CMTV (TV programme)

CMTV is a Kuboian variety television series that ran for two series on Vision One during the spring of 2006 and 2007. It ran on Wednesday mornings as part of the Vision One Big Wednesdays, replacing Orbit Zone. The show was presented by Amy-Elizabeth Phillips, Helen Duplooy and Dan Guseo, who were joined by Steven Hughes in the second series. It is Phillip and Hughes's first appearance as a television presenter, as well as the latter's only appearance as one as of 2020.

Since its debut, it is often debated what CMTV stands for, with even the presenters not truly knowing themselves, although it is widely believed to stand for Children's Morning Television or Crazy Morning Television.

History
A replacement for Orbit Zone was first announced in September 2005, as Kool Teazer was unable to find the time to present the show live. Its name was later revealed to be CMTV in December that year.

CMTV premiered on 15th March, 2006. Episodes of series one continued to air every Wednesday until the series came to an end on 14th June. Series two premiered one year later, on 14th March, 2007, and ran until 13th June.

Format
CMTV followed inline with other Wednesday morning television series on Vision One, acting as a variety show with phone-in competitions, games and celebrity interviews and performances.

Guest performances would usually be done by "Surprise Guests", who would show up unexpectedly in the middle of the show.

Gunge
Like most other Wednesday morning shows of the 2000s, CMTV featured gunge.

Series 1
In the first series, Amy-Elizabeth and Helen would play a game with each other halfway through the show. Whoever lost would have to play the finale game, The Slime-Off, against a randomly selected child guest.

In The Slime Off, the child and adult would take it in turns answering pop questions, read by Dan (the contestant could play or pass the question to the other). Both contestants had three lives - getting a wrong answer would take a life off the contestant, whilst getting a right answer would take a life off their opponent. Whoever lost all their lives first would get covered in gunge. However, the adult contestant was often gunged regardless.

If the child won, they would win a prize, which was often a Nintendo GameCube with a random game (usually either Mario Party 7 or Shadow the Hedgehog). If they lost, they would take home a certificate which stated that they were gunged live on television.

Series 2
The final game was changed in the second series. Now, there would be a game which the child, hosts, and occasionally some of the special guests, would all compete in. Whoever ended up in last place would be gunged in a metallic tank. These games varied from week-to-week, but ranged from a quick footrace to bring an item back to the main studio, a luck-based Pop-up Pirate-style game (with the one to release the object leaving, and the others playing another round), a puzzle or problem solving competition, or an unorganised singing and/or dancing competition (where whoever everybody deemed the "worst" singer/dancer was gunged).

Theme tune

 * Main article: CMTV (song)

The show's theme tune, simply titled "CMTV", was performed by British singer Steven Hughes. Every episode of the show began and ended with the cast, as well as anybody else who was in the studio at the time, singing along with the song. Starting with the second series, Hughes would perform the song live at the beginning and end of each show.

Programming
CMTV would broadcast a selection of cartoons throughout its 3-hour timeslot, which often acted as interstitials between each of the show's sections. All of these were acquired from KT.

Reception
CMTV received generally favourable reviews from critics, although some felt the show began to dip in quality during the second series. It spawned high ratings, with each episode receiving 1.8 million viewing figures on average.

Controversy
On two different occasions, TVVC received several complaints based on the outfits worn by Amy-Elizabeth and Ericka Streets (who was a guest on said episode) respectively.