Holly Willoughby and Freddie Flintoff on The Games 2022
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The Games viewers deliver verdict on new ITV show as Holly Willoughby joins forces with Freddie Flintoff

The Games is airing every night this week

After months of hype, The Games 2022, featuring Holly Willoughby and Freddie Flintoff, finally debuted on ITV last night (Monday, May 9).

However, viewers were seriously divided over the new show, with some going so far as calling it “absolute trash”.

Holly Willoughby on The Games 2022
Holly hosted The Games yesterday (Credit: ITV)

What happened on The Games 2022?

Last night saw the first episode of The Games air on ITV.

The new reality sports show sees 12 celebrities go up against each other in a series of Olympic-style events.

Read more: The Games on ITV: Who are the contestants, what challenges are there and how many episodes?

The likes of Christine McGuinness, Coronation Street star Ryan Thomas, and Strictly dancer Kevin Clifton are all taking part in the series.

The show will air over five consecutive nights this week and will feature special guests every episode.

Last night’s show saw the celebrities take on the 100m hurdles, the 400m race, synchronised diving, and the hammer throw.

Boxing champion Tyson Fury and Olympic diver Matty Lee also made appearances on last night’s show.

Ryan Thomas on The Games 2022
Ryan is one of 12 celebrities participating on the show (Credit: ITV)

The Games 2022 reviews

It’s probably safe to say that viewers were seriously divided over The Games on ITV last night.

Some were unimpressed with the new show, with a few even branding it “trash” television. Plenty headed to Twitter to slam the new sporting reality show.

This is on for 5 continuous nights. Thank you @itv for giving me such a bounty of [bleep] to slag off,” one viewer tweeted.

“The Games on ITV is really inspiring stuff. Just imitated the hurdles to drop kick my telly out the window!” another said.

Everything ITV touches turns to [bleep]. #TheGames full of annoying presenters, athletes, celebs + whole production is cheap, over inflated + dumb. Then theres the over sensualised cliches + announcers. They think this is great. It’s horrible. Why make annoying TV? C4 did it better,” a third said.

“Tiresome ITV trash,” another wrote.

Christine McGuinness on The Games 2022
Christine McGuinness is another celebrity on The Games (Credit: ITV)

However, not everyone had bad things to say about The Games. Some viewers seemed to enjoy the new show!

Am not cool enough to know who most of the celebs are – but really enjoying #TheGames on @ITV – great to show that the sports our athletes do are actually really really really hard to do well!” one viewer wrote.

Read more: Alfie Boe’s marriage – who was his wife and what happened?

“#TheGames well I really enjoyed that,” another said.

Addicted to #TheGames… what a show,” a third tweeted. 

This new TV show seems very good #TheGames,” another said. 

The Games continues tonight at 9pm on ITV and ITV Hub.

The Women Kick Off The Games With a Nail Biting 100M Hurdles | The Games | ITV

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Robert Emlyn Slater
Senior Writer

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