Rated/Slated – 2008

As the New Year continues and a raft of new programmes fills the Channel 4 schedules, it seems a good time to reflect on the programmes that viewers rated and slated in 2008. Our viewer enquiries team handled a total of 230,784 contacts (phone calls and emails) in 2008. Of these, 31,739 were critical and 4,548 were appreciative. The remainder were generally related to scheduling and engineering enquiries.

Despite the “Sachsgate” affair, Russell Brand proved to be flavour of the year here at C4 with his series, Russell Brand’s Ponderland securing the most appreciative comments of any new programme in 2008. The general consensus was that viewers welcomed our decision to go ahead with the series and ignore the “overblown controversy” surrounding Brand himself.

Meanwhile, The Alternative Christmas Message – delivered by the President of Iran – was the channel’s most criticised new broadcast, generating over 1000 complaints. Interestingly, the majority of these critical comments were received prior to transmission; opinion was more balanced after broadcast. For more on this, please take a look at Paula Carter’s blog which summarises viewer reaction to the President’s message.

Top 10 appreciative comments 2008

1. Russell Brand’s Ponderland (361 contacts)
2. The Alternative Christmas Message (222)
3. Hugh’s Chicken Run (143)
4. The Secret Millionaire (93)
5. The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall (90)
6. The Qur’an (84)
7. How To Look Good Naked (71)
8. Big Brother Celebrity Hijack (71)
9. The Family (55)
10. Cutting Edge: A Boy Called Alex (52)
11. City of Vice (49)

Top 10 critical comments 2008

1. The Alternative Christmas Message (1014)
2. Jamie’s Ministry of Food (444)
3. The Qur’an (396)
4. Desperate Housewives (337)
5. The F Word (303)
6. Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live (301)
7. The Kevin Bishop Show (290)
8. I am the Elephant Man: A Bodyshock Special (281)
9. True Stories: An Independent Mind (241)
10. The Sex Education Show (210)

Of the channel’s long-running series, Big Brother dominated viewer contacts in 2008 with 12,215 complaints and 567 appreciative comments. Hollyoaks meanwhile received 260 complaints and 31 appreciative comments.

Channel 4 News, which is broadcast every single day of the year, generated a relatively low 1,949 complaints and 173 appreciative comments in 2008. The vast majority of complaints related to contributor views broadcast on the show, though – as reported on The TV Show blog at the time – February saw an unusually high number of complaints (89) criticising a report on Prince Harry’s deployment to Afghanistan.

How do you feel about 2008’s Rated/Slated? If you’d like to share your thoughts on the programmes Channel 4 broadcast last year, please leave your comments below.

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