Ben Elton Live From Planet Earth Axed

It was fun while it lasted.

Well, no it wasn't.

And Australia has spoken; Live From Planet Earth was crap. TV Tonight has reported this afternoon that LFPE has been axed after 3 episodes.

It lasted longer that Let Loose Live, at least.

Channel Nine really had no choice, too. It had become a laughing stock, with it garnering almost universally negative comments on Twitter: hardly a good look for the new "Home of Comedy". Also, its latest rating of 189,000 didn't help all that much either.

Unfortunately for Elton, it pretty much shuts the door on any future opportunities with the Nine network.

With the ratings slump for Hey Hey it's Saturday in 2010, and now the terrible reviews for LFPE, one would almost say these types of comedy variety shows with dated humour will not be attempted readily.

 

 

 

Ben Elton sinks further, but not yet submerged

As expected, ratings have slipped for the second week of Ben Elton Live From Planet Earth.

The facts are, Live from Planet Earth has dropped to 384,000, down from 455,000 last week.

While the situation is bad, and unlike last week, Elton can't deny that the ratings are dismal.

But strangely, it could be much, much worse when you think about it.

You can't imagine many new eyes were watching the show, so the fact that more that half of the people stuck around from last week is almost, nearly promising. Almost.

With all that bad press you'd almost be embarrassed to watch it. But, maybe people saw Elton defend his show and had enough faith in him to give him another shot.

But now that everyone has given it another go, Nine will more than likely do the same and grant it a third episode.

But three things are for sure.

One: The fact that it looks extremely polished also works in its favour. For example, it was hard for Seven to have faith in a very green Hamish and Andy back in the day. Elton already has the comedy runs on the board, and his smooth hosting demonstrates this. Not so sure about the comedy though.

Two: Not many people would be granted a second chance like Elton was.

Three: There will be no third chances.

And while I disliked the first two shows, it doesn't mean I won't give it a third chance.

I most certainly am not willing it to fail, but to get better. Myself and many others criticise not for the joy of it, but in the hope that Elton will respond and come out with a better product.

Some did see a slight improvement from week 1 to week 2, so hopefully it improves even more in week 3.

Whether or not viewers liked the second week enough to stick around is another matter.

Ben Elton Live From Planet Earth Review S01E02: Any Better?

UPDATED: Well, here we are. Are we witnessing television history in the form of Ben Elton's last show? Or, are we witnessing yet another great Australian come-from-behind win, a Stephen Bradbury, even? Yes, that's the type of humour that is still hanging around the show.

[caption id="attachment_185" align="alignnone" width="590" caption="Hey! I'm Ben "Young Ones" Elton. You're actually meant to be laughing NOW. And if you're not, you don't understand COMEDY. But don't tweet about it if you don't understand my humour, U ID"][/caption]

Anyway, the big question was, will Elton actually change his style of humour dramatically in response to his critics (read: everyone on Planet Earth)?

And the answer is: well, not really.

He opened with some "satire"- which he pointed out to us, just after the sketch finished- of Julia Gillard. Yes, the impression was good. But then came the references to "moving forward", etc. It would've been funny if it came maybe, say, around November last year. But what do I know?



Hey, at least it was something we hadn't seen last week. Right?

But what ruined the show for mine, came only in the first segment.

It was Ben Elton responding to critics.

Not by stating he would be changing his act, but by attacking the people who criticised him.

He called tweeters "twats", because apparently, the opinion of plebs doesn't really matter, and if it does, we don't know anything. We also don't know what's funny. And Elton does. So just sit back and LAUGH, DAMMIT!

It became clear that he wasn't going to change his style of humour, but defend it to the very end. I was ready to give him another go, but it was obvious that he didn't want to take any criticism on board. So don't expect any goodwill from anyone. But I will still comment objectively... well, you be the judge.

He also went on another rant against the people who criticised his naughty language, or rather the idea of naughty language. He just came off like an indignant little kid, not wanting to go to the naughty corner.

[caption id="attachment_187" align="alignnone" width="590" caption="BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND"][/caption]

Oh, and just in case you thought that things had changed from last week, they haven't. The schoolgirls are still there. So are the chardonnay-sippers. And this time, the didn't make the audience laugh once. Once.

OK, so to be fair, there were a few things that were different. Elaine Front was brought to the front of the show. And it was still pretty good- yep, so not much had changed. Even the joke about her name being pronounced EEE-laine Front.

Some things also got the chop from Week 1, like the female... Male bodybuilder and the offensive public school teacher. Remember them? Me neither... (Well I do, it's kind of hard to forget, but you know).

They were seemingly shafted to make way for the new Julia Gillard and big miner tax; while they were a step up from some of last week's stuff, they still don't quite cut it.

But, they were slightly better nevertheless. So it makes you wonder why they didn't just go all out and press refresh on the entire show- try all new characters (save for maybe, Elaine Front).

[caption id="attachment_188" align="alignnone" width="590" caption="HE'S A RAPPER RAPPERS SAY WORDS LIKE BIZZLE THAT'S WHY IT SAYS BIZZLE BEHIND HIM. Oh you don't get it, do you?"][/caption]

There was also a female singer who spewed words like "FUCKING" and a male rapper (who was played by a woman) who spewed words like "pussy". Yep, Elton was persisting with smut, that was for sure. I didn't find it funny, but what do I know- I'm just a tweeter.

[caption id="attachment_191" align="alignnone" width="590" caption="In case you missed it last week, let me explain this sketch to you. OK, so that's Amy Winehouse. She likes drugs..."][/caption]

OK, then there's Girl Flat. There was yet another parody of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab". Yep, even the song was the same.



Hey, but this time she said "JIHAD". The characters are still one-dimensional. Like a proper journalist, here's a proper quote and that to prove it. "Beyonce" sings "My bootylicious booty" and my "booty is so bootylicious" to her song "Single Ladies".

There was also Fiona O'Loughlin who was quite good. And the inimitable Tim Minchin. However, and here's some real criticism. They actually bring the show down. Because they are so good that they make the rest of the show seem crap... or crapper.

(I have been informed by commenter "Sophie" that Tim Minchin's song he performed was called "Lullaby".)



But once again, I have to compliment the performers, who, I still believe rise above the dated material. And Ben Elton is still good as a host. If only he didn't keep saying "Live comedy"... if you still need the novelty of it being "Live" to prop up your show, then you may be in a touch of trouble. Yes, the live factor is great, but at the end of the day, it isn't going to save it from being trite.

Then, there was some more "gentle satire", labelled for us, once again. It was a "big miner". It seemed more like a serious pundit on A Current Affair- especially since he used words like "UnAustralian" and "Fair go", without any laughs in the background to prove it was actually meant to be funny. The "joke" came in the form of a play on "Fair go"; apparently "big miners" want to "Fair bugger up the country, then go". Don't expect any more laughs if there's only one joke in a sketch.



But Elton might say, look at Minchin, his song isn't peppered with gags. Yes, true. But his song was utterly entrancing, actually controversial, and actually funny.

So, after all that talk of altering the show, it didn't seem all that different at all. Myself and many more people were generous enough to give it another shot, only to be insulted by more of the same stuff that had people turning off in droves last week.

And then his attacking of Twitter came across as merely a bitter man unwilling to face up to his mistakes. The idea of him taking on criticism was at odds with him criticising his critics. And then, what really took the cake at the end of the show, was seemingly a complete backflip, and he began to beg for approval: "Why not give us a friendly tweet?"

Um, no thanks Ben.



So, what did you think? Any better?

Ben Elton Week 2: This is it

It's D-Day for Ben Elton. Well, technically tomorrow is: the day when the ratings come out.

But it's undoubted that tonight is Elton's final chance to prove himself, mostly to viewers at home, and to a lesser extent, Nine execs, who will be looking for any promising signs.

And God knows, there certainly weren't many in Week 1.

Basically, if Elton wants a third week, at the very least, there will have to be a ratings increase of at least 100k. Its ratings were 455,000 in its first week so to equal that would be almost remarkable.

So, let's be realistic here and analyse this question; does Elton even have a snowflake's chance of pulling that off?

We all know that the show was pretty bad in its first week, and the media certainly knew that too. The press and reaction was almost universally negative.

So, keeping that in mind, we can look at these factors in terms of its possible week 2 ratings.

Retention rate: People on twitter also panned it, so you'd have to imagine very little would tune in week 2.
However...

Those who peruse the news sites would have seen Elton state he got the mix wrong and there was too much smut. Of course he wasn't completely repentant, but this would have won him at least a touch of respect and brings at least some intrigue as to how the show has changed.

Of course, this will only bring in a small percentage of those who watched last week, let's say less than 50%.

Word of mouth: This will be almost all bad, so I wouldn't expect too many new sets of eyes. However, it does play into the car-crash factor, as in so bad that you have to watch. Don't expect this to be a huge element though.

So, you'd have to say that Elton's only hope is that people will be forgiving enough to give him another shot.

My post last week, "Bye Ben", wrote his show off after ratings last week. So Elton was smart in pleading his case to TV Tonight and Jon Faine in the week- but really, it was his only hope.

But still, it will be interesting to watch tonight. For mine, it would need to be about three times as funny (if it can be measured) to keep this viewer watching next week (assuming..., etc.).

I don't think it has the potential to be, based on last week's show, but I hope I am pleasantly surprised.

But let's face it, even turns out to be brilliant (look at Micallef Tonight), in the cold light of day, no show can be saved from the swinging axe known as the ratings.

Bye Ben!

Well, that's the end of that.

According to TV Tonight, Ben Elton has debuted to a paltry 455,000. In television terms that's a big Sayonara.

In isolation, that's a crap figure, but coming off the back of Top Gear's 939,000- a handy lead-in- it's just awful. For a premiere with quite a bit of promotion, coming off a strong lead-in, even in its late-ish timeslot 600,000 would've been the BARE MINIMUM expected.

And even that would have been a big F.

You'd have to imagine most viewers turned off at the first break, dismissing it as more of the same.

It is still a bit of a shame, as the performers were all great and enthusiastic. The writing just suffered from being trite and obvious.

Certain elements almost broke away from the tedium, such as Genevieve Morris' interviewer character, but by then it was too late.

It is just another sign from viewers that they expect much, much better and are sick of writers and producers insulting their intelligence with fart jokes and the like.

It's hard to imagine with feedback like this (mirrored in stronger terms in the comments on my review), that word of mouth would bring any new viewers to the show next week, but rather erode viewers.

It is now officially uncool to watch this- the next laughing... stock of Australian TV. Planet Earth, please find your seat in between Let Loose Live and Warnie.
NEXT!

Review: Ben Elton Live From Planet Earth

The Bounce, Let Loose Live, The White Room, You May be Right, The Nation, Hamish & Andy, Micallef Tonight, The Matty Johns Show, The Mick Molloy Show, Warnie.

I could go on.

All of these shows have cropped up on our screens over the past decade. And all are infamous for one reason; they were axed because a)Ratings were paltry or b)They were pitiful excuses for comedy.

Sometimes they were a combination of the two - actually, far too often they were.

They are also unique in the way that they were not axed because they petered out towards the end of their run.

No, they are all textbook definitions of "flops", axed after two or three episodes. Sometimes they were allowed to complete their run of 13 episodes of so (in the case of the Nation).

No, commercial networks haven't exactly had the most success in creating a successful comedy, light entertainment or quiz program.

Over the past decade, one could only point to Rove (and its various iterations), Spicks and Specks and Talkin' 'bout Your Generation as genuine success stories.

Not exactly a great hit-rate.

So why on earth would Nine take a risk with yet another live, or as-live comedy?

Well, maybe it was because Nine believed they had a hit on their hands.

Well do they?

There was quite a nice opening riff on the absurd classification system in Australia. Oh-Kay...

The monologue involved some fairly topical gags about Julia and the floods.

Yet jokes about spam and "knob"-size were fairly run-of-the-mill stand up comedy fare.

And calling Tony Abbott a "dickhead" will always be a crowd pleaser.



If one has an issue listening to Elton's English accent commenting on Australian issues, just think- one wouldn't have a problem with a person of Indian descent, or Italian descent commenting, so why should this be any different?

In case you have an issue with a "Pom" hosting an Australian show, it's actually more representative of  Australia than anything else on TV - maybe we can soon graduate to maybe someone of different ethnicity hosting something on commercial TV.

But that's a topic for another day.

Back to the real "comedy" of the show.

[caption id="attachment_107" align="alignnone" width="590" caption="The two Ja'mies- I mean schoolgirls. You see, it's not ripping off Lilley because THERE'S TWO OF THEM."][/caption]

I really enjoyed the schoolgirl and upper-class wine swillers... The first time they were done on Summer Heights High and Kath and Kim.



And fake Hollywood reporters... why do I feel like I've seen this before?

[caption id="attachment_108" align="alignnone" width="590" caption="I think it's got to the point where actual Hollywood reporters are funny than the people mocking them"][/caption]

And then came a "sight gag"... that lasted for far too long.



Sorry.

And OK, we get it, some female bodybuilders look masculine. If this show is cancelled, don't they know that will be shown on 20 to 1, Great Hits and Misses.

Or Today Tonight in two weeks time.

However, the one saving grace throughout all this was the surprising brevity of it. That will make it easier to chop segments such as the "fat chef".

Oh, and in case you didn't get the joke: THE CHEF WAS MEANT TO BE MATT PRESTON. YOU KNOW, FROM MASTERCHEF? HE'S FAT.

Oh, and in case you missed that visual gag, he was called THE. FAT. CHEF. Yep, that's what we're dealing with.

[caption id="attachment_105" align="alignnone" width="590" caption=""I was really glad I managed to make the Fat Chef fart." Cutting. Edge. Comedy."][/caption]

You know when you've been beaten to a joke- and a one dimensional one at that- by Sam Newman that it's time to push the panic button.

However, before anyone had the chance to turn off, along came one Genevieve Morris, a manificent character actor probably best known for her rendition of Barbara from Bankworld.



Her character, interviewer Elaine Front was an absolute winner and threatened to steal the show from Elton himself.



And while I had hoped the live sitcom would introduce some new characters- some that weren't so over the top and caricaturistic. All the acting was top-shelf though, with Veronica Milsom reprising her role as Lady Gaga from Hungry Beast (maybe it'll lead to a gig on Saturday Night Live in the US?).

And The Mick Molloy Urinating on Set Award goes to the actor who played Amy Winehouse.

"I'll just run a comb through me minge."

Yes, "contemporary" comedy is apparently making as many crude jokes as possible, without the actual humour of actual pioneers in this area such as Judd Apatow and his range of adult comedies.

But once again the criticism isn't that it wasn't unfunny or cringeworthy, it's just that the most obvious joke was used in every case.

Then followed an insensitive "public school teacher". That's about all that you need to know.

[caption id="attachment_104" align="alignnone" width="590" caption="Asian students were called things like "Ain't-shit". Oh, I think I forgot to mention that this sketch was RACIST. Silly me."][/caption]

But by the end Elton had almost won me over with his brand of stand-up- quick, outrageous rapid-fire comedy. It's about time we got a grumpy
old man, of sorts, Let Loose on TV. We have had a cheeky Rove for ten years after all. I could get used to it.

At the end of the day. It's an Australian production employing talented Aussie actors and comedians. It's also live and very slick- usually a hallmark of Nine productions.

The show's not achingly funny, but who expected it to be on the first night? And how many shows are, anyway.

Hopefully they have got all the fart jokes and other easy jokes out of the way in the first show, so that we can see some genuinely new material.

Though not live, The Wedge's main weak point was its inability to come up with new characters. Its initial range of characters was funny, yet they were done to death.

If Planet Earth begins introducing new characters and utilising the full range of its talented cast, it could take off. If it remains exactly the same as this week's show, then don't bother. After all, we've seen all these characters again and again (and now again), we know all the jokes.

And the Australian audience deserves better.

Ben Eltons wants sitcom, pony, Jupiter, etc.: An education in Australian TV

[caption id="attachment_31" align="alignnone" width="371" caption="Source: Getty"][/caption]

Ben Elton has already been floating ideas for an "all-Aussie sitcom" in the Herald Sun, even before the first episode of his "live sketch comedy show" goes to air.

Talk about getting ahead of yourself... or counting your chickens before they're hatched... or something. Either way, Elton isn't quite well-versed in the way of Australian TV yet. Here's a quick rundown.

If you want to have any chance of pitching a show, you need to become an established success, a proven ratings winner. You can do this one of two ways; the Shaun Micallef approach.

Pretty much the only person on commercial TV at the moment who could pitch a sitcom would be Shaun Micallef. However, this has been after years of hard work on smaller projects, such as Newstopia, Welcher and Welcher, the Micallef P(r)ogram(me), etc. You even have to endure slight ratings failures such as Micallef Tonight. However, he can lay claim to having something called "integrity". Now, he has shown that he can produce a show that rates in Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation. He is now the most powerful man on TV.

Him and Charlie Sheen.

Unfortunately.

Yes, this is the other approach you can take. But hey, that's Australian TV, you've got to accept the good with the bad and the bad and the bad.

I am almost certain that if CBS wanted to send some sort of vague message by canning Charlie Sheen/Two and a Half Men that he could fly to Australia and produce a miniseries in which Sheen just lies on the ground, a là Hasslehoff's hamburger-eating stylings. Just Call it "One Man".

If you add in another line like "One Man: It's Like Underbelly", and feature strobe-like flashing of breasts, it's already got another million viewers before you can say "Matthew Newton". Oh, and don't forget celebrity guests, or "friends", as Shane Warne likes to call them. For that matter, Shane Warne would be the perfect guest.

He would almost certainly give them their first exclusive by showing some choice videos off his mobile that he has filmed with Elizabeth Hurley.

So, if he wants to go talking up the next big sitcom, I suggest first making sure his current show Live From Planet Earth is a hit.

And just one thing, I'd suggest not to start posing with schoolgirls (or actors dressed as them). Sometimes context is important.