination” after they refused to clean up the mess, despite not being given the proper equipment to deal with human waste.

“That’s a major OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] violation. You don’t ask people to clean porta potties like that”, she added.

A third contestant wrangler, Hannah, who was in charge of guiding and coordinating contestants said that she felt “unprofessional” after she was left without any call sheets and that she “should have had more protocols to help me [do my job]”.

She also claims that one contestant had a seizure and “they just left him there” with the incident only being brought to their attention an hour later with the community ambulance medical team then treating the patient.

MrBeast accepts the Favourite Male Creator award onstage during the 2023 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards at Microsoft Theater on 4 March, 2023 in Los Angeles (Getty Images for Nickelodeon)

In August, The New York Times reported that competitors now say they have not received adequate food or medical care.

“We signed up for the show, but we didn’t sign up for not being fed or watered or treated like human beings,” one contestant told The Times on the condition of anonymity, as they had signed a non-disclosure agreement.

One meal, described to The Times by several different contestants, consisted of a small portion of cold oatmeal, a few pieces of raw vegetables and a single hard-boiled egg.

MrBeast has been contacted for comment.

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