The noughties will long be known as the decade that popularised the internet, recessions and making Harry Potter movies every other year. But perhaps more than anything, it was the time that made reality TV a Thing.
Shows like Big Brother and Pop Idol were, in fact, so popular at the turn of the millennium that it became law that at least 23 new ‘totally real’ ideas had to be broadcast on a telly, somewhere, every hour of the day. But with so many knocking around, it was hard to know which were worth your time and which were the next Touch the Truck.
These eight shows are ones you may have forgotten but definitely deserve a comeback – or, at the very least, repeats on Challenge TV…
1. The Mole, Channel 5 (2001)
After Nasty Nick attracted millions of viewers for his sneaky schemes in Big Brother, channels began a search for a single show that celebrated such lucrative behaviour. Thankfully, Belgium had already created one: De Mol.
This series concept saw contestants working together in various challenges to build up a cash prize. However, one of them was actually a ‘mole’ or a double agent, hired by producers to sabotage everyone’s efforts.
Everyone else on the show would use journals to collect data on whoever they suspected of being the Mole – and the player with the least knowledge about who it was would be eliminated each episode. Seems fair.
Although a huge hit globally, sadly it didn’t really catch on in the UK, and was axed after two series, which both aired in 2001 while the commissioning budget going was good. And that was all despite it being hosted by Glenn Hugill, the ACTUAL Banker from Deal or No Deal, hamming it up to 11.
We’re actually fairly amazed that no UK channel has attempted to bring it back since. Ah well, at least the whole thing can be seen on YouTube.
2. Back to Reality, Channel 5 (2004)
Reality TV had really eaten itself by the time this little fella came around, so maybe that’s why what seems now like a template for modern-day telly – a bunch of ex-reality show stars bumming around together on location – originally flopped big time.
It had Jade Goody, Pop Idol‘s Rik Waller, Big Brother’s Craig Phillips AND Nasty Nick, Michael Jackson’s mate Uri Geller, royal cad James Hewitt, that one woman you remember off Wife Swap and Maureen from Driving School. And they all spent three weeks in a studio-built mansion, with no natural sunlight. It was silly, lazy and dynamite all at the same time.
So why did no one watch this veritable TV gold? Perhaps it seemed an expensive mess compared to the slick production of Big Brother, but in effect it spawned Celebrity Big Brother, so who had the last laugh? Probably not Rik Waller.
3. Space Cadets, Channel 4 (2005)
One of those few reality TV shows that tried so hard to come up with something creative and different, you end up surprised it got through the commissioning process at all. But Space Cadets was so, so good.
Hosted by former Radio 1 and Big Breakfast frontman Johnny Vaughan and co-created by Richard ‘Pointless’ Osman, the series was one of the most elaborate hoaxes in TV history. A group of slightly gullible contestants/astronauts genuinely thought they had been handpicked to go into space – before a big Kubrickian reveal after its 10-night run showed that they’d just been sat in a TV studio the whole time.
The stunt cost Channel 4 around £5 million. Sadly, ratings were not so interstellar. But we loved the Derren Brown-ness of it all, and it was genuinely compelling to see how far the joke could go. There hasn’t really been anything like it, before or since.
4. Reborn in the USA, ITV (2003)
After ITV’s sweet Popstars/Pop Idol success, every channel seemed to be clambering over itself to come up with some kind of singing competition to cash in on. This was certainly one of the most elaborate.
The premise, clearly created before the days of YouTube and Twitter, saw famous British singers from yesteryear given a second chance of chart success by performing in the good ol’ US of A to literally tens of people. The ones who proved most popular with this new crowd would then go on to the next round and so on.
The show very much banked on the fact that most people in the US would have no idea who these singers were, although Tony Hadley, from the “universally huge in the ’80s” Spandau Ballet, seemed a harsh fit. Sonia, Gina G, Peter Cox and David Van Day’s Dollar were far better shouts.
With Davina McCall as host, and despite the series getting its own tie-in album, it didn’t catch on and didn’t return for the difficult second series. We’d love a follow-up featuring artists who were big back in 2003: Daniel Bedingfield, David Sneddon, Dido. It’d be ace.
5. That’ll Teach ‘Em, Channel 4 (2003-2006)
Along with Lads’ Army, this was perhaps the best in a fleeting brigade of reality TV shows that saw naughty youths being taught a lesson or two for our viewing pleasure.
It featured around 30 teenagers taken back to a 1950s and ’60s-style boarding school, back when chicken really tasted like chicken. The purpose was to analyse whether the severe standards of schooling at the time produced better exam results compared to now – although, let’s be honest, we all tuned in to see the little scrotes having a torrid time.
Actors were employed to appear as strict teachers at a traditional boarding school, while the kids had to adhere to dress codes and a 1950s diet. It was all a load of nonsense, but we loved all three series of it, and it’s ripe for a ’70s and ’80s nostalgic reboot.
6. The Murder Game, BBC One (2003)
In an age where true-crime documentaries like Making a Murderer or Serial have become cultural obsessions, this would probably be more popular today than in March 2003.
Based on the US show Murder in Small Town X, it was a hybrid of reality TV, game show and mystery drama that aired for just nine episodes. It followed the story of a fictional murder, with 10 contestants being set the challenge of finding the killer.
Everyone in the town was played by actors, with some of them ending up becoming victims themselves, like an interactive Midsomer Murders. Each episode saw the investigators split into two teams, with the losing side being put up for a group vote and two of them pushed forward to that week’s ‘Killer’s Game’.
The final pair would then be sent to two remote locations alone – stay with us – where their movements would only be recorded by head-mounted cameras. One of the contestants would then discover a clue to the mystery, while the other would end up being eliminated as a ‘murder’ victim.
Elaborate, for sure, but also strangely terrifying.
7. Shattered, Channel 4 (2004)
One of Dermot O’Leary’s first big gigs after T4, this one-off series is something that we doubt would happen nowadays due to the triplicate health and safety forms you’d probably have to fill out.
Ten contestants were tasked with going without sleep and enduring various mean challenges for seven days to win £100,000, while their actions were filmed 24/7. If they closed their eyes for more than 10 seconds, £1,000 would be deducted from the prize. It was essentially a now-generic Big Brother daily task stretched over a whole week.
Such sleep deprivation meant that at one point a contestant supposedly genuinely thought he was the Prime Minister of Australia, one got angry that the others wouldn’t play with an imaginary ball, and another nearly toppled over as he began falling asleep while standing up. Ergo, it was excellent television.
The climax was particularly playful, with a final task that saw them cruelly being sent to a comfy bed and the contestant who could stay awake the longest winning the prize. The winner ended up enduring 178 hours of zero sleep.
8. Fame Academy, BBC One (2002-2003)
We’d hazard a guess that you haven’t forgotten Fame Academy, but we think its X Factor-meets-Big Brother-via-Sylvia Young formula deserves a hell of a lot more praise than it gets.
Only lasting for two series and a few celebrity editions, Fame Academy saw a group of talented musicians living together in a house, while writing their own music and proving they had what it took to have a proper career in music.
Each week, the least popular with the public would be binned off and if they survived till the end, they would get to finally perform their own song. It was the perfect blend of reality TV and talent show.
It also meant that by the end, the show had introduced proper popstars that you really cared about. If you finished fourth in Fame Academy, you’d get a top 10 hit out of it. Nowadays, if you WIN The X Factor or The Voice you’re not even guaranteed to crack the top 100.
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