The summer of reality television is about more than just Big Brother. Celebrity Love Island, last year's turkey (which took flight briefly at the end of its run) begins again this summer. This weekend it's the climax of Soccer Aid. And from Monday viewers will be treated to X Factor: Battle of the Stars.
Six years after Big Brother first hit our screens, reality TV will swamp this summer's schedules like never before. Has the appetite for this kind of programming reached satiation point or will the great British summer forevermore be dominated by c-listers and wannabees vying for our attention? What's wrong with village cricket, cream teas, nice walks along the beach with an ice cream? Or a nice television drama now and again?
According to The Mirror, X Factor has just recruited toff bad boy James Hewitt and according to the Sun and the Star "Corrie babe" Nikki Sanderson is also getting in on the act. But what of Gillian McKeith? (Glamour model) Michelle Marsh? Lucy Benjamin? Chris Moyles? These are the names that have been trickling out of ITV in a bid to build up interest in the show.
The programme ITV is determined to overthrow - the "more twisted than ever" Big Brother- will this year have its longest-ever run of 13 weeks. Summer hasn't even started but it will be autumn by the time the winner is announced.
Love Island is also being given an extended run, up from five to six weeks when it starts after the World Cup. The first run finished with 5 million viewers and is proving popular among 15- to 24-year-olds, an audience ITV traditionally finds hard to reach. So was it therefore justified? To answer that question you may choose to briefly consider one particular clutch of names lined up to appear on the show: Paul Gascoigne, his ex wife and her daughter - according to the Daily Star. It sounds faintly embarrassing doesn't it?
But still, at least Soccer Aid is for charidee. But it has been on every night this week for crying out loud. And charity will also benefit fromBBC1's summer offering Only Fools on Horses, in which contestants try their hand at show-jumping. At last Alan Partridge seems to have had an idea commissioned.
