Yay! It’s all been rather speedy, but starting on Wed 9 January, I’ve got a new prime time series every Wednesday night at 7.30pm for 10 weeks on Five TV. It’s called “It Pays To Watch”; and in many ways it’s the format I’ve always wanted to do.
The aim’s simple; a magazine show to save people money, filmed in front of a live studio audience – think MoneySavingExpert.com meets Top Gear meets The Gadget Show. It going to be filmed on a Wednesday late afternoon in an ‘as live’ format; a couple of hours before transmission (for the sake of legal approval!).
The show all came about when Chris Shaw, the senior programme controller of Five approached me and said “we’d like to give you a show that best uses your skills – what do you think we should do?” My answer was simple, “the equivalent of my weekly MoneySaving email but in a TV format”. And rather wonderfully they said yes (with a couple of tweaks and provisos as expected).
The show’s going to be produced by MoneySaving Productions; which is also a new venture for me and exec producer Cat Lewis, who did the same job on my ITV1 Series Make Me Rich. We’ve almost recruited the whole editorial team now which should be fun. Plus Ruth Liptrot, who’s a fantastic, quirky, fun reporter from Five News is going to join me on the show in what they call the “sidekick” role.
So cross your fingers; I hope it’ll capture the real spirit of MoneySaving. Of course the constraints of TV mean no mention of MSE is allowed and legals and formatting means I won’t always get my own way with what’s in the show (unlike on the site) but I still think it’s going to be a money show like no other.
We’re going to be looking for loads of people to join in, get in the audience, take part in MoneySaving experiments and more; plus we’re looking for extraordinary MoneySavers (people who push it to the nth degree) for Ruth to come and meet. And I’m going to be doing a very special ‘celebrity wallet work out’ where I get to evaluate a celeb’s MoneySaving skills.
Lots more info and how to get involved are available herel
