TV matters: The Door

ITV1's big Easter weekend entertainment premiere, The Door – in which former boy-band members and pop stars compete to find the keys to enter rooms in which they will have to touch something disgusting – could be taught in gameshow school as an example of how not to do it. The first lesson concerns the risks of recycling. Invented by the team behind I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, the new show is an attempt to spin-off one of the most successful elements of the jungle endurance series: semi-forgotten TV faces snacking on insect gonads. There are examples of a second hit show emerging from a first one, but for every Frasier, for instance, there are the numerous forgotten sitcoms – such as The Tortellis – made by other members of the Cheers cast. A successful product in this genre needs an element of jeopardy: intellectual, financial, or physical. But the low-rent entrants in The Door are competing for the relatively small sum of £25,000. Nor is the yuck-factor high enough. Viewers of the "bushtucker trials" know the actors and crooners are not really at risk of being poisoned or bitten, but there is a genuine penalty: the camp-mates may go without decent food. In The Door, there is no sense of danger at all. Not only is the show pre-recorded, but the guests comment on a film of their performances, adding a double-distance. And the best gameshows give all the contestants an equal chance of winning. Starting with three men and three women, this one had a trio of blokes in the semi-final, before admitting a female on a tie-break, who was then eliminated, creating an all-boy final. Was this bad luck, or might the challenges favour larger contestants? Finally, it proved that broadcasters are only as good as their formats. The Door was hosted by a presenter and panellist from two sure-fire franchises – Chris Tarrant (Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?) and Amanda Holden (Britain's Got Talent) – but its chances of following them feel slammed shut.