RTE Doing the Wrong Thing...again

scrapthetvfee

Good evening Boardies - this is a virgin posting but I am so flabbergasted at what I have just seen - a new level of inanity and public waste of money courtesy of our national broadcaster. Does anyone else out there find something wrong about a public service broadcaster spending hundreds of thousands of license fee payers' money on unpopular, overpaid and talentless presenters such as Lucy Kennedy and Baz Azwarmy and a tacky, derivative, over-formatted entertainment show that "evicts" members of the public who are willing volunteers? And all this to select just two lucky people who get to volunteer their time for a year abroad? What of all the effort, time and hopes of the other 48 Irish people who have donated their time to this programme in the hopes of "doing the right thing"? I'm proud that we in Ireland contribute so much to international aid and development especially for our size, but there is so much volunteer work needing people and especially funds here at home also. I guess it's just not "sexy" enough for RTE and the format "creators" to actually portray something real and in a meaningful way - now that they've ripped off all the other reality tv shows out there they've got to now inflict their "creativity" on the world of volunteering. With the money RTE are wasting on this embarrassing, ill-conceived show many more volunteers could work at home and abroad rather than just two selected from another meaningless reality-tv rip off. This is about more than just TV I think - the message of this show and the signals it is sending out is deeply cynical in my opinion. Very interested in your thoughts.

JonathanAnon

yeah cant believe you would put these two together for any purpose other than throwing them both over the edge of a cliff... The irony of the show is that the two best contestants are left at the end, whereas we have RTE's two worst presenters right from the start.

mike65

PARAGRAPHS!

btw if you are here just as a bang the drum poster for a cause you'll probably last no time even if people don't rate RTE much of the time!

scrapthetvfee

Absolutely - and even more disturbing in my opinion is all the manipulation behind the scenes, these presenters are of course just puppets reading off autocue that some other geniuses have designed for them. I'm just shocked that RTE don't have the brains to realise that it's just WRONG to apply the principles of reality-tv formatting to an important subject such as this. :eek:

scrapthetvfee

mike65 wrote: »

PARAGRAPHS!

btw if you are here just as a bang the drum poster for a cause you'll probably last no time even if people don't rate RTE much of the time!

Did say I'm new to this thing! Not a bang the drum poster I don't think - but really aren't all posters banging a drum of some kind?

mrsdewinter

Saw the ad for this show and on a point of principle refused to watch it. I guess that in one way, they're raising awareness about volunteering but, as you point out, it demands that a large number of people waste their time vying for a spot as one of these volunteers. A good friend of mine is trying to make her way in the voluntary sector and a show like this, to my mind, completely undermines the sacrifices she is making.

mike65

Yes, but many diferent ones! If everything for you is about RTEs being a bunch of spendthrift fools who don't deserve the licence fee things could get tedious, esp as TV3 are not a shining example of a commercially funded station.

scrapthetvfee

mrsdewinter wrote: »

Saw the ad for this show and on a point of principle refused to watch it. I guess that in one way, they're raising awareness about volunteering but, as you point out, it demands that a large number of people waste their time vying for a spot as one of these volunteers. A good friend of mine is trying to make her way in the voluntary sector and a show like this, to my mind, completely undermines the sacrifices she is making.

I hope your friend hangs in there and gets to be where she wants to be. Was trying not to watch this programme out of principle like yourself but the curiousity got to me!

baalthor

Just saw Angelina Jolie volunteering in Pakistan - that's the standard these guys are up against !

And the contestant with the Superman t-shirt: Don't wear that in Darfur love, your just gonna massively raise their expectations

scrapthetvfee

Heehee - give me time! Having worked in tv for years I've got a lot to groan about. Usually I don't bother as it's "just TV" but the ethics of this latest travesty pushed me over the edge!

scrapthetvfee

baalthor wrote: »

Just saw Angelina Jolie volunteering in Pakistan - that's the standard these guys are up against !

And the contestant with the Superman t-shirt: Don't wear that in Darfur love, your just gonna massively raise their expectations

Nice one. But we don't need Brad and Angelina - we've got Luce n Baz to glam things up in the third world.

Tellyboxboy

scrapthetvfee wrote: »

Heehee - give me time! Having worked in tv for years I've got a lot to groan about. Usually I don't bother as it's "just TV" but the ethics of this latest travesty pushed me over the edge!

Gosh...you sound like you work for TV3! Ben? Is that you? Its way past your little wittle bed time my Dear!

Funny how strongly you feel about a show that A - Clearly wasn't about and didn't even feature Baz and Lucy. And B - Clearly had the backing of the biggest Aid Organisations in Ireland. I wonder what they have to say about it as their donations increase and the interest in Volunteering soars through the roof! At the same time I'm not saying it is the best show ever (Far From) but your blatent bashing clearly reveals a loaded motif. As the bard once said "I think he doth protest too much".

Tellyboxboy

mrsdewinter wrote: »

Saw the ad for this show and on a point of principle refused to watch it. I guess that in one way, they're raising awareness about volunteering but, as you point out, it demands that a large number of people waste their time vying for a spot as one of these volunteers. A good friend of mine is trying to make her way in the voluntary sector and a show like this, to my mind, completely undermines the sacrifices she is making.

I think your friend is in a much higher league to these 'Reality Wannabe Volunteers' and I'm sure any spotlight on an important sector is a good thing. Awareness Awareness Awareness!

Yakult

scrapthetvfee wrote: »

we've got Luce n Baz to glam things up in the third world.

I wouldnt wish that on any poor souls in the third world. They suffer enough as it is.

yermanoffthetv

I must admit I like Baz, but at the same time I wouldnt pay him more than 30k a year to do what he does. Absolute ledgend on "how low can you go" but youd get a line of people from her to the aran islands to do his job for free. As for Kennedy :rolleyes: And for the volunteering show, well I wonder how many thousands of Irish people are doing it right now from their own pockets? wheres their round of applause? oh wait their not looking for a freebee gap year courtisy of John q licencepayer! I applaude volunteerism but turning it into a gameshow surely is a contradiction!

finty

The show is what it is, entertainment....and if it raises the profiles of the aid organisations that have given it their support and encourages more people to volunteer then it'll have done something worthwhile.

We can be all po-faced and worthy about the format, but lets not kid ourselves most people volunteer for what they get out of it(experiences, feelings of having done something worthwhile) as much as anything else.

myk

I haven't watched it yet, but I'm pretty sure that the first episode involved all participants contributing to a project out in Barrettstown. And I believe that almost every episode will involve a similar worthy project.

I'm looking forward to checking it out. It seems to me to be very worthwhile; raising awareness of volunteering and of projects in need of support. I think so long as they don't glamourize the sector, put volunteers at risk or portray beneficiaries in a negative light, that it will be a good show.

TheIrishGrover

Tellyboxboy wrote: »

Gosh...you sound like you work for TV3! Ben? Is that you? Its way past your little wittle bed time my Dear!

Funny how strongly you feel about a show that A - Clearly wasn't about and didn't even feature Baz and Lucy. And B - Clearly had the backing of the biggest Aid Organisations in Ireland. I wonder what they have to say about it as their donations increase and the interest in Volunteering soars through the roof! At the same time I'm not saying it is the best show ever (Far From) but your blatent bashing clearly reveals a loaded motif. As the bard once said "I think he doth protest too much".

Aye, NEVER trust someone who'se first post is a rant. Especially if it's at something like a TV show or shop etc.


Get kicked off the show early scrap?

Elmo

Shouldn't this be in Reality TV?

I have post 2 worthwhile docs on RTÉ

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056025439

Took me a few mins to get the title of the thread

Toto Wolfcastle

I know someone who went for this. He didn't get through to the top 16 but he and some of the other contestants are getting together to set up a charity, or along those lines. He said that a few of the people who went through were useless and that most of them are fantastic people. He has been to Haiti and is going back again soon so really he didn't need the show.

Tbh I spent most of the hour it was on looking out for him and mocking him when I saw him so I don't really have an opinion on it. Lucy Kennedy annoyed me though.

GeorgeCostanza

scrapthetvfee wrote: »

Absolutely - and even more disturbing in my opinion is all the manipulation behind the scenes, these presenters are of course just puppets reading off autocue that some other geniuses have designed for them. I'm just shocked that RTE don't have the brains to realise that it's just WRONG to apply the principles of reality-tv formatting to an important subject such as this. :eek:

Even worse than the crackpot premise on which this show is based is the fact that it's just dismally dull... I lasted 10 minutes and gave up on it. Yet another fail from RTE.