Richard Desmond’s brainchild OK! TV, the celebrity chat show manifestation of his gossip magazine that aims to invigorate the embattled broadcaster he bought last year, has been launched.

So who better to turn to for an objective review of the show than Desmond’s venerable Daily Express?

The paper reports that OK! TV “kicked off with a celebrity scoop”.

And no wonder. Louis Walsh “revealed how he would like David Bowie or Sir Paul McCartney to join The X Factor judges”.

He was the first guest to be questioned on the new show “from a patriotic red, white and blue studio”.

The Express‘s cheery summary was slightly more charitable than the Guardian‘s, which called OK! TV a “remedial-level One Show, or to be more precise, Live From Studio Five,” the much-maligned celebrity chat show it supposedly usurps.

Stuart Heritage claims the new incarnation was a “deliberately comprehensive exercise in expectation-lowering”.

He wasn’t sure whether it was aimed at “animals, sock pockets, or piles of dust” and said even though he never expected it to be Newsnight, “judged against its peers, OK! TV is colossally vapid”.

The show got off to a bad start before it had even aired when co-host Denise Van Outen quit, having reputedly fallen out with Desmond.

She’s been replaced by former Live From Studio Five presenter Kate Walsh, who will front the programme alongside some bloke called Matt Johnson.

Still, the critics don’t account for everyone’s tastes. The programme’s Facebook page already has 442 fans and a smattering of glowing reviews, so perhaps there’s hope yet?

(Sources: Daily Express, MediaGuardian)

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