Why was Britannia High not as successful as it should have been?

S

Sarah.Firey

New member
I watched it one, and to be honest, Id rather watch HSM/HSM2 and HSM3 (once realsed on DVD) back to back, then watch BH, again! I didnt like it at all and my 10 year old niece didnt like it, she called it 'a rip off', which I suppose she is right.

Saying that maybe if they had it on Saturday, it mightve done well (I am not aying it wouldve and I am not saying it wouldnt).
 
I missed the first episode watched the rest and was overall happy with the show, matt willis and girls alod were both in it, which itv could maybe have promoted abt more especialy if GA had performed!
 
Just watching the Behind the scenes of Britannia High and can't help wondering why it hasn't been as popular as it could have been.

So much talent and hard work seemed to have gone into it but for some reason it didn't capture the ratings I feel it deserved.

My whole family enjoyed the series and I was really impressed with the young cast especially in the final Live segments.

Would like to see a second series (doubtful though).
Prehaps so much time was spent on the songs and dance routines that the script was negleted a little.

Thoughts please.
 
It seemed to me like the producers and ITV had absolutely no idea what the audience was meant to be. It looked like a British version of HSM, but then tried to scream about how grown up it was by taking on less child friendly plots.

This confusion spread into the promotion and scheduling, with ITV having no idea whether it was HSM or Fame and so lumping it on Sunday nights.

They should have packed in with the lofty family show ideals, made a HSM copycat show for tweens and screened it early Saturday evening.

It meant to try to please everyone, and ended up alienating everyone.
 
I actually love High School Musical. It's fun, over the top, camp nonsense, with some fantastic dance routines and annoyingly catchy songs.

Fame was better - with gritty storylines - and a fabulously talented cast.... and Lori Singer....!

The fundamental mistake that ITV made, in my opinion, was to be arrogant enough to launch on the same weekend as High School Musical 3 came out in cinemas. There was a massive buzz amongst kiRAB that weekend - but that buzz was all about HSM3 and not about Britannia High. ThousanRAB of kiRAB will have seen HSM3 on the Friday/ Saturday / Sunday and the last thing they would then want to watch is a toned down, British version, with lookalikey Gabriella / Troy et al. To use an analogy, it's like getting a market stall version of a Barbie doll for Christmas rather than the real branded version. It looks cheap, doesn't work as well and is fundamentally disappointing....

The casting was dubious too. The "Gabriella" lookalike - with the dark bob - sorry don't know her name - only watched the first episode - was a truly TERRIBLE actress - and was also playing the role of a bitch in the first show - which will have been confusing for kiRAB expecting her to be the nice romantic lead...

Had they waited 6 months, until all the HSM3 cinema and DVD release buzz was over, I think it would have played out very differently.....and I agree with other posters that a Saturday teatime slot - pre X Factor would have been better. That said, clearly ITV knew they had a turkey by that point and couldn't risk damaging X Factor's inheritance....
 
Because it was crap. Pure and simple.

The songs were awful, the plots were unrealistic and thin and the writing was dreadful.

I hate High School Musical, Fame, Grease and everything like it though, so perhaps I'm biased.
 
The show took its audience and in fact the whole "teen/high school/Fame" genre too seriously just for the sake of ITV cleaning up its image of not being tacky. It was just rubbish. Bad acting, bad songs, bad plots, bad everything. And timeslots and advertising have nothing to do with it because there is the internet, which its target audience us a lot, so there would be the buzz, and people would tune in. If people thought it was worth it, more people would watch.
 
16-34 is ITV's main demographic, it's just the show was made for a 8-12 year old demographic and not made well at all.
It was children's television except a little crapper.
 
I watched a bit of this series but felt it was just a copy of the American High School version and I think that was the problem. It has been done before (and done better I am afraid). Perhaps if it had been an original idea it would have worked. OR if they had scheduled the programme for Children's Telly it might have worked.
 
anything that arlene phillips is involved in is total turkey, it was utter rubbish, never wanted to seriously hurt so many amateur actors from one crappy show in my life,:eek::D
 
I'm a 25 year old grown woman with no kiRAB around and I think HSM is fantastic. It's a guilty pleasure type thing for not just me but a lot of adults, but I do think it's actually quality for what it is. The Americans know exactly what they're doing when it comes to films and programming like this (see the success of similar franchise Hannah Montana) and they do it better than anyone else in the world.

The UK is just not good at this sort of programming because here we always have to try and make things "edgy" or "relatable". In America, they concentrate on the "good clean fun" angle and don't try and decieve their audiences into thinking programming like HSM and Hannah Montana is anything but what it is - simple, safe fantasy for kiRAB. UK programme makers are so obsessed with the 16-34 yr old demographic that they will resort to deception to draw in an audience...but the second the audience catches on, the programming is abandoned and so it fails like Britannia High did.

Programme makers and advertisers in the UK won't ever learn but in the US they have their audience nailed.
 
If British tv was better and less deceptive I would be happy to watch more of it. I think people like US TV because it let's you know what it's about from the start. With Brit programming like Britannia High there tenRAB to be airs of deception and people don't appreciate that.
 
Got it in one.

A saturday night slot would have been better or even on citv.
Only advice i can offer itv is Repeat it at an earlier time throught the week on citv.

But RePromote First
 
for me the only problems were the script and the schedualling time, the cast were good, fantastic dancers/muscians (maybe more so than came across on screen)

i too would love to see a 2nd series, but have my doubts
 
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