Sam & Mark's TMi Friday

For other uses, see TMI.

Sam & Mark's TMi Friday
File:Tmi-logo-new.png The TMi logo
Starring	Sam Nixon Mark Rhodes Caroline Flack
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	41
Production
Running time	2hrs 45mins (Series 1) 1hr 30mins (Series 2) 1 hr 30 mins - (Series 3)
Original release
Network	BBC Two CBBC Channel (repeats)
Release	16 September, 2006 – present

TMi is a Saturday morning children's show presented by Sam Nixon, Mark Rhodes (aka Sam and Mark), and Caroline Flack. Ending its second series on December 22, 2007 it aired between 9am to 10.30am (9am to 11.45am in the first series) on Saturdays on BBC Two. The programme was repeated at 11.25am on the CBBC Channel.

The first series of TMi was shown between 9am and 11.45am on Saturdays on both BBC Two and the CBBC Channel and ran for 25 episodes over 21 weeks (one episode every Saturday with extra episodes on BBC One every weekday morning in Christmas Week, although these were pre-recorded, not live like the Saturday editions) from 16 September 2006 to 3 February 2007. TMi, while comprising many of the features of Saturday morning children's programming such as cartoons, competitions and music, added a new spin to the genre incorporating an element of reality television and has been noted for its slightly tenage/adult content such as frequent references to popular culture and adult humour. During the week between airing the show, Sam Nixon and Mark Rhodes lived in the "TMi Flat" where they were filmed by multiple cameras. Highlights of this footage was shown on the following Saturday's show. The first series was broadcast live from the television studio at 1 Leicester Square, London.

The second series of TMi started on 8th September 2007 on BBC Two and ended on December 22 2007. For the second series, the duration of the show was reduced to 90 minutes, much to the anger of its fanbase. The TMi flat no longer features and the programme is broadcast from studio TC9 at BBC Television Centre (CBBC's old studio). New features include Thumb Wrestling Federation and Hedz. The theme of the second series is 'This Time It's Personal'. Viewers could choose one of the presenters to be their 'friend' by selecting them on the TMi website, and were then able to view exclusive online content relevant to their chosen presenter. The numbers of friends are revealed throughout the show each week, with each presenter shown with a percentage of the total vote. On December 15 Caroline was crowned "Queen of TMi" with 106,000+ friends with, on December 22, Mark being named "the Biggest Loser" with 70,000+ friends. Sam finished the series with 74,000+ friends.

TMi will return for a third series tommorow on the CBBC channel on BBC 2. The show will air for a 12 week run ending on the 13th December 2008.

A third series was unofficially confirmed at the end of the second series, when Sam said "see you next year". Since then the quote "looking forward to a third series of a certain show, wink, wink" has been spotted on the facebook page of Mark Rhodes. The only TV series they have been involved in which has had a second series are Pop Idol (in which they were contestants) and TMi, suggesting he is referring to TMi. Though confirmed by Sam Nixon that the TMi series 3 would air for 90 minutes, several TV listing websites state that TMi will air between 9am and 10am. According to other sites including sky and freeview epg state TMi will air for 90 minutes. It is uncertain weather TMi will air for 90 minutes, but is most likely due to the official CBBC website states the show is 90 minutes long and Sam Nixon said hiself said the show would remain 90 minutes long.

Since after the first five episodes of Series 2, there has been a few end of the show forfeits where a presenter is set a task. Like on Saturday 10th November 2007 Caroline being in the lead every week, Sam & Mark decided to get their revenge on her. If Caroline got more friends at the end of the show then she would get gunged, and she did.

Each week one or more celebrity guests feature on the show. Previous guests have included McFly, Girls Aloud, Jesse McCartney, JoJo and Lil Chris. The first celebrity guest of the second series was the winner of Big Brother 8, Brian Belo. The first guests of the third series are McFly.

Featured segments

• TMi Playlist - viewers suggest music videos to be shown and a selection is played on the show. From the second series, viewers are no longer able to vote for music videos on the TMi website.
• Call Yourself A Friend? (Series One and Two) - Sam and Mark compete with a pair of friends each week to see who knows each other the best. This segment was revised for the second series with fewer rounds and different challenges.
• Loot Machine (Series One) - Viewers send in useless household items ("Tat") in order to play a 'human fruit machine' game to win prizes.
• Birthday Bingo (Series One) - A month of the year is selected and a viewer whose birthday lands in that month can call in to win prizes.
• Question Mark (Series One) - Mark tries to answer viewers' questions, but instead we hear Sam and Caroline's thoughts.
• Mas-TMi-nd (Series One) - Viewers and celebrity guests answer questions about the week in the TMi flat to win prizes
• Chinatown Challenge (Series One) - Sam and Mark go head-to-head in a different activity each week, such as limbo, skipping, darts, reflex-testing, strength-testing, memory-testing and basketball skills. The loser must face public humiliation in Leicester Square, completing a forfeit set by the winner. At the end of the first series, Mark was declared the overall winner, having won the most challenges.
• Surely They Can't Make A Game Out Of That (Series One) - Sam and Mark are sent five random items (sometimes themed) to the flat, and they have to make a game using those items. Once the game has been played, they must visit the Bird Of Desicion for the verdict, which is usually good.
• TMi Tube (Series One) - A host of the show is caught saying/doing something embarrassing, which is then shown to the celebrities and hosts. This is a parody of YouTube.
• The Power of Dance (Series Two) - Presenters Mark and Caroline must express actions using only dance; contestants must correctly guess their actions in order to win prizes.
• Count Our Friends (Series Two) - The presenters' percentages of online 'friends' are revealed.
• "Explosion" (Series Two and Three) - Contestants must try to win prizes by opening 'boxes' on a screen, though a deadly 'explosion' lies in two of the eight boxes. Contestants can play safe and keep their accumulated prizes by going to the 'Comfort Zone', or continue playing at the risk of losing all their prizes. Note that the game's name is never spoken, instead a sound effect of an explosion is played.
• Don't Let Me Down (Series 3)
• Lawn Of Horror (Series 3)

Reception and Criticism

While gaining little media attention (with the exception of the revelation on 18 July 2007 that it was one of the programmes which had deceived viewers with a faked phone-in competition winner on 16 September 2006, in its premiere episode.[1], a revelation that meant that its name appeared on the front covers of tabloid publications such as The Sun, The Daily Star, The Daily Mirror and freesheet Metro) and unlike most British childrens television series, failing to sell into foreign television markets, ratings have been extremely good considering its network (BBC Two) and timeslot (9am), which have evened off at 600,000 (beating its predecessor Dick and Dom in da Bungalow which could only interest 500,000 in its final days) but reached near on a million on Christmas Day, 2006 (700,000 of which were aged over 16). This has prompted people on internet forums such as Digital Spy to say that it should be broadcast on BBC One. However, one internet review written soon after its launch accused it of being misogynistic for the fact that it featured 2 male presenters to one female, who was not announced until a few weeks before its launch and did not live in the flat with the 2 male presenters.

Shows featured during TMi

• The Likeaballs (A few weeks in Series One only)
• The Secret Show (Series One)
• The Fairly Odd Parents (Took over from The Likeaballs for the rest of Series One)
• Prank Patrol (Series One)
• Thumb Wrestling Federation (Series Two)
• Hedz (Series Two)
• Lockie Leonard (Series Three)

It Started With Swap Shop

The TMi team appeared on the BBC's It Started With Swap Shop programme on December 28th 2006 with a message to say Happy 30th Birthday to Swap Shop. The show also featured one clip of TMi from the first series which is featured in the 'Travel Back In Time' feature when they start with the current Saturday morning show, which is TMi and end up finishing with Swap Shop.

To see these two clips, check out the It Started With Swap Shop's website.

See also

• Caroline Flack
• Sam Nixon
• Mark Rhodes
• Sam and Mark
• CBBC

External links

• Official Friend Website
• TMi on Saturday Mornings
• - TMi Myspace at Myspace
• SamNixon.net Sam Nixon Fansite
• Mark Rhodes Forum