Alan Carr's Specstacular

Alan Carr's Specstacular

Title card for Alan Carr's New Year Specstacular
Presented by Alan Carr
Country of origin United Kingdom
No. of episodes 7 (as of 31 December 2014)
Production
Producer(s) Open Mike Productions
Location(s) The London Studios
Running time 95-150 minutes
Release
Original network Channel 4
Original release 31 December 2011 (2011-12-31) – present
Chronology
Related shows Alan Carr: Chatty Man
The Sunday Night Project
The Justin Lee Collins Show
External links
Website

Alan Carr's Specstacular is a special broadcast on Channel 4 presented by Alan Carr. The show features Alan and guests all competing in sketches, games and musical performances. The show was originally broadcast on 31 December 2011 as Alan Carr's New Year Specstacular and has spawned to various other specials including two Summertime Specstaculars in 2012 and a Grand National Specstacular in 2013.

The title sequence, designed by Lee Jacobs, sees Carr mischievously setting off a giant rocket in the basement of Channel 4. It blasts through the roof to the delight of the queueing crowd outside to spell out the show's title.[1]

Episodes

2011

New Year Specstacular

For the first show Carr was joined by Jonathan Ross, Micky Flanagan, Melanie Sykes, Gok Wan, Olly Murs, Kirstie Allsopp, Alesha Dixon, Bruno Tonioli and Heston Blumenthal. JLS and The Ting Tings provided live music.

Sketches included a spoof of The King's Speech, a Made in Chelsea parody featuring the show's cast, along with a number of skits featuring David Walliams - including one which sees Carr as Prince William and Walliams as Kate Middleton.[2] Cher Lloyd also made an appearance as herself.[3]

It was filmed on Wednesday 7 December 2011 at The London Studios.[4] The first series was watched by an averaged of 1.86 million viewers with a 10% share as well as scoring 158k and a 0.9% share on +1.[5]

Controversy

During the evenings festivities, the guests discussed adult themes, including Gok Wan telling Carr to "fuck off" and joking that he would not perform oral sex on him, Blumenthal talking about a strap-on sex toy and Ross commenting on a full-frontal naked picture of N-Dubz star Dappy.[6] Following the show, Channel 4 received fifty-seven complaints from viewers, and it was believed that government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries, Ofcom, would investigate the show.[7] However, after consideration, Ofcom has confirmed that the show had met "generally accepted standards" for a show aired after the 9pm watershed. A Channel 4 spokesman said: "It was an irreverent end-of-year party, appropriately scheduled post-watershed with clear warnings."[7]

2012

Summertime Specstacular

Alan Carr's Summertime Specstacular was broadcast on 8 June 2012, during the week of celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II. Carr was joined by guests David Walliams, Justin Bieber, The Saturdays, the cast of Made in Chelsea, Amy Macdonald, Carol Vorderman, Paddy McGuinness, Christian Jessen and Rizzle Kicks. Carr was also visited by Russell Brand via video link.

The special was watched by 1.746 million viewers, the second most watched broadcast on Channel 4 that week.[8]

Summertime Specstacular 2

Alan Carr's Summertime Specstacular 2 was broadcast on 17 August 2012, during Channel 4's Funny Fortnight. Guests included Jonathan Ross, Tulisa, Keith Lemon, Melanie Sykes, Paloma Faith, Labrinth and Fatima Whitbread. Team GB Olympic medallists Mo Farah, Nicola Adams, Greg Rutherford, Louis Smith, Heather Stanning and Helen Glover also appeared.

The special was watched by 1.37 million viewers.[8]

New Year Specstacular

For the second New Year Specstacular, Carr was joined by guests Melanie Sykes, Jonathan Ross, Jimmy Carr, Jack Whitehall, Christine Bleakley, Gok Wan and Rylan Clark. Bruno Mars, DJ Fresh and Ms. Dynamite provided live music performing their tracks, "Locked Out of Heaven", "Young Girls" and "Gold Dust". At the end of the show, Carr performed "Rapper's Delight" live.

Party games included Olympics Musical Chairs, Snog Marry Kill, Bash The Boris, New Year's Revolutions, Antony Worrall Thompson's Bag Of Swag Eat Off, Truth or Luge, Rebekahroo, Have I Got New Years News For You,

Sketches and spoofs included Carr impersonating The Queen, Harry Styles, Felix Baumgartner, Kate Middleton, 999: What's Your Emergency?, Brad Pitt, Sinitta, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole, Jessie J, Julie Goodyear, Fifty Shades of Grey, Olympic Volunteers, James Bond, Clare Balding, Skyfall and The Great British Bake Off.

Other appearances were made by Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Jamie Laing.

The special was watched by an average of 1.9 million with an 11% share.[9] The 15-minute viewing peak was 2.4 million.[9]

2013

Grand National Specstacular

On 19 March 2013 Alan Carr's Grand National Specstacular was announced by Channel 4 as part of their line-up of programming building up to the 2013 Grand National.[10] The 95-minute special was broadcast on 5 April 2013, on the eve of the Grand National, and featured Jonathan Ross, Paddy McGuinness, Kimberley Walsh, Louis Walsh, James Nesbitt, Abbey Clancy, Rylan Clark, Alex Brooker, Russell Brand and Clare Balding, with music performed by Madness.

Miranda Hart was scheduled to appear but could not after injuring her knee earlier in the week.

The celebrities played games and drew out which horses they got in the sweepstake.

The special pulled in 1.49 million viewers.[11]

New Year Specstacular

A third New Year Specstacular was broadcast on 31 December 2013 and featured Abbey Clancy, Ben Cohen, James Corden, Keith Lemon, Seann Walsh and Emma Willis with music from Katy B and Tinie Tempah featuring Labrinth.

2014

New Year's Specstacular

On 31 December 2014, Carr brought in 2015 with special guests Jonathan Ross, Alesha Dixon, Mark Wright, James Corden, Caroline Flack, Tulisa Contostavlos, Professor Green and Seann Walsh.

2015

New Year's Specstacular

On 31 December 2015, Alan Carr brought in 2016 with fun and celebrity guests including David Guetta, Danny Dyer, Mel B, Greg Davies, Kelly Brook, Nish Kumar and Ellie Goulding.

References

  1. ↑ "Alan Carr's New Year Specstacular - Laura Hulme". laurahulme.com. Archived from the original on 17 July 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  2. ↑ Littlejohn, Georgina (29 December 2013). "Don't steal my swagger! Cher Lloyd battles with Alan Carr in the street as he mimics the star for his New Year Specs-tacular". Daily Mail. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  3. ↑ Tarley, Rachel (29 December 2011). "Alan Carr mocks Cher Lloyd and Kate Middleton in New Year Specstacular". Metro. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  4. ↑ "ALAN CARR'S NEW YEAR SPECSTACULAR - Free audience tickets". Sroaudiences. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  5. ↑ Millar, Paul (2 January 2012). "Channel 4's Alan Carr New Year's marathon seen by 2m". Digital Spy. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  6. ↑ "A let off for Alan Carr". The Sun. 8 February 2013. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  7. 1 2 "'Alan Carr's New Year Specstacular' cleared by Ofcom". imediamonkey.com. 8 February 2013. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  8. 1 2 "Top 30 Programmes". BARB. Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  9. 1 2 Sweney, Mark (2 January 2013). "BBC1's New Year Live raises a toast to 10.3 million". Guardian. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  10. ↑ Fletcher, Alex (2013-03-19). "Grand National coverage expanded on Channel 4". Digital Spy. Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  11. ↑ "Top 10 Programmes - BARB". BARB. Retrieved 17 April 2013.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/16/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.