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James Corden is bringing back Top Of The Pops

But will it be the same show?

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It’s been 11 years since the last episode of Top Of The Pops was aired on the BBC. Now, thanks to James Corden, it looks like we’re finally getting a chart show back on the screens.

His production company, Fulwell 73, is filming a six-part series on BBC1 as a kind of test to see how it goes.

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Kids aren’t so easily-pleased as they used to be and audiences can be hard to grab now with all those full-on music channels to compete with.

Not to mention YouTube and all the other online platforms you can use to get the latest performances from your favourite bands.

But Corden’s company is confident.

It wants to get the world’s greatest stars to perform, though it’s not clear whether they’ll have to be live like the old TOTPs days.

The performers will also take part in comedy skits as they do on the legendary US show Saturday Night Live.

It should mean loads of video shorts and hilarious clips to share on social media.

The viral videos from James Corden’s Late Show get millions of hits and help to keep the TV viewers up.

As well as singing their latest tracks and mucking about in sketches, stars will present the show with one constant British co-host.

The production company, Fulwell 73 is behind James’s Late Late Show in the US and came up with viral hit Carpool Karaoke.

A TV source told The Sun: “The BBC has been desperate for a music show for a modern-day audience.

“Bosses know they can’t simply get away with showing musicians performing their latest tracks, there needs to be a social media element with the scope to create virals, like The Late Late Show and Jimmy Fallon do in the US.”

There’s no name for the show yet apparently but there are some very trusty hands on the wheel in the shape of executive producers, Gabe Turner and Suzi Aplin.

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They previously oversaw I Am Bolt, the documentary about Usain Bolt as well as This Is Us, the One Direction film.

The BBC has long struggled with music show formats and Top Of The Pops clung on for years with an ever-thinning audience.

Bosses tried to keep it alive in the early-2000s but the truth was obvious: the world had moved on and the music scene had changed beyond recognition.

Younger music fans wanted something more instant and exciting. The amps (or backing tracks) were finally switched off after 42 years in 2006.


Christian Guiltenane
Freelance Writer

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