Nylon reaps rewards of star TV hosts

Television's latest reality show The Club has celebrated its "live" launch on ITV2, with London's Nylon bar reaping the rewards of instant celebrity status.

Thousands of people were turn-ed away from its doors as The Club went out to a networked audience estimated at around six million.

Three personalities ­ comedian Richard Blackwood, EastEnders actor Dean Gaffney and former model Samantha Fox ­ are the star turns at Nylon.

They will be filmed over the next seven weeks trying to make their individual bars the pick of the series.

The stars will be helped by barstaff chosen from the public, with one unlucky pint-puller axed from the three bars at the end of each week.

The star licensees will fight to make their own bar the most successful by adopting a number of different techniques, one of them involving invitations to their celebrity friends to become customers.

Nylon partner Gary Hibbard said the series had already caught the imagination of customers, with sell-outs expected on most nights.

"We've had a fantastic few weeks in the bar as the programme makers and film crews made their preparations.

There was a bit of disruption early on, but nobody minded and it's given trade a real boost," he said.

"There has been a fantastic response, and now the show is finally on the air, we are expecting a manic seven weeks or so," he added.

The show will go out on ITV live each night, with a weekly Omnibus edition screened at the end of the week.