So ITV have cooked up a new show for us all. We’ll let them explain then…

And if that hasn’t cleared things up (let’s face it, it hasn’t), we’ll explain some more. Basically Philip Schofield hosts what he terms as a game show (though viewers were unsure where the “game” element came in, and whether it should really have been allowed to be a “show” at all).

Only there’s a twist, because the five contestants have been hypnotised beforehand. And now they have to complete basic tasks under the influence of the madcap hypnotic whims of a guy called Keith Barry.

As Big Phil put it…

Just to give you a flavour of what went down, the first task involved making things out of clay. But one contestant was hypnotised to think her clay smelt of dog poo, while another thought she was a French (yes, with the accent) sculpting perfectionist, and another thought everyone else was making outrageously rude models. Finally, one guy was hypnotically triggered by that song from the film Ghost and started re-enacting THAT clay scene with another bloke.

Not zany, wacky, or madcap enough for you? The next round was balloon-based! This time one woman was a perfectionist balloon artist, another guy thought he was naked, another that all the balloons were filled with helium, and another had a compulsion to pop everything.

Needless to say, positively unhelpful amounts of hilarity ensued.

But stop. Hypnosis? A lot of people believe in it, and it crops up in a lot of therapy and medical settings. But was THIS particular hypnosis legit? The overwhelming majority of viewers on Twitter had their doubts.

And those who weren’t entertained by the zany madcap-ness filled their time trying to catch ole P-Scho and his hired hypnotist out.

Others drew on anecdotal evidence to dispel the ruse.

Of course the hypnosis being fake wasn’t all viewers were worried about. It’s fair to say that we’ve never seen a show divide Twitter so starkly before.

Haters gonna hate – and these guys hated hard.

But some loved it so much they were even willing to buy into the “hypnosis” that was being acted out on their screens.

And the really hardcore fans (who were actually surprisingly hardcore considering they’d only been watching the show for about half an hour) were bursting at the seems with slapstick-induced merriment.

In fairness, Phil was a big reason people stayed tuned in. Honestly, that guy’s so important to ITV he’s like the channel’s Jeremy Clarkson, sans the steak-rage.

Despite being so divisive, we can see this show’s already got a core of loyal supporters after just 60 minutes.

Even if some viewers seem to just be collateral.