Thursday 04 December

BLOGS

blogCategory
Previous
Back to blog
Next

Travel Girls

Women audition as travel presenters
  • Posted at 11:34am
  • 26 September 2007
  • by RhodriMarsden-RT
  • 5 comments

A trip to Rome isn't complete without visiting Vatican City, you know. This is the kind of handy hint you'll pick up when watching Travel Girls, which follows the story of six girls striving for fame as TV travel presenters.

They're competing for the job of fronting a travel show by attempting to demonstrate their aptitude for fronting a travel show. So essentially, it's an audition. But when six attractive women compete for a prize, the law states that a TV series must be made out of it – thus the audition lasts 13 weeks, and the Travel & Living channel gets two series out of one idea. Bingo.

By Monday night's show there were just three girls left out of the initial six, each of them advising us of the various delights that Australia has to offer – you know, Sydney has an opera house, Hobart has a mountain, that kind of thing. The crew working with each contestant were fairly unanimous in adjudging the girls' efforts to be a bit rubbish, and they weren't the only ones. It made you wonder whether the contestants that had already been rejected were a table lamp, a shuttlecock and a bumblebee.

Natalie, a beautiful but vapid blonde, complained that whenever she had to speak, her mind went blank. One crew member went on to describe her as "not the smartest cookie in the world", and after watching her attempt at combining those tricky activities of talking and walking up an escalator, you would have to agree.

Heather, a cute but distracted brunette, was too busy texting her boyfriend back home to bother firing up her personality circuits. "I think we've broken up but I'm not sure," she whined. And Susie, who you could probably describe as "bubbly", asked searching questions of her interviewees along the lines of "Why is it called the Great Barrier Reef?", "Where do babies come from?” and "Why is air?"

As with all such shows, it closed with the inevitable ejection of one contestant. The Travel Girls stood patiently waiting for the supposedly professional but equally wooden host, Stacee, to sashay on and deliver the verdict in a stilted, uninterested monotone.

And the unlucky girl was Natalie. She cried and refused to have her post-ejection interview with the host, who seemed pretty indifferent herself. So, running about five minutes short, the programme switched its focus to how they might fill the last five minutes which, in itself, managed to take up the last five minutes.

Dean – the producer – tried to persuade Natalie to face the camera, while the voiceover said that he had "hijacked the elimination scene in order to get himself more screen time". Stacee was upset by this, so the cameraman attempted to take charge. You half expected him to pull back to reveal ten more production teams, each commenting on the work of the other.

Anyway, my money's on Susie, because when she opens her mouth, sound comes out. It's always a bonus for a presenter. You'd have thought that they'd have checked for that kind of thing during the pre-show audition pre-audition tryout. Perhaps they've made a programme about that, too.

You can find out who wins Travel Girls next Monday at 10:00pm on Travel & Living (Sky 276, Virgin 273).

Link to this post
Post a comment | 5 comments

Comments

  • Posted on 27 September 2007
  • at 12:05pm
  • by Vicwardian

I'm really glad I didn't have to see this. Thanks for making it so funny already!

  • Posted on 26 September 2007
  • at 10:49pm
  • by marysiak

Perhaps one day it will become apparent that the glow of being auditioned for the world to watch for no money and a lot of hassle has gone off for the acting world at large.

  • Posted on 26 September 2007
  • at 1:24pm
  • by vibenavigator

Being a bit of a sucker for this kind of thing I'm grateful to have the programmes described so comprehensively. No need to watch them now, and I can genuinely feel the tears and emotions of the final already.

  • Posted on 26 September 2007
  • at 1:22pm
  • by piersgibbon

Hey I can speak and walk and think at the same time

I want another go at being a tv presenter

I'll bleache, I promise

  • Posted on 26 September 2007
  • at 1:16pm
  • by Socks

Rhodri, you're a hideous cretin or a triumphant hero, but I haven't worked out which yet.

Post a comment

Do you have something to say about this post? Does it ring true for you or have you got different ideas? Share your thoughts…

Post a comment

(first or nickname only)

Please do not include any personal or personally identifiable information about yourself or others (including email addresses). All information you submit about yourself or others can be viewed by others.

Thank you for your comment

Thank you for your comments. All comments will be looked at by a moderator, however, due to the numbers of comments we receive, we can't promise that all will be posted on the site.

Post another comment

More


Advertisement