Is it a scam

[Binman]

I had a call out the blue about taking part in the First Date show on channel 4, ended up in the first episode, which I watched again for the first time last night, I enjoyed it, but not to happy with the date, nothing like what they asked I would like. Give it a go if it's not a scam, even if you get your leg pulled it doesn't matter.if not suitable just pull out.

 

[Wandering Star]

Johnny Depp got paid gazillions, I think this is an opportunity too good to turn down, even a quarter of a gazillion would be plenty for me.

 

[Grumpybear]

Anyone old enough to remember what Channel 4 did to John Ridgway's outward bound business? They suckered him with a corporate bonding show with IIRC an offshore outfit in Aberdeen. C4 briefed the players to take the mickey and Ridgway duly lost his temper. Great telly, but within days of screening the business was dead in the water.

 

[macd]

Anyone old enough to remember what Channel 4 did to John Ridgway's outward bound business? They suckered him with a corporate bonding show with IIRC an offshore outfit in Aberdeen. C4 briefed the players to take the mickey and Ridgway duly lost his temper. Great telly, but within days of screening the business was dead in the water.

That's funny, because the John Ridgeway School of Adventure continued for about a decade afterwards until Ridgeway and his wife retired. And there's this is from Herald Scotland at the time: "...inquiries from bosses about the courses, Ridgway said, actually grew after the screening."
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12624271.A_time_to_look_fear_in_the_face/

From my recollection of events and subsequent reports, there was no conspiratorial briefing from C4: the participants simply objected to being told to do things they regarded as daft and irrelevant. That's always the danger with these team-building excercises.

 

[Grumpybear]

That's funny, because the John Ridgeway School of Adventure continued for about a decade afterwards until Ridgeway and his wife retired. And there's this is from Herald Scotland at the time: "...inquiries from bosses about the courses, Ridgway said, actually grew after the screening."
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12624271.A_time_to_look_fear_in_the_face/

From my recollection of events and subsequent reports, there was no conspiratorial briefing from C4: the participants simply objected to being told to do things they regarded as daft and irrelevant. That's always the danger with these team-building excercises.

Thanks for that. There were a number of rumours circulating at the time. I used to have a copy of the book he and his wife wrote about taking their adopted daughter back to Peru to see her birth mother, setting off just after the C4 episode, which (in my dim memory) either stated or implied that they could do this as they were suddenly at a loose end.

 

[Babylon]

On the other hand, I have direct experience of what the BBC cost my small business.

An approach to me with all promises, followed by a huge waste of time, money and emotional energy - followed then by a menacing stance from their legal department when I wrote to the DG and Controller of BBC2 television to complain about the terms the programme-makers imposed after shooting was completed. As with several other small craft-based businesses who I subsequently found out were similarly abused, I was suitably intimidated into doing nothing more and writing off my costs.

If people are gullible or shallow enough to involve themselves with the media in any form, then its entirely at their own lookout.