Mixed feelings really (The Jeremy Kyle Show)

Member Name: jennikitten

Product:	The Jeremy Kyle Show
Date:	24/06/09 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some stories interesting, makes you grateful for what you have

Disadvantages: Jeremy Kyle is quite annoying when he's preachy and more audience feedback would be good

Jeremy Kyle was something I used to watch more as a student during lazy days at home, and I haven't seen it for ages as it's a morning show and I now work full time.

As I'm sure everyone knows, it's a chat show with the oh so pious Kyle, ex-alcoholic and divorcee - perhaps not the ideal person to preach, but then maybe he's learnt the error of his ways and can turn his full attention to telling other people what to do with their lives?

Quite frankly, this whole show would be much better with more audience participation, as the few things that the audience is allowed to say gives an interesting and different perspective in a generally less condescending way. This is particularly true of the more serious shows of issues with addiction and coping, rather than just chavs after their five minutes of fame.

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding aspects of the show where it has been accused of deliberately aggravating people and providing little after-care despite its claims and the show's psychologist, Graham.

If you have a Manchester postcode you can get free tickets to be in the audience. One of my friends went along once and said that it was surprising how much Jeremy Kyle relied on his earpiece for his comments.

I think in a way it's a self-fulfilling prophecy, because they assume the audience wants to see Jeremy Kyle shout at people, but in actual fact I think its main entertainment lies in you hearing the stories and thinking 'Thank God my life isn't that bad'. Sometimes in a sympathetic way, sometimes not so much.

Sometimes the show can get a bit repetitive, and they have introduced different aspects to it, for example catching up with people a few months on on the roadshow, interviewing TV characters (such as David from Coronation St, though that was pretty boring). There was also one episode where they got people on benefits jobs, e.g. working in a market, and some of them enjoyed doing it and said they wanted to get a proper job. So if it was true, then maybe Jeremy Kyle is doing a bit of good after all! But all the claims of care and psychology and support for the studio show seems a bit of a thinly veiled disguise for what we all know is an entertainment programme.

If you can't watch Jeremy Kyle during the day on ITV1 and 2, you can catch up using the ITV player for episodes 30 days old or younger.

Summary: I can take it or leave it