The pilot actually exists
One day after Chris proposed a television programme about washing dishes, he and Scott had made a pilot. They were careful to stress that “pilot” did not mean anybody had commissioned it; this was essentially a home-made demonstration of what the format might look like.
Chris adopted his best daytime-TV presenter voice and introduced Wash Up, a kitchen programme encouraging people to step away from dishwashers and embrace the sink. The joke worked better than Scott expected because the visual language of cookery television still functioned when nothing was being cooked.
They imagined it as the natural aftershow for existing food programmes, perhaps the final few minutes of Saturday Kitchen or a companion series in the spirit of It Takes Two and The Xtra Factor. Chris even had to confront practical production questions such as how to create sufficiently impressive soap suds.
Grimmy makes BBC Three look easy
Nick Grimshaw had followed Scott and Chris into BBC Three continuity announcing. Scott was irritated to discover that Grimmy appeared far less stressed than they had been and got the hang of the live links almost immediately.
Scott wanted whatever quality allowed Grimmy to treat the job so casually. Their own BBC Three takeover had involved an entire evening of nerves; Grimmy seemed simply to turn up and do it.
Learning the Serbian X Factor cast
With Belgrade only days away, Scott started introducing the people who would form the judging panel around his friend Kiki Lesendrić. The first regional series brought together established Balkan stars including Željko Joksimović, Emina Jahović and Kristina Kovač.
Chris still suspected the whole invitation could be an elaborate stitch-up. Scott had met Kiki on a night out in Zante, stayed in touch and was now apparently being flown to Serbia to help judge singers in a mansion. Even written down, the sequence sounded like something the show would invent.
Scott had at least been promised local sightseeing, folk dancing and a night out with the production team if it was real.
Rhianna Dhillon plays the day’s facts
Rhianna Dhillon joined for Real or No Real, while Scott’s Serbia nerves kept surfacing around the rest of the programme. He was no longer merely announcing the trip. He was beginning to imagine the cameras, contestants and unfamiliar television production waiting for him at the other end.
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