Gerry Cottle has publicly criticised Sky One programme Cirque de Celebrite, branding it a “disgrace� and warning that it made his industry look “cheap�.

The producer, who made his name as the owner of Britain’s leading circus before running both the Moscow and Chinese State Circus, said: “Cirque de Celebrite looks cheap and it has made the industry look cheap beyond belief. It seems when it comes to the tasks, they see what the celebrities can do and then pick the worst ones to perform for the television programme. They should be working to their strengths rather than making fools out of them and trying to get cheap laughs.�

A spokesperson for Sky One dismissed Cottle’s criticism, saying: “We are very happy with the show and so are the public as the show has been a ratings hit for the channel. A decision was taken to align the series with contemporary, rather then traditional circus.�

He added that five trainers were used and it is emphasised that the celebrities lack the breadth of training that a professional circus performer would undergo.

What a night of fighting judges (nothing new), bitchy contestants (Emma B re: Grace Adam Short and Sophie Anderton), one of the top performers voted out and outstanding performances by all. Grace being her usual brilliant self was told that she was a natural circus performer but she disagreed saying that she is where she is, due to sheer hard work every inch of the way. She kept us all glued to our TV’s as she manoeuvred her way through breathtaking hands free ankle drops, angel, splits and many more exciting acts. She deserves to be top week after week with her dangerously daring, flawless routines.

The men had to master the swinging trapeze with strength, agility and technical aggression and the ladies, the aerial swing with grace, romance and lovely lines.

Emma B was a pleasure to watch as she, with visual ease, smoothly glided through her aerial swing performance. Very romantic. Her one knee hang off the handsome Russian bearer, Valero’s foot, was particularly impressive.

Jamie awed us with his adventurous reverse roll and knee drop, standing on the bar and dropping to hang by the ankles. A really powerful performance

Not only do the contestants perform on Saturday night but they also have to erect the tent, put out the chairs and prepare everything for the evening show.

Andy stunned us with his most difficult ankle drop, smoothly performed, standing on the bar and dropping to hang by his arms and then neck only. The judges were most impressed with this with Louis saying it was a truly technical performance.

Sophie went through her acts with ease, romance, beautiful lines, interesting manoeuvres to receive a shocking 17 out of 30 due to Anne and Philip’s poor marking. Louis voiced his appreciation and matched it with a good score. Sophie has been at enmity with the judges but should this impact on their scoring? She has been said not have turned up for enough practice but in fairness she has had a kidney infection and full modelling commitments. In spite of this, we thought she put on an outstanding performance.

We did not expect to see Nicola and James as the bottom two contestants as both had earned well deserved high points whereas Ninia and Kenzie had not. Is this system working when top performers are knocked out? Kenzie had to make the final choice as to who was to go and we are now deprived of an outstanding performer. Had James gone, it would have been an equally great loss.

Being half way through the Cirque de Celebrite challenge, the judges and trainers, alike, have expressed expectancy of greater achievements from the contestants. This should be a very exciting event and not to be missed.

This article was written by Evelyn Lewis, our newest contributor at Unreality TV. Welcome aboard Evelyn. We’re thrilled to have you with us!

Cirque de Celebrite

What a wonderful burst of colour, excitement, exquisite costumes and raw talent being perfected with courage, tears and drama, as each contestant takes on a circus act of great daring and no safety nets. A buzz from beginning to end with well known celebrities such as Sophie Anderton, Emma B, Grace Adams-short and many more, contesting. The star of the show to date being Grace Adams-Short who has outshone the other contestants by sheer hard work and determination. Her pluck is to be admired as she falls, hurts herself over and over again and gets up to continue on in an effort to perfect her act of the week. In spite of tears and raw pain, she pushes on to become the star of the show, week after week, smiling through it all. The trainers love working with her as she is the first to arrive for practices and the last to leave and very willing to learn.

Each contestant must be congratulated for their courage and endurance as they take on the tasks put to them, with some performing better than others. Unfortunately we still get the contestant who gets unfair favour, due to a pretty face or good body, earning points not deserved but as the public have no say over the judges, who rule supreme, the untouchables, this seems to be becoming more common with the various competitive shows. Some contestants have learned to play up to the judges to scrape together a few extra points, while others rely totally on hard work.

Cirque de Celebite is a very exciting, fast moving show with plenty of colour and variety of acts and contestants working up to a pitch of competitiveness and enthusiasm. Every second is exhilarating and well worth watching. Plenty of glamour with Nicola Wheeler from the soapies, models Emma B and Sophie Anderton (a favourite from Love Island) and Grace Adams-Short of BB7. Young heartthrob, Kenzie had a bad week but a pleasure to watch in previous episodes.

The decision to let a chosen fellow contestant decide which of the two lowest public scoring contestants should leave the show, is a very strange and unfair move on behalf of the organizers, as obviously, the better of the two performers has been voted off each week. Thus our sad loss of the very talented and beautiful Sinita of the X factor and said to be ex girlfriend of Simon Cowell.

Another strange decision was to bring back a competitor who was obviously not qualified for the job and who had been knocked out in previous weeks, to temporarily stand in as judge in the absence of the regular judge. He knew nothing about the circus when he came on the show as a competitor. Did not last long before he was knocked out. Had no knowledge on the acts now been performed and yet was allowed to judge the other contestants. Madness. Not only that but he was the final judge and could sway the outcome of the two previous judge’s points with his own. He was seldom in keeping with the other judges. If he had been put in the middle then the third judge could have brought in a little more of a balance but surely it would have been better to have made one of the trainers a judge instead. Or a true circus performer?

It is with great anticipation that we wait for the next fabulous showing of Cirque de Celebrite.

This article was written by Evelyn Lewis, our newest contributor at Unreality TV. Welcome aboard Evelyn. We’re thrilled to have you with us!

For more Cirque De Celebrite gossip and chat check out our FORUM!

Sky One Reports:

The third Cirque show saw competition hotting up between the celebrities, all now scarred, battered and bruised from weeks of intense circus skill training. There were 3 new disciplines to be mastered this week, namely the Aerial Hoop (20’ off the ground), the Roller Roller (think balancing on stacked pieces of plastic pipe and planks) and the Bungee (acrobatics in an elasticated harness).

Exhibiting daring and poise on the Aerial Hoop, were a near-naked Emma B (scoring a creditable 21 with the judges despite a rib injury sustained in training), Sophie complaining of a kidney infection and getting a critical panning from the judges (15), Grace (the hardest training celeb according to the coaches) once again proving a favourite with the panel and crowd (25) and Lee ‘The Chimp’ Zammo (16) making up in enthusiasm what he lacked in grace and elegance (this despite the ballet classes he had taken during the week).

Performing balancing feats on the Roller Roller were Jamie, athletic as ever (and scoring 23, his best total yet with the judges), a very handy Andy making the discipline look easy and performing a ‘triple stack’ routine that would normally take 6 months to master (24) and Nicola who held her nerve despite some bad falls in training (23).

Spinning up on the Bungee were a graceful Sinitta (21), Kenzie putting on a blazin’ best performance of the night according to his trainers, including a breathtaking quintuple somersault (23) and Ninia, described by Ring Mistress Ruby as a “giant leopard-skin flying planet� making many in the crowd worried for their health as she bounced haphazardly around the roof of the big top (17).

Once audience votes had been added to the judge’s scores, Sinitta and Nicola were bottom of the bill. The difficult task of choosing who should stay then fell to Andy who picked Nicola for her courage and commitment in mastering the most difficult of the night’s disciplines. Thus a sad Sinitta said goodbye to the Cirque, leaving the remaining 9 celebrities to tackle 3 new circus skills for next week’s show - the Cloud Swing, the Unicycle and the Bolus. What are they? You’ll have to watch on Sky One next Sunday at 7pm to find out.

For more Cirque De Celebrite gossip and chat check out our FORUM!

Sky One reports:

Week 2 at the Cirque de Celebrité saw the stars mastering two new (harder) disciplines, the low wire (it was still 8 feet in the air) or ‘bacon slicer’ as it is also known and the ‘corde lisse’ (acrobatics on a spinning rope 15 feet in the air).

Attempting to walk the wire were Syed, a natural in training but falling apart on the night (scoring 14 with the judges), Emma B (an impressive 23), a nervous Sophie (13), Ninia performing on a special extra low wire, only 15� of the ground (13) and Andy showing he’s not quite so handy with his feet but still managing the highest men’s score of the night (22).

Pirouetting on the rope high above the ring were Sinitta overcoming a fear of heights to register equal top judges’ score (24), Lee now christened ‘The Chimp’ by his trainers and fellow celebs (14), Jamie displaying Olympian strength and agility (18), Kenzie bringing a touch of the ‘street’ to the circus (19), Nicola smiling through the pain of an injury picked up in training (18) and Grace performing a spectacular routine suspended from one foot (24).

With the votes and judges’ scores counted, the bottom two celebs facing the end of their circus dreams were Syed and Sophie. Grace, topping the scores once again had to make the final decision and elected to save Sophie. Syed left the glitz, glamour and sawdust behind to resume his career in business.

For more Cirque De Celebrite gossip and chat check out our FORUM!

Sophie Anderton has blasted producers of ‘Love Island’ for exaggerating her tantrums on the show.

She moaned to the Sunday Mirror Celebs magazine: “I promise I wasn’t crying as much as they made out. They did a montage of me crying - it was amusing but not nice for my family. It wasn’t just me. Everyone was crying in there.”

Sophie who is currently starring in Cirque De Celebrite on Sky One - insists she has sorted out many of her problems since leaving the island and has never been happier.

She said: “I’m in such a good place right now. I’m probably the calmest and most mellow I’ve been in years. All the time I spent on therapy, for the first time, I feel my real personality is able to come through.”

For more Cirque De Celebrite gossip and chat check out our FORUM!

Many people have criticised Cirque De Celebrite for its lack of real celebrities, however the show’s audience for their opening night was certainly not lacking in A listers!

Stars included Simon Cowell (there to support friend Sinitta), Max Clifford, Carol Smillie, Vanessa Feltz and Gina Yashere.

However the infamous Mr Cowell left shows host Ruby Wax red faced when he refused to take part in an impromptu interview during the show. Typical Simon!

For more Cirque De Celebrite gossip and chat check out our FORUM!

Big Brother housemate and contestant of Cirque De Celebrite, Grace Adam Short, has revealed some of her wedding plans to the Sunday Mirror this week.

“I want my big day to be classy. Not like Jordan and Peter Andre’s,” she stated. “We’ll do it somewhere between London and Liverpool, probably a stately home. He’ll move in with me in March and then we’ll plan it.”

The Sun Reports

BIG Brother’s Grace turned circus star and dazzled viewers last night as she balanced on top of a giant ball.

The dancer, 21, was in Sky One’s Cirque De Celebrite with a string of celebs trying out Big Top skills, including Love Island’s Sophie Anderton and model Emma B.

Grace had hoped she wouldn’t be picked for the ball stunt — but she quickly mastered it.

The celebs trained for more than 40 hours a week for the show.

For more Cirque De Celebrite gossip and chat check out our FORUM!

The Sun reports:

FURIOUS Mark Bright flipped after being voted off Sky One’s circus reality show Cirque De Celebrite.

The ex-soccer star, now a BBC pundit, threatened to shut a dressing room door in a cameraman’s face unless he stopped filming.

Bright allegedly said: “I’ll give you one second to get out of that door, one second . . . I swear to you, I’ll smash the door in your face�.

An onlooker said: “He was livid he’d been kicked off so early. The cameraman got very scared and pulled his camera away quickly.�

Insiders said Bright, who performed a ball balance routine, was also angry his six-year-old son Isiah had been upset by seeing him axed.

Earlier host Ruby Wax was red-faced when X Factor’s Simon Cowell refused to be interviewed on air.

He was there to support old flame Sinitta, one of the celebs trying circus tricks in the show.