Show Discussion: The Hit List

By | May 24, 2019
Once again JLS are on Saturday(s).

Saturday, 7:30pm,
BBC1

Save for the short revival of Mike Read’s Pop Quiz on BBC4 the other Christmas, we’re really struggling to come up the last time there was a proper music quiz on the telly. There’s Beat Shazam which has been quietly getting on with it in the US of course (which is on its third series now IIRC). They’ve certainly tried a few things in the recent past. There must have been something more recent than Name That Tune with Jools Holland, surely? Oh hang on, there was Don’t Forget the Lyrics I suppose. But then it is all just noise these days isn’t it?

Anyway here’s lovely couple Marvin and Rochelle Humes to put people’s musical knowledge to the test. We know pretty much nothing about the format other than that, and there’s £10,000 on offer each week, so we’ll look forward to watching it – we like a good music quiz, us.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

21 thoughts on “Show Discussion: The Hit List

    1. Brandon

      I’d completely forgotten this existed,as did most people.

      Reply
  1. Greg

    Watching now. It’s either trying to be modern and cool with its busy camera and weird shots or they have the apprentices in. Also I don’t want 10 minutes of chat with the contestants.

    Reply
    1. Greg

      To much filler, overexplaining and chat not enough gameplay for my liking. Nothing particularly unique or interesting just bits ripped from other shows.
      Also they need to be more consistent in if they are going to accept close answers or not. Rewind not accepted when the answer was Re-rewind but Round the World accepted when the answer was Around the World.
      I also really dislike the presenters more so Rochelle who seemed very shouty even though she was not shouting.

      I’ll not be back for this one.

      Reply
      1. Brig Bother Post author

        I was a bit worried with the bracket answer, that the final would have loads of these to trip the contestants up, but it wasn’t the case thankfully.

        Reply
        1. Greg

          I agree. If you are going for a fun modern music quiz then just give them the point if they are close enough and clearly know the song and artist.

          Reply
  2. TVs Michael Harmstone

    There’s a good show in here somewhere, but it’s an odd mishmash of ideas. 11 minutes with the contestants, then an odd round with you needing to get somewhere between 3-5 starters for ten on the buzzer correct depending on whether you get your bonus ones correct as well.

    My main issue is that it’s very stop-start – the second round has 45 seconds of chess clocks but they stop for at least 90 seconds between each correct song because of how the round goes on, and then it’s the same in the finale when you have to get ten songs before the cash counts down, but then there’s ages of time between songs to ruin the momentum.

    Rochelle & Marvin are quite good hosts though.

    Reply
    1. Greg

      That’s just it. An answer given but then we have to endure host banter before the next one in round 1.

      This could have easily been 30 minutes and much better for it

      Reply
  3. Brig Bother Post author

    The first ten minutes were whatever the opposite of a triumph is, do we really want to see 50-year-olds hi-fiving the audience? And it’s fair to say Rochelle and Marvin are very likable, but not autocue naturals.

    But once it got going I got quite into it. Decent selection of music, and the hit lists have been put together with some care – although I’ve stated my aversion to chess clock formats, I liked the way there were hints baked into the selections. R and H seemed to be enjoying themselves off leash.

    Endgame is pretty good but not quite a classic, could do with more of a static shot or a graphic of the five second arrow with the money counting down as a constant. They were a bit un/fortunate in that there wasn’t much contestant panic which I think this endgame requires a bit.

    I think it’s more of a 6:30 show, and could do with a tighter edit with ten minutes lopped off, but overall I thought it was a perfectly decent music quiz.

    Reply
  4. Chris M. Dickson

    It’s impressively rigorous, and the contestants were very good, but I’ll agree with Michael above as to just how staccato it is. I wasn’t so taken with the hosting but I’m prepared to put it down to first episode nerves. The show does have a style, even if it’s one that I don’t fall in love with. Somehow the show doesn’t allow itself time to indulge itself with singalong fun in the style of Don’t Forget The Lyrics (or, for that matter, Keynotes), which is often the most fun part of a music show.

    I watched an episode of Tenable today, as well as this, but unfortunately for both shows I’d watched an episode of 5 Minutes To A Fortune just a couple of days ago. That showed both of today’s programmes a clean pair of heels in terms of elegance as well as originality; Tenable is just the Top Ten endgame from 5 Minutes To A Fortune except for requiring (in staggeringly unlikely fashion) all ten answers with very few opportunities to miss, and the endgame to The Hit List really is just a bitty, overlong version of 5MtaF.

    Far from disastrous, but not at all inspired, or even particularly fun.

    Reply
  5. Brig Bother Post author

    It felt rather selective on how correct is correct this week, especially with FEATS and bits in brackets. I think the decisions were basically fine.

    Reply
  6. Cliff

    I was a little unsure about The Hit List on the basis of its first episode, but thoroughly enjoyed the second, which I guess means it’s a really strong format. It’ll be getting a Hall of Fame vote from me, for sure.

    My only criticism is that Rochelle could probably host it by herself; I don’t think Marvin really adds anything. Or perhaps two presenters is a good idea for the bants, but someone with more charisma than Marvin would be nice; maybe Sara Cox, Clara Amfo or Annie Mac.

    Reply
    1. Matt Clemson

      No, they must host it together, because it allows people to see that my future dream of a Rochelle + Martin revival of Friends Like These would be fantastic.

      Reply
      1. Brandon

        Would Friends Like These work nowadays? It feels like a very “of its time” thing, and anything formerly hosted by Ant and Dec will find it hard to step out of their shadow even if Ian Wright did do a good job. I don’t know if enough non-gameshow people remember it for it to work as a nostalgic revival, but the format doesn’t feel very 2019 somehow.

        Reply
    1. Brandon

      I would say Impossible and Pointless both give away more than that most days, this is ridiculous.

      Reply
  7. Brig Bother Post author

    Above three mill against a weak Alien Fun Capsule. It’s probably done enough for a second run at this point.

    Reply

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