Celebrity Sabotage

A group of contestants think they're taking part in a new ITV programme, we guess they've been told it's a short pilot that could be fleshed out into a series. Everything takes place over two days, generally with just the one event each day.

The basic setup is a lie. The actual challenge is for a group of familiar ITV faces, who are to sabotage the show without being seen by the civilian players. Resident sabs are Joel Dommett, Judi Love, GK Barry, and Sam Thompson; they're joined each week by a guest saboteur.

While the contestants go about their competiton, the saboteurs are given challenges to do. All challenges involve some interaction with the contestants - trap someone in the greenhouse, beat them to an object, cause their rope to break, that sort of thing. Generally, each real contestant will be the subject of one prank, so nobody gets too suspicious.

Successful sabotages are rewarded with money, which is shared between the real contestants at the end. Unsuccessful sabotages earn no money. Being caught is a disaster for the celeb - not only is the challenge failed and the money lost, but the celeb is put in a little prison cell for hours.

Many of the challenges require the celebs to dress in silly outfits - across the series, we saw Joel Dommett turn into an armchair, Judi Love dress as a bush, and Sam Thompson become a scarecrow. Most challenges are narrated by one of the celebs back at their headquarters, allowing us to hear the excitement in Sam's voice as he tells Joel to hide and stay still and be a better armchair.

Yes, the hosts were in on the joke, and could hear what was going on from the control room. Some of the pranks were played by the hosts, married couple Matt and Emma Willis were prepared to fake a row and embarrass another couple.

Each show is capped by the reveal: explaining what has been going on, and that though the prize they thought they were playing for was not real, the real money really is.

Celebrity Sabotage built on a long tradition of hidden cameras and prank shows - we can trace the line back through elements of Saturday Night Takeaway and Beadle's About, through bits of The Late Late Breakfast Show all the way back to Candid Camera. In this latest incarnation, the prank was against television itself: all of the formats looked plausible, and could easily have been commissioned by ITV.

The production required two control rooms: one for the celebrity pranks, and one for the fake show the civilians thought they were making. The show was made better by attention to detail - bringing in a suitable dog for Perfect Pooch, a proper assault course for Survive or Surrender.

Although it's worth watching and more engrossing than we expected, Celebrity Sabotage didn't feel like a must-see programme. It went out on Saturday evenings, just after Britain's Got Talent heats. To give a compliment, the show had the energe of a live-action cartoon at times, and probably wanted to go out before BGT - but the Beeb's Gladiators had first dibs on that spot.

Can they find another set of formats ripe for the ribbing? In its six episodes, Celebrity Sabotage crossed off most of the obvious formats, and we're not sure where they can go next. It'll be good to see them try.

The shows were:

• The Applicant, a business contest similar to The Apprentice, hosted by Sara Davies and sabotaged by Jo Brand
• Couple Goals, relationships tested by Emma Willis and her husband Matt Willis, with Olivia Attwood sabotaging.
• The Great Kitchen Cook Off, cheffing in a tent á la The Great British Bake Off. Host was Monica Galetti with guest Jill Scott.
• SOS: Survive or Surrender, outdoorsy physical challenges with Jason Fox from SAS: Are You Tough Enough?. Guest sab was Guz Khan.
• The Perfect Pooch, fun with dogs and Clare Balding; the guest was Harry Redknapp.
• The Backstabber, can you trust your friends with Rylan and don't mention The Traitors. Extra sabotage from Fay Ripley.

Watch at ITV.com

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