User:Boaby flaps/Rock Around the Block

Rock Around the Block was a television program broadcast in the United Kingdom on ITV1 throughout July 2005. It is widely regarded as one of British television's greatest critical and ratings flops.

The show was broadcast at a time when ITV's

Format
The show followed a reality / game format in which two families competed against one another by performing karaoke versions of popular hits on a mobile stage to an audience of their neighbors, who then in turn voted for the winning act. Each family had 48-hours to learn to perform a song chosen for them by the opposing family, with the help of vocal coaches, choreographers and stylists. The winning family on any given episode won a cash prize of 5000 pounds.

Cast
Apart from the competing families, the show featured a host of regular professionals who would provide advice and training to the participants. Hollywood stylist, Erik Rudy endeavored to “create” appropriate costumes for the competitors with the caveat that he had to limit himself to contents of the families' own wardrobes. He was assisted by make-up artist Rachel Wood in performing temporary make overs for the competitors. Vocal coach Kim Chandler, rapper Kaz Gamble and choreographer Paulette Minott provided performance master-classes in their respective disciplines. The show was narrated by DJ Neil Fox, who never actually appeared on the show at any point.

Episode 1:
Aired on July 16th 2005, the first show featured the Miller family and the Mitrovic family of Birmingham, performing Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back" and the B52s' "Love Shack" respectively.

Episode 2:
Aired on July 23rd 2005, the second show was to feature the Adams family and the Swain family of Cheshire, performing Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca" and Madness's "Baggy Trousers" respectively.

Episode 3:
Aired on July 30th 2005, the third show featured the O'Boyle family and the Lottari family of Potters Bar performing Pink's "Get This Party Started" and the Black Eyed Peas "Let's Get it Started" respectively.

Episode 4:
Aired on August 6th 2005, the fourth show featured the Shah family and the Rowan family of Luton, performing The Spice Girls' "Wannabe" and The Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian" respectively.

Episode 5:
Never aired, the fifth show was to feature the Fisher family and the Cragg family of Spalding, performing Robbie Williams' "Rock DJ" and Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi" respectively.

Episode 6:
Never aired, the sixth show was to feature the Charles family and the Billitteri family of Bristol, performing MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" and Outkast's "Hey Ya" respectively.

Critical Reception
Rock Around the Block was launched on 16 July 2005 but generated little public interest. The first episode was watched by an audience of 1.8 million and rose to only 2.1 million for the third episode two weeks later. Both figures represented around 12% of the total audience at that time. It received almost uniformly unfavorable reviews from critics. The Sun called it a " budget-free affront to humanity", while the Sunday Telegraph predicted the show would "have a job sustaining a long run".

Demise
On August the 4th, ITV announced that the show was to be axed due to disappointing ratings, claiming that it was a "highly competitive slot and the show did not deliver the size of audience we hoped to attract".

Being only latest in a series of high-profile ratings disasters for ITV, the network took the unusually ruthless measure of removing the program from its schedule with immediate effect. The two remaining episodes left un-aired at the time of the cancellation announcement were never broadcast and the series was replaced with repeats of the bloopers show It Shouldn't Happen To... as of August 13th. Until this point, it had been standard practice with ratings failures to simply broadcast remaining episodes at reassigned more marginal time slots.