In 1999, Alderton was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award. Later that year, television producer Johnny Finch himself attempted to launch his own BBC TV show dedicated to video games titled "Bleeding Thumbs". The series would have run between 1999 and 2000, and had hoped to emulate the success of the 1990s Channel 4 show "GamesMaster", for which Finch was part of the production team as well as being a co-commentator. Two pilots were created hosted by Dermot O'Leary and Kate Thornton, and then Alderton accompanying Thornton; the commissioning editor decommissioned the show claiming that "People want to play games, not watch them".