Stool Pigeon RESULTS: March 2019

By | March 27, 2019

Well this is a bumper lot of stuff. As ever, I can’t vouch for the veracity of any of the claims, only the writer and people involved with the things know the truth, but there’s usually grains of truth somewhere. Let’s open the box and dive in…

  • Ninja Warrior UK will begin its new tournament on 13th April at 6 PM. (Well, it is news to me I suppose.)
  • The upcoming season of The Crystal Maze will be containing a Xmas special which will be recorded on 12th Apr. This upcoming season will apparently be its last but will be spread out throughout 2019 & first half of 2020. Still no news when Season 1 final 3 eps will get its UK premier. (In many ways this represents the exciting dynamic daring Channel 4 of the 1980s where ratings and viewer enjoyment be damned, we’re just going to do it anyway and in some ways it’s to be applauded.)
  • Don’t know if it’s common knowledge yet, but have it on good authority that Eggheads won’t be recommissioned after the current run. (Ooooh.)
  • There are behind the scenes discussions occurring currently with Sony Pictures Television & ITV to try to bring Wheel Of Fortunes back to the UK. As it is in the early stages the facts are limited but will be done inhouse and not by a third party company.
  • Greg Davies was attached for an ITV version of Ellen’s Game of Games. (Right channel if true, wrong host.)
  • We Need Answers revival. I’m making this up but I really want it to be true. (Thanks for your contribution. Sarcasm aside, there was suggestion this might be happening a little while ago although not much seems to have come of it.)
  • Channel 4 are rather keen on picking up the rights to Mental Samurai for an evening slot. (Now this is something I could get behind, mainly because I want a go in the whizzy chair. I hope they’d have the budget to do it justice, otherwise it’s basically just Child Genius isn’t it?)
  • The wrong money tree font in Jeremy’s first series of Millionaire was caused by a simple ‘font not installed on correct machine’ issue that – somehow – no-one spotted. (Mwa-ha-ha!)
  • Keith Lemon is being pitched to do a bowling show. (If I don’t see you through the week I’ll see you through the pin fall?)
  • Apparently the ubiquity of Paddy McGuinness of late is some sort of attempt by his agency to play the BBC and ITV off one another to get some sort of Golden Handcuffs deal. Already known as ‘TLC’ due to the belief he’s The Luckiest C*** in the industry, there is a suggestion that he’s being positioned to take the Ant and Dec position within the ITV Saturday night framework. The thought goes, however, that if he’d been that essential to their plans, he would have been locked in some time earlier. (Paddy McGuinness is I’m fairly sure a lovely guy but the idea he’s some sort of shiny floor titan is hilarious.)
  • What’s the origin of the name stool pigeon anyway? (Slang for police informer, innit?)

43 thoughts on “Stool Pigeon RESULTS: March 2019

  1. TheLupineOne

    In the words of the Chuckle Brothers, “let’s count The Coconuts!”

    Reply
  2. David B

    Lots of interesting stuff. In the last UKGS Viewers Poll, in the “Which show would you like the cancel if you were a commissioner?” question, Eggheads came joint first.

    I’m not claiming credit for that, but basically I am.

    Reply
  3. Chris B

    Wonder if – in part – the Eggheads thing may be to do with Jeremy Vine spreading himself too thinly these days? That and the fact that The Chase has been doing the “beat the quizzer” thing better than it for some time now.

    Not Pigeon worthy but C5 are doing a “Britain’s Best Gameshow” thing on Sunday. Trying to upstage Ben Justice’s efforts on here no doubt. Going by their Best Crisp programme last week (Yes, really!) better best avoided.

    Reply
    1. David B

      >”better best avoided”

      Personally, I think it’ll be a high-quality production with some world-expert commentators.

      Reply
      1. Chris B

        Ha, sorry David. In my defense, they didn’t bother with any world expert commentators last week (apart from Hacker the Dog)

        Reply
      2. Chris M. Dickson

        For those of you me who forgot this was on, and who are mildly irked that it isn’t available on My 5, it’ll be repeated at 11:05pm on Friday.

        For those of you who didn’t forget this was on, were there any bits other than (presumably) David’s that were worth not fast forwarding through?

        Reply
        1. Daniel H

          Went over quite a lot of well-trodden material but there were a few rarer/more interesting segments towards the end of the two hours including: A short clip of Anne Hegerty on Mastermind, an interview with a couple who got together whilst on DoND, a bit of Crackerjack, Cheggers Plays Pop and a piece on the Get Your Own Back furnace controversy.

          Strangely, despite being billed as (and using a title card of) Britain’s Favourite Game Shows, Fern Britton’s voiceover seemed to refer to it as We Love Game Shows. As such, a quick search on My 5 for that title, instead, brings up…

          https://www.my5.tv/we-love-gameshows/season-1/we-love-gameshows

          Reply
          1. Chris M. Dickson

            Good point, well made. Many thanks!

          2. Brandon

            I think it’s good that they didn’t go for just the usual selection of clips but thought outside the box a little. I was wondering where they had got the behind the scenes Weakest Link stuff from, i eventually remembered i recognise it from here https://youtu.be/y-mLXLJaWoE

  4. Brig Bother Post author

    Really interesting observation from Ginger_James on Twitter:

    “RE: Mental Samurai. There’s an interview with Rob Lowe on Marc Maron’s WTF this week where he reveals it cost $4.5m to build the chair.”

    That’s one way to kill international sales, I expect.

    Reply
    1. David B

      That’s exactly the thing. There’s a lot of interesting little shows that don’t cost much to make, and there’s some real money being spent on statement sets. However, few of these are really making an impact. What’s the last new format that’s had a *really big* impact around the world?

      What we need is something like a new Weakest Link – a medium-scale show that can be scaled up or down, and adapted for local tastes. One issue I have with UK telly at the moment is that there aren’t any slots for ‘medium’ show (a la Krypton Factor, say). It’s either got to be the new X Factor or something cheap and cheerful like The Time It Takes.

      Reply
  5. Danny Kerner

    Well if the Crystal Maze statement is true it’s kinda like the end of DoND. where they spread the run to make it last longer. Plus the sign of a celeb only run kinda signals the end of the road. However if done right it could be treated like the UK Fort Boyard (which ironically it is). 5-10 Eps a year.

    Reply
  6. Brandon

    Eggheads should have cancelled many years ago.Not because it’s particularly bad or anything,it just feels so behind the times. I was surprised a few months ago when I saw a new episode, I assumed it has been cancelled a long time ago and that no-one had bothered update the Wikipedia page or something like that.

    That thing about the Millionaire money tree would be hilarious if true. I think i remember the video of a Sun journalist playing the game had the right font though,so if it’s true they must have used a different machine.

    Reply
  7. Will Stephen

    I want dibs on all the Red Crystals Please when the show inevitably disappears. I also failed to steal any tokens when I was in the dome, so any of those be great too! :-p

    I do hope the set does get put in storage and not destroyed and they try again some day. Was still awesome to be on the show. Shame they’ve also done it a bit hush hush as they probably figured there will be backlash of doing only celebs to finish off.

    Reply
    1. RoarJustice

      Red Crystals? Whassat?

      I was going to mention something along these lines in my next video…

      Reply
  8. Danny Kerner

    Well, whoever wrote the Statement regarding Wheel of Fortune couldn’t spell it correctly. It would be nice if they could try to get it back after the success of WWTBAM. However, that wasn’t inhouse produced. The question is who could they get to host (Apart from the big three Schofield, Walsh & Mulhern)

    Reply
    1. David B

      Also on that article, I don’t get his intro of “The only person missing was Prince Edward”. Is he mixing it up with It’s a Royal Knockout?

      Reply
      1. Crimsonshade

        Or possibly confusing Edward Tudor-Pole with said Prince…

        Reply
    2. Chris M. Dickson

      An excellent line, but one previously used by – at least – the self-description of the Handmade Mysteries’ Lady Chastity’s Reserve escape game.

      Reply
  9. Mr Babbage

    The WWTBAM thing about not having the font installed? Incredibly likely – many moons ago I was responsible for tech oping a classroom ‘Millionaire’ thing which was blighted the exact same way because of a lack of the correct font, so it glitched horribly. However, I was detail focused enough to spot it and get the appropriate thing loaded. I wish I’d kept a lot of that stuff (although strictly speaking it wasn’t mine to retain copies of) for the site, but you don’t think about these things.

    Reply
    1. David B

      I’ve never had such a blatant font issue, but I have had things like computers going abroad to film another show. When they return, they’re often set to the wrong code page so things like ‘i with acute accent’ don’t display properly. I’ve learnt that the only way to check these things is to go through every question on-screen as the contestants see them.

      I think there was an issue with one of the Millionaires abroad where they wired the contestant terminal to the same one as the host (quite possible if they’ve laid a spare wire under the set) and it wasn’t until the middle of the game that they noticed.

      Reply
      1. Brandon

        It was the Thai version I think or another one from that general part of the world. The contestant won the top prize but never actually got the money because she admitted what was going on to a producer IIRC.

        Reply
  10. Brig Bother Post author

    Just saw mention of a show called Documental on Amazon Prime, it sounds hilarious, has anyone seen it? Ten comics locked in a room, kicked out if they laugh, last one standing wins a massive cash prize.

    Reply
    1. David B

      Isn’t there a Japanese or Korean show that’s a bit like that?

      Reply
    2. Matt Clemson

      I *think* I posted or tweeted or something about it when it first appeared, and then promptly forgot to watch it.

      Reply
    3. Brandon

      Documental is Spanish for documentary,so i wonder what they’ve called the Mexican version

      Reply
    1. Chris M. Dickson

      Unlike last year, I believe there won’t be live coverage; the finals are set to take place at very much sub-prime time.

      I’ve met three of the four UK team members and consider them thoroughly lovely, so wouldn’t be at all surprised if the fourth one was as well. Two of the four have played over 1,100 escape games, more than anyone else in the known Western world – though I wouldn’t bet against there being someone in Russia or China who has played more. If they make it through the semi-final sprints then their experience should hold them in good stead, but nobody knows much at all about the semis so anything is possible. Colour vision was a weakness last year but hopefully a change in team personnel will have resolved that.

      Reply
  11. David B

    OK, so just watched Million Dollar Mile and Mental Samurai. Both very visually impressive. Both have lovely production values. But neither can hold a candle to the excitement of the Governess winning a £12,000 chase by one second. Why do so many US shows fail to extract the maximum amount of agony out of the situation for all the money they’re spending and giving away? Is it somehow un-American to make viewers sweat over the result of something?

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Mmm, MDM manages to be spectacularly unexciting even if in theory there’s a good gamey idea behind it.

      Reply
      1. Chris M. Dickson

        So what would be the quick wins to make this better? Bear in mind I’ve only seen one run so far, but am not sure how much variety there could be.

        1) This might sound daft, but some epic excitement music might help, especially for the tense bits.
        2) The commentators are a bit earnest.
        3) Hard to get an emotional attachment to the Defenders either way, so far.
        4) Tim Tebow is too wholesome and didn’t fit. If you want a big fit stud worth an eye for drama, Chris Jericho was good on Downfall.

        And even then, if I were in the mood for some amazingly athletic TV obstacle racing, I’m not sure why I wouldn’t watch Ninja Warrior instead.

        Reply
        1. David B

          Generally, I think the concept of a ‘mile’ is an error because everything’s too stretched out from each other, and it’s hard to see what the gap is because everything seems to be ‘around the corner’ from something else. I thought this was going to be a straight mile of desert road somewhere, which could’ve worked because you can play around a bit with the way cameras foreshorten stuff.

          The other trick they’re missing is to design more ‘points of failure’ into the games. If the Defenders are too good at the obstacles, and they are 20% faster than the contestants, their time/distance graph is GENERALLY going to be 20% steeper. You can almost extrapolate the graph to predict the point at which they’re going to be caught. The thing that makes the Chase work is that the final’s questions are deliberately ‘lumpy’ between very easy and very hard, so that progress for either team is uneven, and also the Chaser will usually fail at some point.

          Reply
  12. Des Elmes

    Eggheads’ joint-20th-place finish in the most recent Golden Five suggested to me that there was still *some* interest, and hence *some* life, in it.

    And indeed, just last week, the Telegraph reported on a team from Suffolk doing very, *very* well indeed:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/20/eggheads-pub-quiz-team-becomes-first-ever-get-questions-correct/

    If the current run is indeed to be the last, then I guess we’ll never see Jeremy – and Dermot – taking on the Eggs themselves. When I was really big into the show, I often imagined them having Nicky Campbell, Paddy O’Connell, Simon Mayo and Bill Turnbull as their team-mates, and the six of them taking on Judith, Kevin, Chris, Daphne, Barry and Pat (no CJ because he’s always been that bit *too* divisive). Claudia Winkleman would helm proceedings in her usual manner, including putting her own spin on “You’re playing for something money can’t buy – the Eggheads’ reputation” and the show’s other catchphrases. And, of course, the whole thing would be for charity.

    Yes, I *did* have *that* kind of imagination – and still do. 😉

    Reply
    1. Brekkie

      So glad Eggheads is finally getting axed. One of the most miserable quiz shows in TV history.

      Reply
  13. Danny Kerner

    The insider has got it right again. Ninja Warrior UK will be back next Sat 13th at 6:30 pm & not 6 pm like they quoted. Probably a pencil time which explains why ITV didn’t confirm.

    Reply

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