Desperate Scousewives

Desperate Scousewives
Format	Dramality
Created by	Tiffany Ballou Louise Cowmeadow
Directed by	James Abbadi Stten Agro Philip Wood
Starring	Amanda Harrington Gill O'Toole Jodie Lundstram Sam Wools Layla Flaherty Chloe Cummings Elissa Corrigan Jaiden Micheal Debbie O'Toole Joe McMahon Danny Latimer
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producer(s)	Michael Massey Mal Young
Location(s)	Liverpool
Running time	60 mins
Broadcast
Original channel	E4 E4 HD
Picture format	1080i (HDTV)
Audio format	5.1
Original run	28 November 2011 (2011-11-28) – 16 January 2012
External links
Website

Desperate Scousewives was an English dramality show based in Liverpool. Desperate Scousewives premiered on E4 at 10:00pm on 28 November 2011. It ran for 8 episodes before it was officially announced that the show had been cancelled due to low ratings and a perceived lack of interest in cast members from viewers.

The show's name was a parody of the American comedy drama Desperate Housewives and was said to be "Liverpool's answer to The Only Way Is Essex". The series will not be released on DVD.

Reaction

The reaction to the show was largely negative and prompted strong criticism from both the mainstream media and audiences alike. On social networking site Twitter, those local to Liverpool claimed that the show's characters were not representative of the city and exploited it purely for entertainment purposes, as despite its title, many cast members are not married and do not originate from the city. The content of the show was also criticised heavily as being scripted and devoid of plot or substance, and produced simply to establish a show based upon Merseyside following the format of other successful regional dramality shows such as TOWIE, Geordie Shore and Made in Chelsea. Journalist Keith Watson, of Metro, a British daily newspaper, described Scousewives as "so vacuous as to make even TOWIE look profound", and that the show "simply takes the TOWIE template up the Mersey Tunnel, at the bleached bottom end of which you’ll find the most depressing bunch of faked-up, vacuous wannabes we’ve suffered since, well…the last of these unreal reality shows was launched. Five minutes in the company of Amanda, Joe, Layla and poison blogger Jaiden, and my faith in human nature was hitting zero. Not one of them can hold a conversation that’s not about themselves."

Following an unsatisfactory response from viewers and low ratings, E4 executive producers did not recommission Scousewives for a second series. A show insider claimed that "We had hoped Desperate Scousewives would really give TOWIE a run for its money, but sadly that's not been the case. For whatever reason people have just not warmed to the characters and there hasn't been a great buzz. Made in Chelsea, on the other hand, is really popular. People seem fascinated by their posh lives".

Cast members

Cast member	Age	Occupation
Amanda Harrington	30	Model
Jodie Lundstram	24	Beautician, creator of the 'scouse brow'
Chloe Cummings	20	Part-Time Nurse, Model and cousin of Sean.
Layla Flaherty	28	Student
Debbie O'Toole	26	Model, Former Miss Liverpool, Younger sister of Gill
Gill O'Toole	30	Older sister to Debbie
George Panayiotou	24	Entrepreneur
Elissa Corrigan	26	Journalist
Sam Wooley	20	Student and Kate Middleton lookalike
Joe McMahon	28	Club Promoter
Danny Latimer	27	DJ
Jaiden Michael	29	Celeb Blogger
Adam Ramsey	28	Property Manager
Chris Johnson	27	Salon Owner & Husband to Mark
Mark Johnson	25	Salon Owner & Husband to Chris
Sean Clancy	24	Footballer and brother to Abbey Clancy

External links

• Desperate Scousewives at E4.com
• Desperate Scousewives at channel4.com
• Desperate Scousewives Sean Clancy Photoshoot at Rorylewis.co.uk