AS LIVE Research

I have been thinking about what kind of shows I normally watch that have live audience, or are filmed as live. One of my favourites is BBC show, QI (quite interesting), it is a panel show featuring Stephen Fry as the host, who asks his guests a variety of questions. 

The guests are usually comedians and the show has quite a casual approach to the point system.  The show started in 2003 and usually consists of 3 rotating guests and one regular (Alan Davis) who's running gag is to loose by the most points each week.. Interesting and funny it has been perfectly aimed at its target audience the BBC viewer.

Another favourite is Top Gear, this is a chat show with a audience, and three hosts, James May, Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson all of whom seem hell bent on destroying every caravan in the UK. 

They have a guest on every week, for star in a reasonably priced car, this usually involves a informal chat about the guest and their current activities and the VT of the guest's track time in the reasonably priced car. The audience are an active audience, laughing and clapping when appropriate as well as occasionally answering host questions. This is yet again another BBC production and is very successful. I love this show because it is fresh and interesting, I enjoy the challenges they are set, and when there is a special episode for example when they had to race against each other to the North pole, Jeremy and James in Toyota and Richard on a dog sledge not only is it a unique element that puts the viewing numbers up but it adds an extra interest to what might be considered a relatively normal chat show.

I remember the shows I used to watch as a kid, like Going Live, Fun House, Live and Kicking, The Big Breakfast.

I remember although they were quite low budget, they were exciting and different, the hosts were usually put under a fair bit of pressure to perform, and the audience was usually very active, giving you the feeling of being a part of it all. I don't quite know just yet what I want to put together but I want to do something that combines all of the elements of being fresh, and different, but keeping that feeling of being a part of it all.

I want the viewer to not only enjoy watching, but also wish they were there in the audience, or on the show as a contestant, I want the viewer to love the host.  I know I'm thinking big and that's not quite possible with the facilities and zero budget that we have, but if I can recreate something close, I will be happy.