ITV may have super hyped their new drama, Rock Rivals, but it seems to be doing them no favours in the ratings.
Last night the terrestrial TV channel finished in fourth place behind BBC One, Channel 4 and Five as just 2m viewers, or 8% of the audience, tuned in for the drama at 9pm, significantly down on the slot average of 4.7m.
No chance of a second series then?
X Factor judge, Louis Walsh has blasted ITV’s newest drama, Rock Rivals, saying the producers should have got more of an input from people who work talent shows in real life.
Walsh told The Mirror: “There’s far more drama on the X Factor in any week than there’s likely to be in this whole series. I was so excited when I sat down to watch it. I expected it to be great.
“I had spent a whole day on set doing a cameo and they cut me. I was annoyed, but now I’ve seen it I’m glad that I ended up on the cutting room floor. It could have been so funny and real but it isn’t.
“With the real thing you have more action, more drama and a lot more talent.
“They didn’t capture the tension and the drama on the show between the judges and the contestants - especially the judges.” Read more & comment »
We join top rated TV talent show Rock Rivals during the live show finals. Head judging team and husband and wife creative duo Malcolm (Sean Gallagher) and Karina Faith (Michelle Collins) are proud mentors to the contestants that have earned them their fortune. Malcolm has always had the occasional affair that his wife was prepared to tolerate as long as they were kept secret. But the whistle is blown when his assistant Jinx (Sophia Dawnay) tricks Mal into broadcasting their infidelity over the studio’s PA system to all the contestants present at the after show party.
Karina calls it a day and presses for a divorce from Mal, promising to take half of everything he owns. In a moment of drunken self-preservation, Mal phones his lawyer and serves Karina legal papers invoking a genius clause that should prove his sole-ownership of the show. Having been talked round by her friend and Rock Rivals vocal coach, Sundae Gorgeous (Nicola Hughes), Karina determines to give Mal another chance, only for the divorce papers to arrive at her doorstep the very next morning. Karina flies into a rage. Mal brings Jinx round to the house for some R&R and Karina retaliates by driving his beloved Ferrari into the swimming pool. The two are at loggerheads. They vow to prove who the genius behind the show is by taking their most promising protégés under their wing and have them win the show. The game is on. Read more & comment »
Woo Hoo! It’s a drama based on the X Factor, only more dramatic if that’s possible! I can’t wait for Rock Rivals to kick off on ITV tomorrow night.
Have a quick gander at this trailer, doesn’t it look fab!
Rock Rivals is due to kick off on ITV1 tomorrow night, but if you want to get better aquainted with the characters from the show then have a look at the video clip above.
In the video blog Sol Heras who plays contestant Luke Ellis and Holly Quin-Ankrah who plays Bethany Hopkins spill the beans on their best and worst moments from the first episode.
Rock Rivals actress, Michelle Collins has revealed that she made a conscious choice to focus her acting career in the UK, as she was not at all impressed by America.
MSN quote her as saying: “I got the chance to go to New York, which was fantastic,” referring to her massive role in Channel 4 film The Illustrated Mum, which won an Emmy.
“We got it presented by Lenny Kravitz,” says Michelle. “It was all very glamorous and everything. You know it won a couple of children’s Baftas and I went to LA on the back of it. I didn’t really like what I saw there to be honest with you. Read more & comment »
Michelle Collins has been talking about her role in upcoming ITV drama, Rock Rivals.
Michelle insists that the show is only loosely based on talent shows such as The X Factor, and even though XF judges Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh were at one point involved with the development of the show, they had no impact on her portrayal of her character.
“That didn’t have any impact on me or Sean either, to be honest,” Collins told the Daily Record. “I’ve never met Sharon Osbourne. The thing with a drama like this is that it’s loosely based.
“We’re actors. I play a lot of different types of characters, and I don’t always have contact with the type of person I’m playing. We’re not mimicking characters. We’re just telling a story.” Read more & comment »
Sean Gallagher has played a variety of roles over the year, appearing opposite David Tennant in Dr Who and as Paul Connor in Coronation Street. Following an explosive exit from the infamous street, Gallagher is back on our screens in ITV’s Rock Rivals as Mal Faith: a powerful, ambitious record producer and judge on the fictional talent show Rock Rivals. Speaking about the role, Gallagher says:
“He is a record producer who, along with his wife, Karina has founded his own label and gone on to star in a talent show called Rock Rivals. He’s incredibly good at what he does, he knows what will work and what won’t work, and his track record in the industry has proven that. At the point at which we meet him, he is at the height of his success and now he believes he is untouchable. He’s gone a bit power crazy.”
The success that Mal has achieved has not been done on his own: his wife Karina, played by Michelle Collins, has been there every step of the way. Partners in life as well as business they seem to all intents and purposes, like the perfect, successful couple. Read more & comment »
Michelle Collins is back, this time sexier and more powerful than ever before. Replace the strops and bitchy remains of EastEnders’ Cindy Beale with big hair, designer clothes, killer heels, and fake tan and you have the role of Karina Faith in ITV’s Rock Rivals. A strong woman who means business, and with Michelle’s own personal experience of talent shows and the music industry, she couldn’t think of a more suitable role to take on.
“I read the Rock Rivals scripts and really wanted to be a part of it. I loved Karina because she comes from a music background like I do. I was in a band called Mari Wilson and The Wilsations when I was about nineteen and we spent eighteen months touring the country. We also went on a talent show just like Rock Rivals, called The David Essex Showcase that focused on British talent in the 80s. We got through to the finals but sadly didn’t win. It was a fun time but we split up in 1982. Read more & comment »
Ever been disappointed with the way a storyline is going in a drama? Ever thought thatat given the opportunity, you would change events and alter the outctcome? Well now you can as Shed Productctions, the award winning makers of Footbballers Wives and Bad Girls, get set to involve the public like never before. Viewers will be asked to choose the desired ending to the talent show Rock Rivals, a fictional talent show drama for ITV1.
Set against the glossy, bitchy back drop of the eponymous, successful music talent show, Rock Rivals centres on the tempestuous relationship between married judges, Mal (Sean Gallagher) and Karina Faith (Michelle Collins). Following his affair with his assistant Jinx however, all hell breaks loose and their marriage spectacularly and very publicly implodes.
The series not only follows the Faith’s as their vicious divorce descends into all out war, but charts the highs and lows of the contestants involved. Two endings to the talent show within the drama will be filmed Read more & comment »
