The curtain fell a week ago, but the debate shows no sign of abating. Broadcast live on Friday 30 October from Manchester Central, Beat Luke Littler was set to offer an amateur the chance of a lifetime: a single 501 leg, a single opportunity to beat the world number one, with £501,000 at stake. Fallon Sherrock did just that. Since then, the conversation has shifted: people are no longer talking about the feat itself, but about how Netflix put the programme together.
For the programme was also a gamble for the platform. It was its first live entertainment show in the UK, going head-to-head with the final of Celebrity Traitors on the BBC. Around twenty contestants, a stage, a costumed audience and two presenters, Gary Lineker and Richard Osman, flanked by a panel of consultants including Lee Mack and Laura Turner.
One round, one corridor and a format running out of steam
On paper, the idea is appealing: the world’s best player with his back against the wall, a single round, no second chances. On screen, however, the result quickly turned into a drag. The contestants took to the stage one after the other, most of them leaving within a few minutes, and the suspense dragged on for nearly two and a half hours. The British press described it as a fairground-style format, where the champion faces a succession of challengers without the tension ever really building.
Only one contestant really sent shivers down the audience’s spine: Ireland’s Pearse Mackle, a former rising star on the circuit, who found himself with a dart on the bullseye to win before missing his target by a few centimetres. As for the rest, Luke Littler cruised through, just as he has done for the past two years on the PDC stage.
Fallon Sherrock, a winner who reignites the debate on amateur players
Fallon Sherrock took to the stage in fifteenth position and didn’t let the opportunity slip by. An 180 during the leg, immediate command of the match, and there she was, pocketing the largest sum ever awarded to a female darts player. Lineker concluded by pointing out that she had arrived as a hairdresser from Milton Keynes and was leaving with half a million pounds.
That sentence summed up part of the unease. Sherrock is no unknown: she has competed in the PDC World Championship, won the inaugural Women’s World Matchplay in 2022 and has been awarded an MBE for services to darts. Netflix justified her participation with a simple rule: any player who has never held a PDC Tour Card is considered an amateur. On paper, that’s correct. In practice, however, the promise of an unknown player who had appeared out of nowhere no longer really held water. Full details of her victory can be found in our article on Fallon Sherrock’s triumph in Manchester.
Gary Lineker at the centre of criticism
The sharpest criticism centres on the presentation. The format entrusted the hosting of the live broadcast to a figure from English football, supported by Richard Osman, in a style more akin to a talk show than a sports broadcast. Some observers saw this as a sign that the programme didn’t quite do justice to its core content: darts, an audience of connoisseurs and an extraordinary champion.
The most widely discussed criticism this week has come from specialist media, which have dismissed the programme as a succession of uneventful minutes and highlighted the missed opportunities: no profiles of the contestants, few technical explanations, and no context regarding Littler’s actual standard. An amateur eliminated in three rounds teaches the viewer nothing, and this is precisely the criticism that comes up most often.
Viewing figures save the day
It’s not all bad. According to the figures available the day after the broadcast, viewing figures remained stable in the face of competition from the BBC, peaking after the end of Celebrity Traitors. For its first foray into live broadcasting, Netflix can claim to have succeeded in capturing the audience’s attention.
The production was by Workerbee, a Manchester-based company, and the format is reminiscent of other programmes where the general public takes on the elite, such as the Million Dollar 1 Point Slam at the Australian Open. The format has its fans, provided the show can hold its own over the long haul.
Only time will tell
Fallon Sherrock has already mooted the idea of a second series, whilst Netflix has made no announcement. The lesson from this first series is clear, however: the champion’s name alone is not enough to fill two hours of live television. If there is a second series, the producers will probably have to choose between a game show and a competition, narrow down the line-up and give the audience reasons to believe in the underdog right to the very end.
In the meantime, the debate will at least have had one merit: it serves as a reminder that darts, driven by a generation of extraordinary players, is now attracting the interest of platforms that do not yet understand the sport’s conventions.
