Another brick in The Wall

By | January 29, 2019

If you hadn’t worked it out, this is for a UK adaptation of The Wall by the way.

So many unanswered questions. Can the BBC offer up the sorts of potential prizemoney to make it seem exciting? They’re not going to offer anywhere near the $12m potential of the US one. Will the public take to The Nation’s Sweetheart Danny Dyer hosting quite a complex shiny floor gameshow? He might end up being OK at it, but would he be believable?

Why hasn’t anyone pitched Dyer for Boyard Master of the Fort yet?

Sounds like a pilot is filming on the Polish set next month.

10 thoughts on “Another brick in The Wall

  1. Brandon

    I don’t really know how this would work on the BBC if it went to series. To make it so that they’re still giving away the usual BBC primetime amounts of money, the top prize would have to be higher than people would be happy with because they’ll moan that “it’s more money than the BBC should be giving away, we don’t want our licence fee spent on this”.

    Reply
    1. David Howell

      The French version gives away an average of 60k-odd with the biggest wins being around 300k, per Weaver’s data from the first few months. That version has 5k as the top amount in round 1, 50k and 150k in the two main rounds, and the contract signing value goes up by 2.5k per right answer. (US equivalent values are 25k, 250k, 1m, 10k IIRC.)

      To be fair, if the biggest incentive to keep the mega money on this format is “the contract decision is trivial otherwise,” the British contestant pool might be cautious enough that it isn’t, especially if this winds up being recorded in a major recession as is not implausible as I write. Risking £5k might actually be INCREDIBLE JEOPARDY next winter.

      Reply
      1. Brandon

        Some people think the reason a lot of risk and reward game shows don’t necessarily work in Britain is that we’re just too risk averse. This was very slightly proven wrong by the first series of the Millionaire revival where nearly every contestant gambled and as a result went away with £1000, that was possibly because they tried too hard to cast contestants that gamble after how boring the last few series were.

        A few years ago I remember reading somewhere (probably on this site or UKGameShows) that at some auditions the contestants are told they are being given the option to flip a coin, if it lands heads then they skip the second stage of the interview and if it lands tails then they must leave straight away. What they’re not told is that this option is actually completely fake, and the contestants that take that gamble have much higher chance of being cast.

        Sorry, this basically turned into a brain-dump tangent.

        Reply
      2. Weaver

        Up to the end of February 2018, TF1’s «Le Wall Face Au Mur» gave away a mean of 55 000 € per episode, a median around 24 000 €. I suggest these amounts are moved directly to sterling, halve them, and no-one with any wit will object to the prizes.

        The final choice would be a certain £9000 (ish), or a possible prize of £50,000 and more.

        Lest we forget, “Who Dares Wins” offers £100,000 per episode, and averages about £20,000 per ep.

        Reply
        1. Brandon

          I was so sure Who Dares Wins had its top prize lowered since the Lottery tie-in ended but a quick Google search suggests you’re right.

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        2. David Howell

          Roughly halving everything sounds about right.

          Like the US version, and probably most or all others, the small amounts remain the same throughout on the TF1 wall – 1/100/10/1/1/10/100/1 (with the larger amounts placed between those small ones). The larger values are 500/2k/1k/5k/1k/2k/500 in round 1, 1k/2k/5k/10k/20k/25k/50k in round 2 and 5k/10k/20k/30k/40k/50k/150k in round 3. (Note that the round 1 values are symmetrical, but rounds 2 and 3 have the big money on the right to make the slot drop position a tactical risk-management decision.)

          For roughly halving whilst having some neatness to the numbers, a possibility would be 500/1.5k/1k/2.5k/1k/1.5k/500 in round 1, 1k/2k/3k/4k/5k/10k/20k in round 2 and 2.5k/5k/10k/15k/20k/25k/50k in round 3. 1k per right answer added to the contract value.

          Worth noting that technically the TF1 prizes need halving, as they get split 50/50 with the call-and-lose winner. If memory serves, this is not the first time a TF1 show has done this, and it would not even be the first time such a show had a UK version that offered roughly one sterling for every two euro advertised on the TF1 show.

          Reply
  2. Danny Kerner

    Is it being made in-house or an external production company. If in-house the prize would have to be carefully considered however if made by an external company the prize could be quite interesting.

    Reply
    1. Whoknows

      It’s made by Endemol but whether a show’s made in house or not it’s still the BBC’s money that’s being given away as a prize so whatever the prize pot is won’t be any different.

      Reply
  3. Mart With A Y Not An I

    Well – this is most unexpected. Even though watching various TF unn editions thinking that if it came over here I always thought it looked, smelt and felt like an ITV show..
    ..and if it scrambled through the pilot unscathed and host unscathed – I might still have the same opinion.

    Having picked a random edition off ‘the tube’ earlier to watch, with one eye on the tweaks and removable items for the BBC version, it’s pretty easy to see how they could get the show down to weekly £5,000 – £20,000 prize money giveaway.

    For a start, go really low on a couple of the ‘ball drop collector values’ at the bottom of the wall in round one.
    Cash values probably 2x£1, 2x£5, 2x£10, 2x£50 1x£100, 1x£250, 1x£500 and 1x£1,000
    Only do a money double value dropzone, rather than both a double and treble dropzone amount.
    In round three – keep it to two dropped balls down the wall per question – not three.

    I take it the pilot is being filmed in Poland, as that is the only place close where a local version is currently being recorded? Wonder if it is picked up for a full series, if the UK version will ‘borrow’ the French Wall, or will Mr Gameshow prop builder extrodinare, Steve Webster be expecting a call in the spring?

    Reply

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