‘Playing It Straight’ aka ‘Guess The Gay’, Channel 4 tonight

Reality TV is full of surprises. Just when it looks like the whole industry is knackered, coughing and honking like a clown’s funny car, something new comes along to shake it back into life.

First there was The Apprentice, based on the American series starring odd-haired entrepeneur Donald Trump basically screaming at contestents next to a helicopter on top of a skyscraper.

Then the BBC remade it with Alan Sugar and a whole array of those crappy Amstrad e-mail telephones. And it’s mostly a success. Never underestimate the joy of watching self-assurred idiots fighting amongst themselves.

Now Channel Four is hitting us with Playing It Straight, a take on the seemingly never-ending conveyor belt of reality dating shows.

Again, this trend was started in America. They’ve had The Batchelor, The Batchelorette, For Love Or Money, For Love Or Money 2.
To try and distinguish themselves from each other, they’ve all got
slightly more complex rules than the last one. And they go on and on
and on….

"Fifteen men and one woman - do they want her, or do they want
cash? And does she want cash, too? If he says yes to cash but no to
her, and she says yes to him, but no to cash, he wins the money. If
they both say yes to cash, they go away with nothing. If he says yes in
French, but she’s touching the magic speaking stapler…."

And on and on and on.

But this new show seems to have an exciting new twist - there’s one
girl who has to choose between a bunch of blokes, but half of them are
gay. If she ends up with a gay contestant, he wins a load of cash.

This looks like must-watch TV for so many reasons. First there’s the obvious ‘play at home factor’. What’s better than sitting screaming "GAY!" at your TV? Nothing, that’s what. hecklerspray
is willing to make the prediction that there’s going to be a few wild
cards - straight men who shriek and run around in circles when they see
mice, etc - to add to the fun.

What about the perception of homosexual men as a girl’s best friend?
Will she get her feelings confused? And will we see a gay man get to
the end and realise he loves the girl after all?

However, there are dark clouds ahead. Like The Apprentice, Playing It Straight was originally an American idea. It aired on Fox, but got cancelled after three episodes, never to be seen again.

Channel 4 has had mixed luck lately with it’s Friday night scheduling. Nathan Barley got bad ratings, and The Friday Night Project
was very similar to having your skin taken off with a potato peeler and
then being rolled in lemon juice. Why do they show TV programmes for
16-35 year-olds at the time they’re most likely to be out?

Have they learnt from their - and the Americans’ -mistakes? The only
way to find out is by watching tonight on Channel 4 at 10pm.

[story by Stuart Heritage]