The Chop

And the fact they were insistent on what the 88 means to be proved embarrasingly wrong today just makes it even worse.

If he did win the show, I think the prize should be split between the other finalists. It's only fair.

There must have been countless people involved with the selection and auditioning of candidates and then the production of the programme. How this wasn’t noticed by any of them at any stage is shocking.

To be fair, you're not going to be staring at the guy's tattoos super closely person to person, it's rude to stare and you've got to leave some social distance!

And if you do spot the 88 and ask about it, are you really going to ask for his dad's death certificate to prove it? If he said he was estranged and doesn't like to talk about it, what happens next? We're not vetting the guy to be Prime Minister, just making a cheap TV show.

Bit like this Channel 4 game show from earlier in the year...

http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/The_Surjury

EDIT: Actually I just used that site to see if they had a page on The Chop, and I found this...

http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Dumped

"Originally filmed in June 2006 for broadcast in Spring 2007, the series was delayed until September as a result of a Celebrity Big Brother racism scandal. Ironically, contestant Darren Lumsden, who walked on Day 3, would later cause The Chop to be pulled after turning up on that programme wearing white supremacist facial tattoos."

Which, for the record, they do.

http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/The_Chop

As always there's a list on Wikipedia of TV shows cancelled before an episode was shown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_series_canceled_before_airing_an_episode

I'm sure there was a list of programmes pulled off air during an episode but I can't find it now

The 88 is prominent and on his cheek, it's hardly difficult to notice. Particularly when you consider the connotations of facial tattoos, if you saw that tattooed on someones face surely the alarm bells would be ringing, and the fact they bought his excuse is even more embarrasing.

With regards to the ‘88’, lots of people have tattoos with certain years on, it’s hardly a stretch to think it would relate to something that happened in 1988. Especially if you had no knowledge of these ridiculous codes.

I’m not sure those automatic ‘connotations’ of facial tattoos exist now, maybe 30 years ago, but that kind of thing is a lot more mainstream. Not that I’m a fan of it.

It obviously never occurred anyone working on the show at the time and was obviously a gap in their knowledge, most people wouldn’t have clue what those things meant. Presumably his reasonable sounding explanation and his mild mannered persona lead them not to be worried.

It’s an expensive mistake from the production company, but they’ll now be aware of such things to stop anything like that happening again. I’m sure they’re all absolutely gutted. But I’m not sure how you can blame them when it probably never occurred to them something like this would slip through.

You're maybe thinking of this list of shows cancelled after one episode, which I see The Chop has been added to. Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos is listed as having been taken off air DURING it's only episode.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_series_canceled_after_one_episode

Yes as I say I'm sure there was a seperate page for those at one time, but as there's only a couple of examples maybe not

The Australian Naughtiest Home Videos thing did eventually air in Australia, just not in its original form. They even (apparently) mocked up its being yanked off air at the same point it was pulled in 1992. Apparently its difficult to keep a programme on the air when Kerry Packer (who at the time owned the network, Nine in this particular case) is shouting down the phone at you to get it off. The story goes Packer went off on one the next day and fired everybody who had anything to do with the show. Packer died in 2005 and the show aired in 2008.