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10 O'Clock Live
Genre	Current affairs Comedy Satire
Presented by	Charlie Brooker Jimmy Carr Lauren Laverne David Mitchell
Opening theme	"Bernie" by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	33
Production
Production location	Pinewood Studios
Running time	Series 1: 65 minutes (inc. adverts) Series 2-3: 55 minutes (inc. adverts)
Production company	Zeppotron
Original release
Network	Channel 4
Release	20 January 2011 (2011-01-20) – 12 June 2013 (2013-06-12)
Related
Channel 4's Alternative Election Night

10 O'Clock Live is a British comedy/news television programme that ran from 2011 to 2013, presented by Charlie Brooker, Jimmy Carr, Lauren Laverne and David Mitchell.

The programme was commissioned following the success of Channel 4's Alternative Election Night, fronted by the same four presenters, in May 2010. The first series appeared in 2011, with two subsequent series broadcast in 2012 and 2013. In October 2014 it was confirmed that the show would not be continuing.

The song "Bernie" by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion was used for the show's theme.

Interactivity

The show had official Facebook and Twitter pages to enable viewer interactivity whilst live on air. Polls were run via the Facebook page and comments received via both pages and read out by the presenters.

Format

First series

The show was introduced by the four hosts positioned, seated or standing, around an island table. In an order that changed with each show, they would each introduce themselves by name, with the last host to speak also introducing the show ("It's 10 o'clock, we're live on Channel 4, this is 10 O'Clock Live..."). The hosts would then sit down at another table and open the show on an introductory discussion and set-up to the planned topics for the week's show. This was always followed by Jimmy Carr explaining the news of the week in the form of one-liner jokes, then by Charlie Brooker examining the way in which an event, story or media-figure has been covered in the news, focusing his satire on the way the event was covered to the public. He did the same again later on, normally on a different subject (for example, if he covered a political story earlier on, he will examine coverage of a celebrity later). David Mitchell always had three sections: a panel-discussion with guests (such as journalists, activists, and MPs) discussing an issue; an interview with a more well-known or higher-ranking political figure, which he aimed to conduct as seriously as possible, but was able to satirize what the interviewee says unlike more serious political interviewers; and a "Listen to Mitchell" section, in the style of his panel-show rants and David Mitchell's Soapbox podcast series. Carr also had two more sections to himself in the style of one-liner stand-up, but usually while satirically playing a character or figure from the news, (such as George Osborne during the week of the 2011 United Kingdom budget). Lauren Laverne tended to introduce pre-recorded sketches and material, and chair the discussions amongst the four hosts.

Second and third series

The shows from the second and third series had a slightly shorter running time than those in the first. As such, a few items were subsequently dropped: the self-introduction of each host by name (after the credits the camera cut straight to the table where the four were seated for the initial discussion, always chaired by Laverne); David Mitchell's one-to-one political interviews were removed, while his "Listen to Mitchell" segment only appeared in one episode; Charlie Brooker's sardonic takes on news stories were reduced from two to one; Lauren Laverne's pre-recorded sketches were replaced with "Lauren Laverne's Occasional Guide to...", in which she delivered a satirical "guide" to various current events, such as the 2012 Republican presidential primaries or the UK government's expenditure for the Cultural Olympiad.

Episodes and guests

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

Viewing figures

BARB as reported by The Guardian, recorded overnight viewing figures demonstrating that the show "launched with 1.373 million viewers and a 7.8% audience share, with about another 100,000 watching an hour later on Channel 4 +1", running against BBC One's popular and well established weekly political debate programme, Question Time which had ratings slightly better than the week before. Channel 4 claimed that the show nevertheless drew a higher share of the 16-34 demographic. The Guardian's reporter also remarked that Newsnight, BBC Two's flagship nightly current affairs programme, suffered its lowest audience of the past year. The BBC programmes overlap the 22:00–23:05 timeslot filled by 10 O'Clock Live.

In the second week, ratings were down to 1.084 million viewers, representing a 6% audience share.

Overnights for the show on 7 April had figures at 610,000 (3.6%) with a further 110,000 (1.2%) one hour later on the timeshifted Channel 4+1.

Reception

In Metro on 11 February 2011, Christopher Hooton wrote that the show had become "a much-improved animal with several stand-out funny moments", but also claimed it had become "as overtly partisan as Fox News".

A number of commentators noted that the first series of show was consistently biased towards a left-wing stance on political issues. In The Daily Telegraph Robert Colvile strongly criticised the quality of the humour in the programme, describing it as an "insular, disjointed, murderously unfunny smug-a-thon", while in the same newspaper James Delingpole saw an overt liberal left bias in the programme.

Others have criticised the apolitical nature of the programme's comedy. Reviewing the opening episode of the second series on The Huffington Post, Richard Berry argued that the programme failed to live up to its billing as satire, commenting "More often than not, in 10 O'Clock Live politics and current affairs are referenced merely as a backdrop for toilet humour."

References

1. ^ Foster, Patrick (1 November 2011). "10 O'Clock Live to return to Channel 4". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
2. "10 O'Clock Live". 20 January 2011. Archived from the original on 6 January 2011. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
3. "10 O'Clock Live - C4 Satire - British Comedy Guide". British Comedy Guide. 20 January 2011. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
4. Ward, Rachel (20 January 2011). "10 O'Clock Live, Channel 4, preview". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
5. "Channel 4 announces regular new programming". Channel 4. 19 March 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
6. "10 O'Clock Live... is dead". Chortle. 16 October 2014.
7. 10 O'Clock Live info Channel 4, 22 January 2011
8. "Guests: episode 1". Channel4.com. 20 January 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
9. "Guests: episode 2". Channel4.com. 25 January 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
10. "Guests: episode 3". Channel4.com. 2 February 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
11. "Guests: episode 4". Channel4.com. 10 February 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
12. "Guests: episode 5". Channel4.com. 16 February 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
13. "Guests: episode 6". Channel4.com. 24 February 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
14. "Guests: episode 7". Channel4.com. 3 March 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
15. "Guests: episode 8". Channel4.com. 9 March 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
16. "Guests: episode 9". Channel4.com. 17 March 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
17. "Guests: episodes 10". Channel4.com. 23 March 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
18. "Guests: episodes 11". Channel4.com. 31 March 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
19. "Guests: episodes 12". Channel4.com. 7 April 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
20. "Guests: episodes 13". Channel4.com. 14 April 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
21. "Guests: episodes 14". Channel4.com. 21 April 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
22. "Guests: episodes 15". Channel4.com. 28 April 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
23. "Series 2 | Episode 1". 10 O'Clock Live. Channel 4. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
24. "Series 2 | Episode 2". 10 O'Clock Live. Channel 4. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
25. "Series 2 | Episode 3". 10 O'Clock Live. Channel 4. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
26. "Series 2 | Episode 4". 10 O'Clock Live. Channel 4. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
27. "Series 2 | Episode 5". 10 O'Clock Live. Channel 4. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
28. "10 O'Clock Live on Twitter".
29. "Series 2 | Episode 6". 10 O'Clock Live. Channel 4. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
30. "10 O'Clock Live on Twitter".
31. "Tweet (8:56 PM - 21 Mar 12)". 10 O'Clock Live Twitter account. Twitter. Retrieved 23 March 2012. Good evening! Joining @RealDMitchell at the round table tonight: Reverend George Pitcher and @DrEvanHarris #10oclocklive
32. "10 O'Clock Live - Series 2 - Episode 8 - 10 O'Clock Live". Channel 4. 28 March 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
33. "Tweet (2:32 PM - 4 Apr 12)". 10 O'Clock Live Twitter account. Twitter. Retrieved 11 April 2012. For our penultimate episode, @RealDMitchell will be joined by @georgegalloway @EmilyThornberry @thomasbrake and Dominic Raab #10oclocklive
34. "Tweet (5:42 PM - 11 Apr 12)". 10 O'Clock Live Twitter account. Twitter. Retrieved 11 April 2012. It's the last episode of the series & we're going out with a bang! Tonight's show features @billybragg @SpencerGeorgeM and @JuliaHB1
35. "10 O'Clock Live - Series 3 - Episode 1". Channel 4. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
36. "10 O'Clock Live - Series 3 - Episode 2". Channel 4. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
37. "10 O'Clock Live - Series 3 - Episode 3". Channel 4. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
38. "10 O'Clock Live - Series 3 - Episode 4". Channel 4. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
39. "10 O'Clock Live - Series 3 - Episode 5". Channel 4. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
40. "10 O'Clock Live - Series 3 - Episode 6". Channel 4. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
41. "10 O'Clock Live - Series 3 - Episode 7". Channel 4. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
42. "10 O'Clock Live - Series 3 - Episode 8". Channel 4. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
43. Deans, Jason (21 January 2011). "TV ratings: Question Time trumps 10 O'Clock Live". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 February 2011. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
44. Deans, Jason (28 January 2011). "Viewers fail to set their watches for Ten O'Clock Live". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 March 2011.
45. "UK Overnight Daily TV BARB Ratings – Thursday, April 7, 2011". 8 April 2011. Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
46. Hooton, Christopher (11 February 2011). "10 O'Clock Live is becoming a party political broadcast". Retrieved 9 April 2001.
47. Lawson, Mark (20 January 2011). "10 O'Clock Live – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 April 2011. The four regulars also all seem united in a liberal agenda.
48. Hooton, Christopher (11 February 2011). "10 O'Clock Live is becoming a party political broadcast". Metro.co.uk. Retrieved 16 April 2011. Often spouting unequivocally liberal views the team of presenters have completely pinned their colours to the mast. Now I'm no Tory but it would be nice to see a little less blatant bias in the show, but with half the presenting team writing regularly for the Guardian this looks a little unlikely.
49. Colvile, Robert (31 May 2011). "The downfall of a moralising moron is truly a thing of beauty". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
50. Delingpole, James (18 March 2011). "10 O'Clock Live is shedding viewers. Oh dear". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 21 March 2011. Retrieved 16 April 2011. The problem lies with its relentlessly left-liberal politics. Not everyone reads the Guardian or the Independent, you know. (In fact, hardly anyone.)
51. James Delingpole (23 December 2011). "Minchin and the nauseating moral cowardice of the liberal-left trenderati". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
52. Berry, Richard (11 February 2012). "10 O'Clock Live: Satire is Still in Short Supply". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 1 June 2013.

External links

• 10 O'Clock Live on Channel 4
• 10 O'Clock Live at British Comedy Guide
• 10 O'Clock Live at IMDb

• 2011 British television series debuts
• 2013 British television series endings
• 2010s British satirical television series
• Channel 4 comedy
• British English-language television shows
• Television series by Banijay
• Television series by Zeppotron
• British live television series