Rob Beckett's Smart TV

Rob Beckett's Smart TV is from Talkback Productions, the Fremantle subsidiary that produces the classic music panel show Never Mind the Buzzcocks, which was rebooted for Sky Max two years ago, and this show is also on Sky Max. Smart TV is essentially NMTBC but focuses on television shows instead of music. In some way, it could feel like Telly Addicts as well.

It's hosted by Rob Beckett, a stand-up comedian who has appeared on other panel shows such as 8 Out of 10 Cats and a few projects with Romesh Ranganathan. The team captains are Alison Hammond, the This Morning megastar who you see everywhere on television nowadays, and Josh Widdicombe, who co-presents on The Last Leg and is one of the most frequent panel show guests or presenters. Now, what does this bring together?

That's right, nothing new to the panel show realm. There is absolutely nothing to distinguish this from the other panel shows I have seen. I am not a fan of any of the hosts (well, maybe except Hammond, but only when she has a barrier to keep her dirty side away) and the guests are always the same people you've seen on other panel shows.

The game portion is taken aside by the fact that 60% of the show is nothing but pop-culture references, cheap shock value, crude sex jokes, innuendos, and excessive cussing; problems that a lot of modern panel shows suffer from. This brand of "humour" obviously feels so desperate and when you're aren't blown away by all of that, the hosts all make unfunny jokes that you could likely find funny if you were outside the age demographic for this series. It's exactly what the Sky reboot of Never Mind the Buzzcocks offers up, as while the BBC version did have shock value and swearing it was not incredibly overdone while the Sky reboot increases the swearing solely to say "we're not a free TV network! We can get away with all of this!"

Regardless, Smart TV isn't the worst panel show out there, but it's still repetitive and crude. The game portion is fine, and yet it's pushed aside for lazy shock-value jokes. The hosts are not anything to write home about, and all in all, it just feels like Sky wants to cash in on their other successful panel shows that it seems desperate.

I have watched all of these and so far it's been decent watching. Rob Beckett is funny as a host and some of the guests have been really good.

It follows the formats of things like Alan Carr's movie show and at time is quite funny with Alison Hammond and Josh Widdecombe good team captains.

Don't expect this to be anything like Telly Addicts from many years ago and none of the questions are very hard but don't let this spoil the watch.

This show would benefit from being tougher and maybe not so focussed on reality TV but aside from this format works and I've enjoyed watching it.

Well worth an easy watch.

I am absolutely adoring Rob Beckett's Smart TV, I love that they take time to discuss things and not just be all about the questions. I have had so many actual laugh out loud moments and it keeps my attention fully.

Josh, Alison and Rob are hilarious, so quick witted. All the guests they have had on so far have been terrific.

I really can not fault this show at all. No its not a big serious quiz show, but did you expect that with comedians hosting it?

If you love shows like 8 out of 10 cats does Countdown and Would I Lie To you, then you should also love this show. Seriously people need to let up a little and just have a laugh.

This is a contender for worst panel quiz show of all time. Not surprising really considering it's from the makers of the rebooted Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Too much time is given to the panellist to try and be funny and very little time for actual quizzing. Watching the the first episode, it looked like all the panellists and host was bored with it. Why do sky feel the need to churn out this type of panel show. A league of their own stop been good when the comedy took over too much from the quizzing, the movie one they did just disappeared and they ruined Buzzcocks with bad guest booking. I wouldn't be surprised if this gets buried in the 2am slot after a few shows.

10 mins into first episode and they have asked 1 question on a supposed TV quiz show. Had high expectations for this and thought we might have a return to a telly addicts sort of format but featuring celebs instead of families but this is telly tragic instead of telly magic. I felt like a was watching a podcast most of the time as 7 celebs sit discussing their careers and TV appearances. Absolute waste of money and everyones time but it's what you expect from panel shows made by Sky who constantly try to recreate the magic of A league of Their Own by slapping the same format on all their quiz panel shows even though the format isn't applicable to anything else other than sport. I think this will be a one and done for most people as it's a painful watch.