My Kind of Music
My Kind of Music is a British game show that aired on ITV from 8 February 1998 to 29 March 2002 and is hosted by Michael Barrymore.
| My Kind of Music | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Game show |
| Presented by | Michael Barrymore |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 49 (7 unaired) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 minutes (inc. adverts) |
| Production company | LWT |
| Distributor | ITV Studios |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Picture format | 4:3 (1998–2001) 16:9 (2002) |
| Original release | 8 February 1998 – 29 March 2002 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | My Kind of People |
The show's main theme, "My Kind of People", where presenter Michael Barrymore sang some of the lyrics when appearing at the very start, was based on the same song by Robert Palmer released in 1991.
Three teams of two people would test their musical knowledge against each other, and the winning team could go on to win £13,000 in the jackpot; later it was increased to £16,000 by the fourth series.
Format
Opening Song
Once the teams were introduced, one contestant (or sometimes both) from each team would then perform a song. The two remaining teams were then each asked a question related to the song, worth £50 for a correct answer. This round was not played in the first series.
Musical Knowledge
In this round, Barrymore asked a series of quickfire music questions on the buzzer, each worth £50. An incorrect answer would freeze a team out of the rest of the question. On some occasions, if none of the teams knew the answer to a question, Barrymore would offer £50 to a member of the audience if they answered it correctly.
Pick The Picture
Nine pictures of various celebrities would appear on a video wall. A song was then played and the contestants had to guess which picture connected the song that was being played. In the first series, this was played as the opening round with £50 for every correct answer and in series two, it was moved to the fourth round of the game with correct answers now worth £150.
Pop Props
In series three, Pick The Picture was replaced with Pop Props. On each turn, Barrymore would collect some items hidden behind a jukebox and then show them to the contestants. These were visual clues represented to a well-known song. Correct answers were worth £100.
My Kind Of People
Contestants were shown a film of Barrymore inviting members of the public to sing in front of an audience at an outside location, usually a large shopping centre. After the film, Barrymore asked a series of questions to test the contestants memory and observation on what they saw. In the first two series, this was the third round of the game and correct answers worth £100. When Pop Props was introduced in series three, this became the fourth round and the money increased to £150 for each correct answer.
Sing The Song
Contestants on each team took it in turns to sing a famous song of a well known artist. Their team-mate stands behind the video wall and has to guess which artist they are singing. Each correct answer was worth £150 and both pairs of contestants changed places after each song. Each team were only allowed to pass up to three times, and their turn would end once they had run out of passes. At the end of this round, the lowest scoring team was eliminated, leaving with whatever money they had earned.
Musical interlude
Following Sing The Song, a brief interlude in the game took place with a performance from a special guest.
In the first two series, this came from an unsigned musical act, who Barrymore would introduce as "someone he met whilst filming", and would often join in with the performance. From the third series, a well-known pop singer or band would perform their new single in this slot.
Megamix
The two remaining teams each picked a year of their own personal choice and were shown clips of six songs from that particular year. They would earn £100 per song if they identified it correctly and an extra £100 if they could also name the exact artist correctly. After this round, the runner-up team left the game with the money they had won.
Musical Families
The last team standing faced the final jackpot round Musical Families. Four well known singers had been formed into a pretend family of a dad, mum, son and daughter. The contestants stopped a randomiser to select one of the blank pictures by using a plunger buzzer, and then Barrymore would begin to read a series of clues related to the singer they had to guess. The pair had 60 seconds to correctly guess all four singers and the clock would stop once they either answered correctly or passed, in which case they could have another go at it at the end if there was any time left.
Each correct answer won £1,000 and identifying all four singers correctly won the jackpot of an additional £10,000 for the first three series, increased to £13,000 from series four. Whatever they won in this round was added to the money they had won in earlier rounds, meaning that winning teams would often walk away with prize money in excess of around £15,000–£20,000.
Famous contestants
The show was noticeable for some future music stars appearing as contestants on the show, including Paul Potts, who later won the first series of Britain's Got Talent in 2007, Jodie Prenger, who won I'd Do Anything in 2008, and Jessica Taylor, who went on to become part of the band Liberty X that was formed from the original series of Popstars. Another original Popstars contestant, Danny Foster, made an appearance on one episode during a 'My Kind Of People' segment.
Transmissions
The first two series were aired on ITV on Sunday evenings at 6:30 pm. For series three and four, it moved to Friday nights at 8 pm.
The fifth (and final) series saw the show moved back to Sundays, but at varying times depending on each ITV region. Most ITV regions aired the show at 6:30 pm, but others (such as the two Scotland regions - Scottish and Grampian) aired it at 5 pm so that they could show their local programming at 6 pm as usual.
Series five was expected to consist of 12 episodes, but after the fifth episode – shown on Good Friday 29 March 2002, because of ITV's special Easter Sunday schedule – the programme was abruptly pulled and did not return. At the time, Barrymore's popularity with the British public had been in decline due to his alleged involvement in the death of Stuart Lubbock the previous year. ITV later chose not to renew its contract with Barrymore at the end of 2002, and the seven remaining episodes from the fifth series have not been shown at all at any time.
| Series | Start date | End date | Episodes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 February 1998 | 3 May 1998 | 10 |
| 2 | 21 February 1999 | 16 May 1999 | 10 |
| 3 | 28 January 2000 | 14 April 2000 | 12 |
| 4 | 5 January 2001 | 23 March 2001 | 12 |
| 5 | 10 February 2002 | 29 March 2002 | 5† |
†12 episodes had been recorded as part of Series 5, but only five episodes were shown before ITV pulled the programme from its schedules.