‘It’s not easy to get clout’: Viral reality show Badderz UK encourages contestants to drink, fight and behave badly
Badderz UK is an online reality show in which contestants are encouraged to drink, fight and generally behave badly.
It’s quickly gone viral, raking up almost 100,000 views in less than a week.
It is – as its executive producer Lani Good admits – unashamedly “extreme”. Were it to be on TV, without question she says “it would be watered down”.
While UK broadcasters would be criticised for not protecting participants were they to air a similar show on TV, on the internet, the same duty of care rules don’t apply.
“I feel like TV needs to take a chill pill, we’re just trying to have to have a laugh… the [contestants] were dying to do it, they literally want the drama,” Ms Good insists.
Pic: Badderz UK/Lani Good
On terrestrial television, reality ratings have experienced something of a slump in recent years, so has the future of the genre moved online where environments are more raw and less controlled?
TV producers are “out of touch”, Ms Good insists, adding the majority of young people think “reality TV is pants”.
“I didn’t want to wait for opportunities to come my way,” the Youtuber-turned-TV producer told Sky News. “I thought I’ve got a bit of money, I’ll do it myself.”
That money was in fact her share of winnings from appearing on the Channel 4 reality show Tempting Fortune almost a year ago now.
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Badderz UK executive producer Lani Good
One of the most ‘hated people on TV’
If her name doesn’t ring a bell, then you might perhaps remember her from briefly being one of the most “hated people on TV”, as she puts it.
The premise of the Paddy McGuinness show saw 12 strangers take part in an 18-day-long trek, the goal being not to give in to the temptations of home comforts en route, which would see money taken out of the shared prize pot at the end.
Ms Good happily blew the group’s cash pot on a £900 hot chocolate, then a £500 milkshake. As her teammates lost it with her, in reality terms, it was TV gold.
Afterwards, she says trolls tried to get her sacked from her day job as a graphic designer. The criticism was brutal, which is why she maintains she’s better placed to fully prepare contestants on her own self-funded show.
Pic: Badderz UK/Lani Good
Warnings about trolling
She maintains on her show she gave contestants “a level of transparency” she never experienced when she appeared on reality TV about the level of trolling they could potentially receive.
“Mainstream TV and broadcasters, when they do their duty of care beforehand, I think they do what they need to do so they don’t get sued,” she says. “I don’t believe they really care. They don’t ever fully prepare you for what you can go through.”
While she admits she’s setting out to get clicks, she doesn’t believe she’s exploiting her young stars, who are happy to be shown screaming and fighting.
“It’s an exchange, I believe,” she says. “I benefit obviously because I’m a producer, I gain the profit, but… young people in this day and age want to be popular, if you don’t have a thousand likes in your picture who are you? You’re nobody.
“That’s what young people care about these days, that’s not my fault… and I’ve given it to them, that’s priceless, it’s not easy to get clout.”
Pic: Badderz UK/Lani Good
Tightening protections for participants
Traditional broadcasters are now obliged to follow Ofcom-dictated regulations to protect the mental and physical well-being of contestants, but the media regulator has little control over content creation online.
Developmental psychologist and filmmaker Professor John Oates says it isn’t a level playing field.
“It’s totally unbalanced because in the last few years protections for participants – and to some extent crews – has really been tightened up in terms of protecting wellbeing,” he says.
“[Online] it’s the wild west, you can do what you like on social media as long as you don’t put up illegal content, basically as long as you don’t put up pornography or incitement to terrorism primarily.”
Pic: Badderz UK/Lani Good
Are online viral shows even more problematic?
While broadcasters may claim to take the moral high ground now, it wasn’t too long ago that even on mainstream TV, on shows like the original Channel 4 Big Brother, contestants would depart to baying mobs, whipped into a frenzy with seemingly little thought given as to how they’d cope with such a reception when they were alone in the real world.
Only after Love Island and the deaths of Mike Thalassitis and Sophie Gradon were rules around protecting contestants scrutinised.
Of course, the ITV dating show has had to navigate countless complaints over the years – from sexism and ageism to racism over how black contestants are frequently picked last when it comes to coupling up. But are the quick-to-go-viral alternatives online even more problematic if they look like Badderz?
Shows ‘feed into the stereotype’
TV presenter and social commentator Zeze Millz hates the message it sends out.
“Being a black woman, we already have a stereotype of being aggressive or having a chip on our shoulder,” she tells Sky News.
“I feel like shows like this when fighting and discourse is the main premise of it, is never going to work in our favour, will never make us look good, and in fact just feeds into the stereotype.”
A concern for Millz is that while the show’s rebellious contestants might be enjoying a boost in followers now, they’re not taking a step back to think about the potential future harm it might do.
“You’ve got that digital footprint… and literally you’re dragging girls across the floor,” she says.
On her YouTube show, Ms Millz makes the point that “young people can do better”.
“The culture that we’re in at the moment, being a TikTok star, being a viral star, is probably more appealing to young people right now than getting a normal nine to five,” she says.
“They really believe ‘I’m going to go viral… and then I’m going to get a deal, then I’m going to get loads of money… I don’t care about my job’. Because I’m in their head, they think that they’ve already got to that point where they don’t even need a job.”
It is a genre that’s all too easily dismissed as harmless trash TV but could the reality be that what we’re watching matters more than we might realise?
Entertainment
Hailey Bieber pregnant: Pop star Justin and wife announce they are expecting first child
Justin and Hailey Bieber have announced they are expecting their first child.
Hailey, the 27-year-old model, posted a video and a series of photos on Instagram showing off her baby bump.
Justin, 30, is also in the social media footage and has shared his wife’s post. It racked up over 1.8 million likes in less than an hour.
The announcement did not include a caption, with Hailey simply tagging her husband in the post.
The couple tied the knot in a secret ceremony in New York in 2018. The Instagram footage shows Hailey in a white lace dress during an apparent vow renewal held in a field.
Kylie Jenner was among the celebrities congratulating the couple in the comments of Hailey’s social media post.
The couple married in secret in 2018. Pic: BauerGriffin / MediaPunch /IPX
US reality star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian, model Gigi Hadid and TV personality Chrissy Teigen also commented with their warm wishes.
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Hailey is the daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin and niece of actors Alec, William and Daniel Baldwin, while Justin was discovered as a singer online aged 13 and went on to become a pop sensation with his hits including Baby, Love Me and Yummy.
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The Canadian superstar was forced to cancel the remaining dates of his Justice world tour last year amid his ongoing recovery from Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a condition that can cause facial paralysis.
He unexpectedly stepped on stage at Coachella last month to perform the 2020 hit single Essence, alongside Wizkid, during a set by Nigerian star Tems.
Entertainment
New Lord Of The Rings film The Hunt For Gollum to be first of two new movies set in Middle Earth
The team behind the Lord Of The Rings trilogy will work on two new films, Warner Bros has announced.
Peter Jackson, the mastermind behind the epic Oscar-winning films released in 2001, 2002 and 2006, will produce the films alongside Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.
Andy Serkis, known for playing Gollum in the original trilogy based on JRR Tolkien’s fantasy novels set in the world of Middle Earth, will again star as the character and direct the first of the new movies, Lord Of The Rings: The Hunt For Gollum.
In a statement sure to excite fans, Serkis used Gollum’s catchphrase, saying: “Yesssss, Precious.”
He added: “The time has come once more to venture into the unknown with my dear friends, the extraordinary and incomparable guardians of Middle Earth – Peter, Fran and Philippa.”
Andy Serkis in 2004. Pic: Reuters
The producing team “will be involved every step of the way” in the new venture, Warner Bros. Discovery’s CEO, David Zaslav, said.
Warner Bros. had first announced in 2023 that it was planning a number of new films set in the Lord Of The Rings world.
Jackson’s original trilogy was followed by another based on Tolkien’s prequel book, The Hobbit.
The first new film focusing on Gollum is scheduled for release in 2026.
Mr Zaslav said it will “explore storylines yet to be told”.
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Jackson, Walsh and Boyens said: “It is an honour and a privilege to travel back to Middle Earth with our good friend and collaborator, Andy Serkis, who has unfinished business with that Stinker – Gollum!
“As lifelong fans of Professor Tolkien’s vast mythology, we are proud to be working with Mike De Luca, Pam Abdy and the entire team at Warner Bros. on another epic adventure!”
Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings films, which were shot simultaneously in Jackson’s native New Zealand, won 17 Oscars.
Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson with one of his Oscar statues in 2004. Pic: Reuters
A separate animated Middle Earth movie set 200 years before the plot of The Hobbit and entitled The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim, will be out in December this year.
Entertainment
Eurovision 2024: Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters march in Malmo ahead of semi-final
Thousands of pro-Palestine demonstrators protested in Malmo, Sweden on Thursday against Israel’s competing in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
Protesters waving green, white, black and red Palestinian flags packed the historic Stortorget square near Malmo’s 16th-century town hall before a planned march through the city for a rally in a park several miles from the Eurovision venue.
Police estimated that between 10,000 and 12,000 people took part. Among those in the crowd was Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.
The march took place at the same time as Israel’s entrant – 20-year-old Eden Golan – was taking part in the final dress rehearsal for the second Eurovision semi-finals, in the Malmo arena.
During the march – which included families with young children, and people with dogs and bicycles – smoke canisters in the colours of the Palestinian flag were set off, with some protesters carrying signs displaying images of Gaza civilians who have been injured amid the Hamas-Israel conflict.
There was also a banner done in the style of Eurovision with the word “genocide” on it – an accusation vigorously denied by Israel amid the war with Hamas.
Security in Malmo is high, and extra police have been drafted in from neighbouring Denmark and Norway.
During an earlier rehearsal on Tuesday, Golan was met with boos and cries of “Free Palestine,” and an audience member appeared to have a Palestinian flag removed from them in the auditorium.
The EBU has said only flags that represent countries taking part, and the rainbow flag, can be brought to the event.
They have said they will remove any other “flags, symbols, clothing, items and banners being used for the likely purpose of instrumentalising the TV shows”.
Israel’s Eden Golan with Hurricane for Israel. Pic: Sarah Louise Bennett/EBU
The 20-year-old singer performed her song Hurricane while flanked by five backing dancers and centred around a large wheel-like prop in the centre of the stage.
Earlier lyric changes
The song has been tweaked three times, after an initial version titled October Rain was ruled too political by the EBU who believed some lyrics referred to the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel.
Some still believe that some lyrics in the current song – including “Dancin’ in the storm… I’m still broken from this hurricane,” still refer to attacks which killed over 1,000 people and resulted in hundreds of hostages being taken.
In the run-up to the competition – which is the world’s largest live music event – there have been calls for Israel to be banned over their ongoing ground offensive in Gaza.
However, the EBU – which says it is an apolitical organisation – has ruled that Israel can take part as they say it has not broken any broadcasting rules.
The EBU has also condemned harassment and abuse of artists competing in the show and said they form no part of the decision-making process. As it stands no performer has withdrawn from the contest.
Pic: Sarah Louise Bennett/EBU
More than 34,000 people have been killed, and over 77,000 have been injured in Gaza since the conflict began, according to Gaza’s Hamas-led health ministry.
The second-semi finals
The run-through came ahead of the second semi-final this evening, which will choose the final 10 acts to go into the Grand Final.
Other acts taking part in the semi-final tonight include Norway’s Gate, San Marino’s band Megara, Switzerland’s Nemo and Danish entrant Saba, – all of whom called for a ceasefire in Gaza and the “safe return” of Israeli hostages in a joint statement in March.
The UK’s act, Olly Alexander, and Ireland’s Bambie Thug were also part of the joint statement. Both performed in the first semi-final on Tuesday and will be performing in the final.
The artists rejected calls from Palestinian groups to boycott the music contest, saying they “firmly believe in the unifying power of music”.
Golan, who has been performing since she was nine years old, left Israel when she was six to live in Russia with her family, but returned when she was 18.
She told ITV News she could not have asked “for a better year to be representing my country” earlier this week.
The Grand Final will see 26 countries battle it out on Saturday night.
Sky News will be in Malmo with updates, a live blog, and all the biggest news from the contest as it happens.
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