I suppose you could say it’s just an excuse to post a load of old babeshow pics, but it does kind of make sense to add a proper, chronological roundup of Freeview’s night time babeshows during their formative phase in the noughties. All the shows are covered on the site already of course, but this post serves as a quicker overview of what happened, and when. I’ve linked to some more detailed posts about the shows, so if this piece doesn’t give you enough info, you should be able to get what you want without too much delay. So, here they are. The night time Freeview babeshows of the noughties, in chronological order…
PARTY PEOPLE
March 2006 to August 2009.
Party People set the ball rolling two and a half years before the main thrust of the Freeview era. A thrust which would, ironically, become Party People’s nemesis. Channel 37’s slow-burning day-show-in-the-night managed to sustain itself through the ‘real’ night shows’ experimentation period. But as soon as it became clear that the dirty-as-opposed-to-flirty night shows were heading into a much bigger league, Party People’s cult-followed 3am broadcast was unceremoniously axed. That same month, Babestation massively scaled up their Freeview night show presence, and the rest is history, as they say.
Lori Buckby introduced the very last Party People night show with Lynsey Atkinson. Babestation’s old-school flirty phonesex girl Jodie, whose time on the babe channels began before the birth of PP, and who went on to become half of Babestation’s first voice over and presenting duo in November 2009.
PARTY GIRLS
September 2008 to March 2009, and August 2009 to October 2009.
Party Girls achieved such legendary cult status that Babestation (the organisation behind the show) tried to revive it five or so months after the original, temporary series finished. If you’ve seen something that really grabbed your attention on a Freeview babeshow, and you want to know where it first happened outside of subscription TV, the answer will almost inevitably be: on Party Girls. Party Girls was the first real night show on Freeview, introducing everything from toplessness and nudity, through snogging, groping, oil-drenching and cream-squeezy fights, to simulated orgasms, spanking, and hardcore domination with full costume and even the odd onscreen female slave. Despite its greatly superior broadcast quality, the revival failed to recapture the spectacle and buzz of the original series, and was scrapped after two months.
PARTYLAND
From March 2009.
Probably the weirdest ever Freeview babeshow, Partyland compensated for the heavy restrictions on its adult content with comical themes, text-in games, impromptu sets, and an unusual voicemail-to-air “Chatback” service, which made a particular viewer (Martin from Fulham) one of the show’s most commonly heard voices in spring 2009. Themes such as “Send in a photo of yourself with a potato” and “Get the girls to dip strawberries in a chocolate fountain and then eat them” summed up the way the show often made fun of its own desperation to broadcast more direct language and visuals. Partyland was a very eyecatching freeview babeshow, with an addictive randomness.
Camilla Jayne – a Babestation girl who, along with Tiffany Chambers, spearheaded Babestation’s ‘adoption’ of the show in summer 2009. The Partyland dream team of Daryl Morgan and Alex Adams who, in keeping with the programme’s rather crackers approach, would refer to each other as “Bob” and “Long Bob” respectively. Tiffany Chambers in the final days before Babestation fully adopted Partyland.
BABESTATION
From May 2009…
There’s probably not much I need to say about Babestation. I’ve covered its introduction to Freeview in The First Babestation Freeview Show, and The First Month of Babestation on Freeview. Whilst today’s shows are a lot quicker and more predictable, and they’re no longer broadcast from the London studio, they’ve retained a lot of the old values – particularly in terms of communication and their ability to get high levels of enthusiasm out of the models.
BABESTATION 2
From August 2009.
Babestation 2 was Babestation’s ‘harder’ Freeview channel, although I mean that in the context of Freeview broadcasts – not in the sense that it was offering anything comparable with BSX, Babestation Xtreme or Babestation X. It should be noted, however, that Babestation 2 was the channel that effectively got zapped to make way for BS Xtreme in spring 2010. Much of the video footage from these shows can be seen in the Babestation VIP members area.
BANG BABES
From October 2009.
Bang Babes was the penultimate babeshow introduced to Freeview before the turn of the decade, arriving less than a week before the final one – BS Xtra. It was the first babeshow to be actually introduced to Freeview with no text chat facility, although some Babestation Freeview channels had scrapped their on-air text chat by the time it arrived. It was also the first Freeview babeshow not run by Cellcast. Bang Babes had very poor on-air communication (not least because the mics rarely worked), which often left the new audience totally in the dark about who they were watching. Early terrestrial shows were also frequently late going to air. But Bang Babes made up for its lack of ‘schmooze’ and technical competence with harder and more obviously sexual visuals. A policy which would, in the end, see the show taken off air.
BS XTRA
From October 2009…
Whilst not quite as weird as Partyland, the 2009 incarnation of BS Xtra could be pretty freaky at times. As a text-based show, it often ended up bringing some rather odd niche fantasies into the open. Business was, however, apparently very good for the period. One of the text show’s most popular presenters – Yvette Merriman – said in the first week that incoming texts were running into the thousands over the course of the night. After struggling with its direction for a while, BS Xtra briefly established itself as a kind of penis-evaluation service. Men would send in photos of their privates, and the models would give them scores out of ten. What it is with men wanting to send pictures of their genitals to women I’m not sure, but there was certainly no shortage of uptake! Xtra did of course subsequently morph into an ordinary phone show, but not until 2010. You can still watch BSXtra and other shows such as Studio 66 TV and Sexstation via Rampant TV.
