Driving Up The Ratings

‘IN Britain, most “live” TV studio audiences are made up of OAPs on a cut-priced charabanc from the rest home.

‘Do you want this award for tuning in or would you prefer cash?’

For them, the gift is just seeing life beyond the four walls of their cell-like dorms and living another day.

But over in the States, audiences expect more. They are greedier, hungrier and fatter than their British counterparts.

And, being less mobile than a British OAP with a Zimmer Frame, they demand something extra.

Now, the Mail reports, the audience at Oprah Winfrey’s chat show got just the thing: a car…each.

Not that Oprah didn’t know her audience – they’d all written begging letters into the show saying how they desperately needed a new car.

So Oprah’s people called General Motors and they donated 275 Pontiac G6 motors to the show, which, at showroom prices, would have cost her £3m.

Meanwhile, back in the studios of Anglia TV, the warm-up man for Trisha Goddard – “The Oprah of Norwich” – is trying to whip the crowd into a frenzy, without any free cars.

“What’s brown and sticky, gang?” he asks. “A stick,” he replies.

Not a stick shift, you understand, just a stick. A brown one…’

Posted: 14th, September 2004 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink