May 31st 2016

 

It's hard to know why you would pick Myleene Klass to front a programme about Single Mums on Benefit when you don't necessarily think of Myleene Klass as a single mum, you don't think of her filling in a benefits form or struggling for every penny, when she's fronting Littlewoods shopping campaigns or arguing against a proposed mansion tax against Milliband. So surely when ITV even looked back at the initial footage they must have thought surely this might be a bit condescending?  Apparently not.

The programme started with her saying I'm Myleene Klass, probably twice in the first minute incase we forgot?  We all know who Myleene Klass is.  Part of Hear Say, talented piano player, face of Littlewoods, presenter here and there. It then moved onto the sob story of her marriage break up.  Yes that is sad, perhaps maybe was best to get it over with straight away and move onto how having two girls is the motivation factor for her business empire.

We met the so called Queen of Welfare and were left wondering well where was the father, was it the same father to eight kids?  Surely a question most viewers must have been asking?  Also this single mum saying she was n't going to be putting her kids in care from 6am til 6pm, not many nurseries open at 6am, maybe that could have been a business idea for her?

The show moved onto other single parents and as it did, the show seemed to lose track of its title, well the on benefits bit. As Myleene kept going on about how fortunate she was to have the career she had, family support and a nanny it only made your blood boil, thinking well why are you doing this programme.  Not every single parent can be a TV & Radio presenter or business owner. Was Myleene  ment to be an inspiration to the masses of single mums?  As someone who grew up being an only child to my mother in the 70's and she worked and I was either left with my gran or was a latch key kid, this programme just left me wondering what exactly was the point of it?  The programme seemed to skirt over so much, was it in anyway lifting the stigma of being a single mother.  Single mothers in no way have the stigma they once had, nor do their children.  

ITV seem to have this thing where they stick Myleene Klass in programmes that she just does n't work in, for programmes of the masses such as this being shown at 9pm.   As with BBQ Champ which she was in, the programme I thought was great, it was Myleene that put me off watching it.  I kept thinking Adam Richmond brilliant loves his food, Myleene Klass does she eat BBQ food, does she over eat or pig out like Adam did in Man V Food.  I kept thinking did ITV need to have a host other than Adam Richmond who even now I will watch repeats of Man V Food I've seen same episodes over ten times.  Myleene last night with her Gok Wan glasses, I thought why don't ITV team her up with Gok Wan and have her do some fashion show and keep her and him away from food shows.  (Yes Gok does a ITV food show, perhaps because he does eat)

So was it the right programme for ITV to do, yes, if perhaps five to ten years to late. Was it the right host, no, definitely not.  Watching the promo for this and watching the programme I kept thinking surely they could have picked a better single mum.  It hit me within five minutes if not less why did n't they use Kerry Katona for this last night. Kerry would have been more appealing to the masses, she's raised  kids on her own and with family and she's had financial struggles like bankruptcy and divorce. OK perhaps shes been married a few times and divorced a few times, I just feel she would have been a better host. ITV seem to like Kerry as she's been on This Morning and Loose Women a few times.   ITV have got to stop going down the route of using someone they perceive as popular for every show going, it's a bit like Carol Vorderman was on almost every programme a decade ago.  There's no doubt Myleene is talented & hardworking but this was not the show for her or the viewer. I'm sure the rating will testify to that as well as reviews.

In the end Myleene Klass : Single Mums on Benefits  could have been called Myleene Klass : Single Mother No problem.

You can catch Myleene Klass : Single Mums on Benefit on ITV Player, STV player.