By Arron Ferguson
Two on-air deaths failed to dent massive ratings last night for Simon Cowell’s new reality show Britain’s Got Surgeons.
The second episode attracted nine million viewers, despite 15-year-old Keisha Myrie botching an appendectomy and then a frontal lobotomy, killing two of her siblings who had agreed to volunteer.
Keisha from Lewisham recovered well to deliver the show’s first undisputed feelgood moment, when she performed a flawless anal examination of her grandmother.
Judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Tulisa and British Medical Association chairman Dr Mark Porter all refused to buzz, leaving the 70-year-old to face a full nine-minute probe.
Tweet
There was another ovation at the Hammersmith Apollo minutes later for milkman Glynn Harries’ flawless rendition of a double amputation below both knees, performed on a homeless person he had met just hours earlier.
“When I saw that rusty hacksaw I knew we were in for something special,” said Cowell.
However, episode one sensation Tim Hartley from Rotherham was disqualified from the contest this week after being snapped performing a vasectomy while drunk in a nightclub.
Despite claiming it was just a “recreational vasectomy”, Hartley was given his marching orders.
Also in episode one were black teen troupe Minor Procedures, who are already being tipped as finalists, thanks to their turn in which they separated Siamese twins using only urban dance.
And sister act Double Bypass (pictured) have been offered a “surgery contract” after their audition, which Cowell said “put the heart back into heart surgery”.
Cowell told The Daily News: “This show proves you don’t need expensive medical equipment to carry out surgery – all you need is a few blades, a dream and a volunteer who can’t run as fast as you.”
The winner of the show will immediately be offered a top surgical job in the NHS and will be allowed to perform an operation of their choice on a character of their choice in the next series of Downton Abbey.
The BBC is said to be developing a copycat show, in which the judges face away from the wannabe surgeons, basing their decisions only on the sounds of the operation taking place behind them.
Return from Britain's Got Surgeons to homepage
