The Stage

Sky to avoid audition-based shows

Published Tuesday 31 August 2010 at 14:18 by Matthew Hemley

Sky1 has signalled its intention to move away from audition-based entertainment shows such as Got To Dance.

The channel’s director of programmes, Stuart Murphy, said the end of Big Brother on Channel 4 meant he was looking at the possibility of introducing “streamed entertainment” to the channel, as opposed to studio-based shows.

He said Sky1 was examining how it can reinvent the entertainment genre, but admitted that there “might be fatigue with yet another audition-type show” such as Must be the Music.

He added he was now discussing with Sky1 head of entertainment Duncan Gray what the next shows should look like.

“Both of us have talked about whether we can do something that makes us nervous in terms of its scale. We would love a show that is an ‘Oh my god can we do this’ type thing,” he said.

Murphy also revealed that he was looking for comedies with a bit of “edge” to them, and said he was particularly keen to commission a sketch show.

He said the channel was aiming to broadcast around four to six comedy shows a year.

“We don’t have much comedy with a capital C, such as sketch shows. I would love someone to try and reinvent the form in the way Star Stories did - or to create something that is a mix of scripted and real, for instance, that doesn’t feel samey,” he said.

Murphy added that Sky1’s comedy shows need to feature well-known names in order to attract viewers.

Addressing delegates at this year’s television festival in Edinburgh, Murphy also took the opportunity to criticise his former employer, the BBC, where he was controller of BBC Three.

He claimed the Corporation spent too much time talking about things, and added that people who left it for Sky felt “liberated”.

“It’s brilliant to turn up for work at organisation that enacts for 90% of time and chats for 10. That is the polar opposite of previous places I have worked,” he said.

Murphy said the BBC had “a lot of good people” but added: “Often the BBC does good speech and doesn’t do good action. It’s frustrating.”