With Gogglebox supposed to be reviewing topical programs/events on TV, I don’t think it would’ve been appropriate for the program to completely overlook the AFL/NRL Grand Finals which each had over three million Australians (plus many more unaccounted for who were watching at pubs, clubs, etc.) glued to their screens during the final weekend of September. Mind you I agree that it doesn’t look genuine having the families review a football game which is played during the day at night, but it’s likely that most of the shows reviewed are of recordings rather than live broadcasts.
But if the producers of Gogglebox really cared about being genuine to incredibly picky viewers like us on Media Spy, they’d probably be providing the Sydney-based groups with footage from Sydney TV news bulletins and the Melbourne-based groups with footage from Melbourne TV news bulletins whenever they have to cover major news stories. Instead (particularly in recent seasons, it was a bit different earlier on) they’ve largely tiptoed around that by using footage from nationally screened news programs like The Project and SBS World News.
Gogglebox reviewed an episode of “Who is America?” earlier this season, but is reviewing a Stan show different because that streaming service is (from memory) a Nine/Fairfax joint venture?
If it’s at all possible, I think it’d be great to see the occasional Netflix program reviewed on Gogglebox in the future. To this day, I still wonder how the rather dark themes of “13 Reasons Why” might’ve gone down with the households when that was all the rage on social media last year.
Actually yes I forgot they did a couple of streaming shows. I guess the problem with shows on Netflix / Stan is that they are usually released at once as a season or people binge them at different times, so it makes it harder to review those shows as people that watch them might be up to different parts.
It was mentioned in the latest episode of Gogglebox that Izzy was considering running as a candidate in local council elections. The Michael family in the UK version of the show was dropped when the father stood for election as a UKIP candidate in the general election. I wonder if the Silbery family will have to leave if Izzy decides to run?
It’s weird cause Gogglebox UK is all over the country.
So are the families on now all from Sydney and Melbourne? Maybe its production costs? Like I imagine they set up a camera in the living room once a week and come and pick the footage up to edit it as they go at the studio?
If the international versions of the show are to go by, for each household they have a small crew in another room operating the cameras remotely, mixing the sound levels live and timecoding footage. Plus when everything goes back to the production unit (EndemolShine) they have at least four edit suites going throwing the episode together.
They watch off-air versions of programs but they are often recorded (not live).
There are two small ‘hothead’ cameras (one for the wide, another for closeups/cutaways) and TV lights right behind the TV.
It’s a fairly large and disruptive process, which is why I suspect they are only willing to make 20 episodes a year.
Yeah which I’m guessing is why for most of the households they probably only do a couple of sittings for watching shows a week with a couple of outfit changes. Shows that are on Ten and Foxtel they can possibly get access to the recordings in advanced of when they air on TV if needs be.
I’m not following the reasoning. The argument seems to be that production methods are similar to how the show is made overseas and that’s why Australia only makes 10 episodes per season. Yet in the UK it is currently running at 15 episodes per season.
Actually Gogglebox Australia has a bigger support base. Gogglebox UK rates around 3m per episode and with the UK population being 66 million, that is 4.5% of the viewing audience. Meanwhile Gogglebox Australia rates around 700k out of a metro audience of 15 million which equates to 4.7 % of the viewing audience.