The BBC has signed up a host of YouTube stars for a new series, as part of its efforts to “modernise” daytime TV.
A new show, The Customer Is Always Right, will start airing later this year and feature YouTubers including LadBaby – the social media personality who scooped last year’s Christmas number one – and his wife, Roxanne.
The personalities will be reviewing products created by budding entrepreneurs, giving their verdict on everything from a GPS cat tracking device to a scented candle that melts into massage oil.
The show comes after Dan McGolpin, controller of BBC programming and daytime, told the Press Association that the schedule was being refreshed.
“We are trying to modernise daytime and have a new generation of hits,” he said. “We’ve got lots of long-running, popular shows that people love. There’s nothing wrong with that. But we’re trying to bring through a new generation.”
LadBaby (whose real name is Mark Hoyle) and Roxanne have 3.2 million Facebook followers.
The self-proclaimed “dad blogger” rocketed to the top of the charts in December with an ode to sausage rolls based on Starship’s 1980s glam-rock song We Built This City.
It will also feature Antonella The Uncensored Reviewer, a receptionist at a GP surgery who won millions of fans with her own online reviews.
Lifestyle vlogger Chanel Ambrose has also signed up while Lucy Alexander, best known for Homes Under The Hammer, will present the series.
Groups of family and friends from across the country will also review the products.
Those who have signed up also include a Welsh fashion student and her grandparents and former lawyer who runs a fashion blog for men over 40.
“They’ll test the entrepreneur’s products and unleash their honest thoughts via video blogs on everything from the design to the practical use to the selling price,” the BBC said.
“The customers will unbox and deliver their honest, funny and sometimes brutal assessments before scoring each product. And because the customer is always right, they will pick the winner.”
