Comedian Romesh Ranganathan’s latest offering, Parents’ Evening, premiered on Saturday night, but the ITV show encountered some turbulence just moments in.
The comedic game show sees celebrities and their children join forces to answer questions, with parents wagering on how well their kids will do.
The inaugural episode, which aired on November 2, saw Alison Hammond and son Aidan compete alongside Carol Vorderman with her son Cameron and Love Island’s commentator Iain Stirling with his mum Alison.
Yet, shortly after the show began, viewers pinpointed a glaring issue: the rapid vanishing of questions from the screen. This left many at home unable to participate and prompted complaints about excessive focus on the contestants rather than the game itself, reports the Mirror.
One viewer aired their grievances on X, stating that “Think just 3 episodes in this series? Just need Romesh and contestants faces in mini screen shots at bottom of screen allow questions stay on screen longer too many cut aways from main question options hint hint Series 2 changes.”
Another added their voice to the mix, writing: “#ParentsEvening quiz shows are usually about letting the home viewer guest the answers but in this case the questions weren’t on screen long enough for us to have a go.” A third vented: “#ParentsEvening keep the questions on screen!”.
One viewer gave a mixed review of the first episode, commenting: “Obligatory new game show tweet – I’m liking #ParentsEvening. Yeah, the questions should stay on screen somehow and it’s annoying that they don’t – but they can fix that. I like the format and it all works otherwise. So far, so good.”
Another audience member raised an issue with the show’s concept of having parent-child teams, suggesting: “Romesh Ranganathan’s Parents’ Evening on ITV is definitely watchable, but I’m yet to see why the pairings need to be parents/children and couldn’t be any kind of pairing – even just friends or celebrity teams.”
Despite some criticisms, ITV’s latest offering seems to have charmed viewers. A fan expressed their enjoyment on X, previously known as Twitter: “I never watch telly on a Saturday night because it’s all poop usually, but I’m really liking Romesh Ranganathan’s #ParentsEvening he’s so funny.”
Romesh Ranganathan’s Parents’ Evening continues next Saturday at 9.05pm on ITV1 and ITVX