Desmondo

Stephen Glover this week suggested that Richard Desmond could be more dangerous to the balance of UK media control than Rupert Murdoch. And on Tuesday, we learned that the Five early evening chat show, Live from Studio 5, currently produced by Sky News, will soon be replaced by  "OK! TV".   But, overall, the Desmond strategy for multi-media domination seems based on the production values of the Express more than anything else - cut the bottom line, cut it again, hammer simple agendas, and make money out of quizzes and competitions. And now, use one to publicise the other.


So the woeful Vanessa show on Channel Five is sponsored by Carpetright; has a full list of set suppliers and product reviews on its website; and is mentioned, editorially, nearly every day in the Daily Star. On Tuesday the headline was "TV favourite Vanessa Feltz sent the censors into overdrive by turning the air blue with a string of sex jokes", which, on full reading, were edited out by the production team, rather than censors.  Today, it's "Vanessa Feltz's fiance told how his Big Ben wilted after he got locked inside a freezer. Hunky co-host Ben Ofoedu, 38, tried out trendy cryotherapy for Channel 5’s The Vanessa Show"

Imagine the immortal souls of the subs told to write this stuff; the personal pride of the show's production team at Princess (owned by Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine);  and the values and judgements of presenter and the man who's put her back on the telly.