BBC turns to Youtube for daytime refresh
BBC One has moved to modernise daytime TV by giving Youtube stars their own show that it hopes will combine the popularity of Gogglebox and Dragons’ Den.
Leading Youtubers, including Ladbaby, the social media personality whose song about sausage rolls was last year’s Christmas number one single, will take part in a new TV series unveiled by the broadcaster. The Customer Is Always Right will air on BBC One in the afternoon, a time slot that has traditionally been associated with popular TV stalwarts such as Bargain Hunt and Homes Under The Hammer.
The 15-part series will feature the “popular Youtube personalities” giving their verdicts on products created by entrepreneurs, from a GPS cat tracking device to a scented candle that melts into massage oil. The show comes after Dan Mcgolpin, controller of BBC programming and daytime, said the schedule was being refreshed.
“We are trying to modernise daytime and have a new generation of hits,” he said.
“We’ve got lots of longrunning, popular shows that people love. There’s nothing wrong with that. But we’re trying to bring through a new generation.”
The most famous of the Youtubers are Mark Hoyle, better known as Ladbaby, and his wife Roxanne, who also have 3.2 million Facebook followers.
The self-proclaimed “dad blogger” rocketed to the top of the charts in December with an ode to sausage rolls based on We Built This City, Starship’s Eighties glamrock song.
The show will also feature Antonella the Uncensored Reviewer, a receptionist at a GP surgery who won millions of fans with her reviews of everything from an “over the shoulder boulder holder” to washing-up gloves. Also signed up are lifestyle vlogger Chanel Ambrose and her partner.
Lucy Alexander, best known for Homes Under The Hammer, will present the new series later this month.