God's Gift (TV series)

"God's Gift" was a British television game show broadcast from 1995-1996. It was produced by Granada Television and hosted by Davina McCall and Stuart Hall for the first series, with McCall replaced by Claudia Winkleman in the second.

Each week a group of five men would try to win the affections and votes of a female audience by participating in a series of games to test their sex appeal. The winner would have his pick of the audience to take out on a date, which the girl would film for broadcast on the next programme. On a couple of episodes the participants and audience consisted of gay men. McCall would preside over the show on the studio floor whilst Hall would act as commentator.

The series was broadcast in the early hours on ITV, although not every region took the series. The second series was axed after fewer regions decided to broadcast it.

It had a similar theme to the series "Man O Man" shown around the same period, although this was much less risqué because it was broadcast at peak time viewing. Both series came in for criticism about their objectification of men, and the broadcasters were accused of double standards, in that they would never permit similar programmes to be shown if the participants were women.

The title came from the phrase "God's gift to women", i.e. an ironic description of a would-be Casanova.

External Links

*imdb|id=0222565|title=God's Gift