No Holds Barred with Bill Haven

 

No Holds Barred with Bill Haven
Logo since 2017
Genre	Tabloid talk show
Created by	M. Hugh Baetzing Bob Eldridge Sr.
Presented by	Bill Haven
Country of origin	Kalșeri
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	20 (as of 2022)
No. of episodes	791 (as of 30 November 2022)
Production
Producer(s)	JC Eldridge Productions, Hartleyville
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	120 minutes (standard)
Release
Original network	Eldridge Broadcasting
Picture format	HDTV 1080i
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	March 12, 2003 (2003-03-12) – present
Chronology
Related shows	Declan Ágisi Says It All

No Holds Barred with Bill Haven is a Kalșerian tabloid talk show presented by Bill Haven and produced by JC Eldridge. It premiered on March 12, 2003 on Eldridge Broadcasting, where it currently airs every Wednesday at 21:15, from March to November. Like other shows produced by JC Eldridge, No Holds Barred is filmed in Hartleyville.

The show's self-declared objective is "to highlight the worst that Kalșeri has to offer, and to laugh at it if fixing it isn't an option". The show is divided into four segments, of increasing clamor, which talk about topics that change every episode. The show features a number of guests, most often common people dealing with an issue, although celebrities are sometimes invited. Bill Haven notes that his show is "egalitarian, as in, Prime Ministers who come here are no less likely to be heckled than twenty-year-old junkies from the Belt". Audience participation is encouraged, and members thereof are given free rein over the range of questions they get to ask.

Critical response to the show is mostly negative. The show is named among the worst instances of Kalșerian "trash TV", and in 2008, the Golden Sun proclaimed it to be "the worst Kalșerian TV show ever". Bill Haven responds to these accusations by arguing that "if people hate me, it means I'm doing a good job". Bill Haven has subsequently been dubbed as "Kalșerian Jerry Springer". No Holds Barred has also been noted for its perceived ability to kickstart careers of hitherto-unknown people, as well as to contribute to the downfall of established celebrities.

No Holds Barred was subsequently adapted in Kalhan for Eldridge Broadcasting's Kalhan-language channel, where it was given the name Declan Ágisi Says It All (Declan Ágisi Ieșta Nu), hosted by political vlogger Declan Ágisi. Declan Ágisi Says It All aired from February 4 to June 10, 2017, when it was canceled due to poor ratings.

Background

Inspired by Maury Povich, M. Hugh Baetzing, host of No Nonsense since 1999, had started adding brief segments to his show, called No Nonsense Wants You; the skits varied in topic, and often featured audience participation. Episodes that ran from 2000 to 2002 consistently rated better than the earlier ones because of these segments. Starting in mid-2002, Baetzing admitted that his creative skills were not enough to justify bringing them on a regular basis.

Noticing the popularity of No Nonsense Wants You, JC Eldridge asked Baetzing if he was interested in helping create a show that could compete with weekly talk shows such as KBC's Roy Ettinghausen Show. The Wednesday prime time slot was assigned to the new show, as it had no permanent program airing at that time.

Baetzing and Bob Eldridge Sr. began screening for the potential host in September 2002. Rand Vogues was considered for the job, but he had to decline due to health issues. After a further screening session, local actor and comedian Bill Haven was chosen as the host. At the time of the casting, Haven was a prominent guest in comedy clubs in Hartleyville and had small roles in the local theatrical scene, about which he would write in op-eds for the Hartleyville Reporter, and had little experience in television.

Format

Each episode begins with the phrase "Send your children to bed, it's time for No Holds Barred!". This is because No Holds Barred airs after the watershed, and swearing is thus censored only lightly.

Since its inception, No Holds Barred has been divided into various segments. Occasionally, Bill Haven introduces improvised segments that last for a few episodes, but the average episode is divided into four segments.

The first segment is The Weekly Rant, where Bill Haven discusses last week's events in Kalșeri and abroad in an irreverent and tongue-in-cheek style. This is the shortest of the segments, as it lasts from five to ten minutes.

This is then followed by The Wall of Shame, a short block inspired by British TV series Room 101. Here, Bill Haven chooses three members of the audience at random and has them talk about their pet hate (usually one each, but more may be added). Each person then asks Haven to inscribe the pet hate in question into the Wall of Shame. The nomination is usually accepted, but a number of instances where Haven refused to oblige, or added an item to the Wall unprompted, have been documented.

The Trial of... is the third segment of the episode. As the name suggests, this consists of a show trial of a portrait of a celebrity: Bill Haven plays the part of the judge, and the live audience is the jury. Initially, the portrait was simply destroyed with a baseball bat, but increasingly creative ways have since been employed. Sometimes, a member of the audience is chosen to play the executioner.

The most controversial segment, and thus the most famous, is Bombs Away!, where the weekly guests talk with Haven about an issue. After the guests and Haven have finished the conversation, the audience gets to ask questions. As the name of the show implies, virtually no limits are put on the nature and manner of articulation of the questions. Bill Haven has a self-imposed policy of only intervening when deemed necessary.

The official web page for the program gives users a sneak peek of next week's episode, and features an online version of the Wall of Shame.

Controversies over authenticity

No Holds Barred has been at the center of continuous debate over the authenticity of the debates by the guests and the subsequent altercations, spurred by an anonymous guest who claimed to have been told to "spice it up" for the ratings.

Haven insists that all of the debates and fights on the show are genuine, and that guests are given few details about the content of the episode before taping starts.