Circus of the Stars

You see some strange things on the obscure streaming channels that I favour.  Last week I caught Circus of the Stars, originally broadcast on CBS in 1981.  Basically, it was US TV stars doing circus-type acts.  Marjoe Gortner has a truck driven over him, then crashes a motorcycle.  One of the daughters from The Waltons does a trapeze act.  A woman from Knot's Landing does escapology - she's tied to a stake and nearly set on fire.  And much more.  Lloyd Bridges, Angela Lansbury and Rock Hudson present.  I kod you not.  Apparently it was a regular event, running annually between 1977 and 1994.  It was clearly designed as a rival to ABC's Battle of the Network Stars, (an episode of which I also caught on the same channel), in which teams of performers representing each of the then three US networks competed against each other in sporting events.  Although we have a tradition of 'celebrity' versions of regular gameshows and contests, here in the UK we've never really had an equivalent to these sorts of shows.  Amusing as it might be to imagine, say, Arthur Lowe from Dad's Army representing the BBC, huffing and puffing his way to a heart attack in a sprint contest with Reg Varney from On The Buses for ITV, a British Battle of the Network Stars would never had been a goer. Particularly in the seventies, when we really only had two networks, (two of the three channels were both the BBC).  I suppose we've gotten close to Circus of the Stars with that Cirque de Celebrite show that ran for two series on Sky a few years ago, in which D-list 'celebrities' were trained in circus acts and competed against each other.  Which is where it differed from the US show in being a weekly elimination competition, rather than an annual special.

One thing I will say for these old US shows - beyond their sheer bizareness to UK eyes - is that at least they featured genuine 'stars', (ie, people actually starring in current TV shows), rather than the 'celebrities' (ie people who are famous for being famous, usually because they were on a reality TV series or YouTube), which tend to be favoured these days. It all adds to that sense of weirdness, to see Buck Rogers (Gil Gerard) in a running contest with Woz (Max Gail) from Barney Miller, or Robert Hays from Airplane trying to dunk Lou Grant (Ed Asner) into a barrel.  Actually, Buck Rogers was in the Circus of the Stars episode I saw as well, this time doing an act with elephants.  As I say, all very strange.  Borderline surreal, I'd say.  The longevity of these formats would suggest that they had enormous popularity amongst the viewing public.  But they do come from an era when US TV was dominated by three national networks, so huge audiences could be expected for special programming of this sort, (they tended to be scheduled to coincide with the Neilsen Ratings sweeps in Spring and Autumn).  Nowadays, of course, the TV market in both the US and UK has been fragmented both by the arrival of new networks, but also the advent of cable, satellite and streaming services, not to mention the plethora of repeat-based digital stations.  Would the chance to see someone from the One Show having knives thrown at them in a circus, or Huw Edwards taming lions, for instance, be considered 'special' enough by audiences to become a TV 'event' attracting them in their droves?  I somehow doubt it, with the number of distractions now on offer.