DO we really need a nightly TV chat show?

That was the thought running through my mind as I watched the ubiquitous David Walliams in a woefully unfunny ‘head to head’ sketch with boxer David Haye the other evening. It involved silly poses and dance moves, greeted by the kind of robotic studio audience guffawing that is interchangeable with canned laughter.

I suspect that even the presenter and his guest knew it was awful. But since Walliams was reportedly paid more per episode of The Nightly Show than most people earn in a year, I doubt it really mattered.

The show was panned by critics, and viewers left in droves. Walliams has told BBC Breakfast he believes this was down to people being upset about the ITV News moving from its 10pm slot, to accommodate the new US-style talk show.

Well, yes, there is that. We expect to tune into the News at that time - for many people, it’s a chance to sit and digest national and world events without the distractions of the day creeping in. Is ITV’s attempt to replicate the late-night talks shows of America really worth pushing back our nightly news bulletin for?

The Nightly Show, featuring different guest presenters throughout its eight-week run, needs to up its game in terms of guest quality, script, set design and conversation skills if it is to avoid the “TV Shockers of the Year” rundown at the end of 2017.

From what I’ve seen so far, it’s a garish poor relation of the slick, glamorous nightly chat shows that have long been a staple of US television. It’s a shame that we feel we have to emulate all that, when we have perfectly good TV formats of our own.

There was a time when famous folk were happy to chew the fat on shows like Parkinson, often without even plugging anything, (unheard of today), and these interviews have stood the test of time. Yet so many of today’s chat shows, with the exception of BBC1’s consistently good Graham Norton Show, have descended into daft gimmicks, silly sketches and inane chit-chat, leaving you none the wiser about the guests being “interviewed”.

Even the aforementioned TV News has succumbed to Americanisms; smirking newsreaders casually perched on desks, delivering hard news stories with a knowing drop intro, before announcing the following item with "next up".

I’ve watched news shows in America and, while I find the presenters strangely fascinating, they could be talking in a different language. It’s a creepy, over familiar style, delivered by shiny people who all look and sound the same, and it doesn’t sit well on British TV - yet it’s a style we’re increasingly adopting.

Americanisms are nothing new; they have long seeped into our TV drama and comedy. But while this can be cringeworthy - the sitcom Not Going Out blatantly copied the exterior shots and link music of US comedy shows, lacking their edgy charm, and Casualty still can’t match the emotional pull and snappy dialogue that made ER great 20 years ago - it can also work well.

Much of our home-grown TV drama is formulaic, dull and predictable. So, since most American serials (or at least the imports we get here) are beautifully written, impeccably acted and enviably innovative, I think the US influence in this field is to be welcomed.

Maybe we can reach a happy medium; taking on the best bits of American TV without trying to actually be American.

And if we must have a nightly talk show, can it please be on after the news?

* CAN man or machine pull the best pint? Saltaire Brewery has challenged mechanical engineering students to build a robot to compete with an industry professional in a pint-pulling contest. The dual will include taste, consistency and wastage tests.

When I worked in a pub I was taught to hand-pull pints of bitter and if they weren't exactly right, the old boys at the bar sent them back. "Can I have a tie for that?" they'd say, if the head was too big. I soon learned to pull a pretty perfect pint. Even a robot would find that judging panel formidable.

* ONE of the uglier sides of social media is the obsession with posting images of animals dressed in silly costumes.

Cats seem to be the usual victims. This week I saw horrible footage on Facebook of a young cat with a Mickey Mouse mask tied to its head, its ears flattened down underneath it. The poor thing looked utterly miserable, yet its owner was filming it, presumably with the sole purpose of posting the film online for others to laugh at and “like”.

It goes without saying that cats don’t exactly enjoy being dressed up like this. Why would they? There’s something very distasteful and cruel about the way we use animals for our entertainment on social media. It's not much different from the abuse of animals in circuses.

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