Channel 5
Mel B to host Lip Sync Battle UK
Following her stint as a feisty X Factor judge, Spice Girl Mel B is to present the UK version of Lip Sync Battle.
The show, which sees two celebrities go head-to-head to impress an audience with their miming skills, has already proved a success in the US.
Hosted by rapper LL Cool J and model Chrissy Teigen, the series is an expanded version of a segment on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
Why Viacom is beefing up Channel 5
The digital revolution will be televised,” argued Viacom chief Philippe Dauman in an upbeat address to the RTS Convention. Twelve months after the US media giant bought Channel 5 for £450m, Dauman offered a positive “end-of-term report on our first year as a British public service broadcaster”.
“Today, I am pleased to reaffirm our commitment to upholding the rights and responsibilities that entails. We pledged that we would increase investment and original creative content – we have, and will continue to do so.”
This week's top TV: 19 - 25 October
Monday
The Muppets
Sky 1
8pm
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Philippe Dauman: The king in waiting
Philippe Dauman, Chief Executive of Viacom, the media empire created by nonagenarian Sumner Redstone, has been called many things in his long Viacom career.
One is "dauphin", marking both his succession potential and the fact that he is French-born. Although he has lived almost all of his life in the US, Dauman is a fluent French speaker.
He is "an iron fist in a velvet glove" according to Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive of WPP. The New York Times summed him up as "The man who would be Redstone".
Ben Frow: The passionate TV exec
Ben Frow is not as other directors of programmes. They tend to be sober, jargon-ridden and cautious – at least when speaking to me. They talk of "passion" but rarely show it: steady as the ratings sink or, occasionally, rise. Frow is funny, camp and outspoken, easily bruised and easily enthused.
He was obviously not what Richard Desmond, the Daily Express publisher and, for four years, owner of Channel 5, was expecting either, when he summoned him for a job interview in 2012.
Improv adds realism to cop show
Nature, Science and the Camera
Speakers
Sir David Attenborough