So, the day I found out that ITV had commissioned this special, I thought it was a complete joke. Is ITV that desperate for Christmas commissions that it resorts to showing nothing but short-form portrait content on television? We already see enough of that, ITV!
Then came the fact that this special is two hours long (inc. Ads) and aired on Christmas Eve. At this point, it shows that ITV has INDEED run out of programs to show during Christmas - and yet this happened to win out in its timeslot.
I completely refused to watch it because I was hoping that ITV would never recommission another one of these specials for the following Christmas. I did see a repeat broadcast of it the following week, but only for a few seconds, and that was enough.
The special is narrated by Joel Dommett (it seems that he's so desperate for work if the production company hired him to narrate over the footage), and it shows a ranking of TikTok videos and, through the use of AI (no surprise there), how much the content creators can earn. There's nothing else to mention here because all it has going for is exactly what the special's title says.
The fact that this special is on ITV1 instead of the Gen-Z pandering ITV2 explains more than it should, and the fact is, why are we watching random TikTok videos on TV? Sure, there have been YouTube television shows that fulfill the same purpose, but those had a lot more variety than the dances and pointless fodder TikTok has on its entire site. In all honesty, I don't see the appeal in short-form content; it's boring, repetitive, and completely diminishes your brain with rotting content as disgusting as mouldy bread.
To end it off, ITV is the absolute worst when it comes to modern Christmas schedules, and this special certainly is the best example of this, alongside non-stop Good Morning Britain, Lorraine, This Morning, and Loose Women. No wonder everyone resorts to streaming services to watch what they want unless it's purged from the service. (and no, their dumpster fire of a service named "ITVX" does not count!) This is one of the worst specials I have ever seen, and I hope never to talk about it again. Shame on you, ITV, and shame on you, Minnow Films. You certainly can do better than that.
