Show Discussion: Celebrity Game Night

By | December 28, 2018
#hostholdingaquestioncard check, #setinapenthouse check.

Saturday, 10pm,
Channel 5

UK adaptation of US show Hollywood Game Night, presumably Borehamwood Game Night didn’t test as well.

Liza Tarbuck hosts two teams of celebrities led by Danny Baker and Susan Calman across a range of different games and quizzes. Evidently they’ve dropped the “civilians hanging out with celebs and winning money” aspect of the US original although this probably won’t matter too much. In fact from the casting this is very much giving me modern-day Win, Lose or Draw vibes which I’d suggest is very much A Good Thing. Celebs in episode one seem to include Scarlett Moffat, Greg Rutherford and Ore Oduba, which is the sort of level we’re looking at.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

17 thoughts on “Show Discussion: Celebrity Game Night

  1. Cliff

    The main thing I like about this is seeing Liza Tarbuck slot straight back into the hosting role as if Win Lose or Draw Late was only yesterday.

    Reply
    1. Chris M. Dickson

      And Danny Baker is himself a hosting alum of WLoD. Might Susan Calman be the Host of WLoD Yet To Come?

      This was all right. They had clearly spent some money on it. They got the intoxication levels of everyone involved about right, keeping people broadly from talking over each other too much. Not sure the games were recorded in the same order they were broadcast, though. The games were adequate, though one more over the course of the hour would probably have been handy. (The maths quiz at the end felt uninspired, but it worked in context.) Let’s hope for variety over the course of the series, though the popcorn quiz might well become the signature round. Would you spend twenty quid on a popcorn firer for play at home fun? Supply your own Lazy Susan beneath it for the rotation…

      Reply
  2. Brig Bother Post author

    Right, immediately is strikes me that the feel is a bit off, it’s Brits playing at being Americans, with that intro and that set, I don’t think they’ve localised enough, and this sort of thing tends to be quite difficult to come back from.

    That said, not a great deal wrong with the content (although as pointed out on Twitter, having Smash the Buzzer with two buzzers robs the energy and comedy). Was expecting Danny Baker to be a bit more exuberant, but hey-ho. The celebs probably needed to slightly more drunk, but as they were filming two a day IIRC it’s probably difficult to get right.

    I don’t think it misses having a civilian on the team, but I do think it misses having something to play for a little bit.

    Reply
    1. Chris M. Dickson

      The celebs probably needed to slightly more drunk

      Don’t agree with this, on balance, but it raises interesting thoughts. I got the impression that Lisa Tarbuck and the captains were if not actually sober then pretty close, but if they’re filming two a day (and, presumably, the other celebs only making one appearance and thus having more latitude to drink… plus the regulars will know that they’re filming several days in a row and so won’t want to set themselves up badly for future days’ filming) then that would make sense. A host needs to have control and it’s much harder to walk the fine line between things going pleasantly just out of control and things being a horrible-to-edit extroverts-talking-over-each-other mess when you’re overseeing drunk contestants.

      I do hope Danny Baker’s hat was a sartorial choice rather than there being anything awry with his noggin, and I really liked Ore Oduba singing You’re The Voice. Not the first time this year that that particular 32–year-old song had been used for game show closing credits this year, strangely enough…

      Reply
    2. JonathanEx

      I’ve not watched Game Night yet – but there was a bit of chat about it on RHLSTP this week with Amanda Abbington, as they’ve both recorded episodes. I bring this up mainly as Amanda said she got quite drunk and the bar was told not to serve her any more, so, we might get some drunker episodes to come…

      Reply
      1. Brig Bother Post author

        I wonder if it’s going to be possible to distinguish between episodes filmed early afternoon and those filmed in the evening?

        Reply
  3. Steve Williams

    This didn’t seem especially that different to I Love My Country, to be honest.

    Reply
  4. Callum J

    When are they showing the next episode? Can’t see it on their schedule.

    Reply
    1. Danny Kerner

      I think it is currently a pilot. If not then I don’t know.

      Reply
      1. Callum J

        The press release said they’d commissioned 6 x 60 minute episodes, and I believe more had definitely been recorded.

        Reply
          1. Steve Williams

            I think they just decided to fling the opening episode out this week for festive fun purposes as an ostensible Christmas special. Don’t know when the others are going out though.

  5. Paula Cairney

    Just watched the first one – loving it! Where is it filmed?

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Chris M. Dickson Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.