“Dad can I watch The Almost Impossible Gameshow?” “Yes son, but only the first fifteen minutes, I’m a responsible parent.”
— Brig Bother (@BothersBar) April 21, 2016
I noticed something whilst watching The Almost Impossible Gameshow yesterday, a show currently going out at 9pm on ITV2. They bleeped out the swearing for the first part of the show and left it untouched for the rest. I wondered if this was a stylistic thing. Swearing’s not something I’m offended by particularly, I think there’s a time and a place but if that time and place isn’t after suddenly falling down a slippery hill then I don’t know what it is, and as an immediate expression of honesty it’s difficult to beat.
Nope, it sounds like ITV and C4 work with a 9:15pm “fuck” watershed, the most ridiculous thing I think I’ve ever heard.
Twitter suggests that it’s because of Section 1.6 of the OFCOM Broadcasting Code:
1.6 The transition to more adult material must not be unduly abrupt at the watershed (in the case of television) or after the time when children are particularly likely to be listening (in the case of radio). For television, the strongest material should appear later in the schedule.
I thought the idea was that if you started a show before the 9pm watershed you couldn’t suddenly change tack as soon as 9pm came round – you know what you’re expecting. It sounds like this is not quite the case. I remain baffled by the idea of inconsistency during the same show. How is this protecting if they’re just going to be shocked later if they keep watching?
A few people have bought up that C5 got into trouble for excessive swearing on Big Brother immediately after the 9pm watershed, that was in 2011. On Celebrity Big Brother this year they were broadcasting what’s considered a much ruder word barely after 9pm (I remember remarking if it was the earliest in the evening it had been broadcast on television) and nobody seemed especially bothered.
Although as one wag puts it:
@BothersBar By the time they finish reading out the warnings, it's already 9:15.
— Daniel Peake (@danielpeake) April 21, 2016
I can’t get upset about comedy slapstick swearing such as TAIGS going out at 9pm. At worst it’s a 15.
I’m a bit more concerned with aggressive swearing and adult themes on Big Brother going out at 9pm. I’ve no real issues with the content, it is what it is, but it *will* be attracting younger viewers going out at that time who probably won’t quite have the emotional maturity to understand that that’s not really the way you deal with things in the real world.
Which is terribly patronising but there we are.
Speaking of this, MTV has picked up The Almost Impossible Gameshow for a US version..Also an interesting show called “Stranded with a Million Bucks”- 10 people stranded with their clothes on their backs and a million dollars in cash. They can buy supplies and other things, but the prices are insanely high, and whatever money (if any) is left after 40 days is split among those who don’t quit.
That sounds quite interesting, although intrigued to see what sort of prices things are going for.
With the first series I used to catch the weekend repeat, which went out about midday on Saturday. No swearing whatsoever – indeed, some things were rerecorded for the occasion (ferret’s come –> ferret’s milk).