Gameshow Marathon 8

By | June 6, 2019

Thrills! Spills! Crossbows at 5am! Inevitably disappointing Deal or No Deal finale!

This has rather crept up on us somewhat, but 24 Hr Gameshow Marathon 8 is *this* Saturday and Sunday from 5pm UK time raising money for Child’s Play.

All the details, and a link to the live Twitch stream, can be found on the official site.

33 thoughts on “Gameshow Marathon 8

  1. David B

    Remember to add 5 hours to the timings for BST time.

    I’ve done the questions for Win Dave Mattingly’s Money at 1am UK time, which should be a lot of fun

    Reply
    1. Dan

      Watched it,
      Theyve made the theme song into a more modern pop music, probaly to appeal to the kids.
      There are these weird close up camera shots of the 5th graders when they are sitting at the desks, not sure what purpose they serve.
      Biggest change to the format is now the contesant doesnt choose what subject they want, instead they answer the questions in order from grade level so it goes 1st grade 2nd grade and so on.
      When they get to the 5th grade, they have 5 questions and 60 seconds to answer them all with a new lifeline of discussing an question to the 5th grader after the time is over so basically an alter answer option.

      John Cena is actually a good host, he is very joking when the contestant is doing something that deserves to be joked about, however he is also quite comforting to the contestant when is needed and is good with the kids.

      A good reboot of this show, i think with only a few minor nitpicks which could easily be fixed if this show gets a second season. If this is what the future slate of nick gameshows looks like then nickeloden might be redeeming itsetlf with focusing on gameshows, thats what put them on the map with things like double dare. Half expecting a slime zone to appear in the crystal maze now. I read a thread on another popular website where a commenter said that it seems nickelodeon is focusing on gameshows now since its easier to produce and cheaper. If that’s their business model now, then should have a good future of nick gameshows.

      (also, if anyone from nickelodeon is reading this, why put that big ident saying when the show is airing on throughout the whole ep, surely easier to just put a promo saying that at the end of the ep)

      Reply
      1. Brig Bother Post author

        Keep It Spotless, 5th Grader… John Cena for The Crystal Maze?

        I don’t know if he’d be good, but I’d certainly watch.

        Reply
        1. Alex McMillan

          Can’t hear him saying “Will you start the fans please?!”

          My new (worrying) gut feeling is they will give it to someone like Jeff Sutphen.

          Reply
        2. Chris M. Dickson

          I can think of only one wrestler with the right blend of competence and weirdness to host The Crystal Maze, and I may be showing my age (as well as the extent to which I am out of touch) here: Mick Foley. He hosted a series of US Robot Wars years and years ago so he might be up for the gig.

          Reply
          1. Brig Bother Post author

            I reckon they’ll go for larger-than-life as opposed to competent or weird (particularly), as I think that’s what the US audience will probably require. I could well imagine a role-modelly wrestler of some description getting it. And actually I think I would be alright with that, in a way that if the UK one had someone similar I don’t think I would be.

            I suspect the overarching opinion when the name is finally is released will be “who?”

          2. dan

            Bit of a out of left field pick but could see Frankie Grande doing it (Ariana Grandes brother) He is quirky, been on nick shows before as an over the top character which is probably the route they would end up doing.

            Or perhaps they might go the unknown route and get someone that haven’t had their big break yet, after all it is a big spectacle show so perhaps nick will rely more on the whole zones than getting a big name host.

          3. Tom Lancaster

            I just can’t see Mick Foley running around the maze nowadays! Personality wise, yes, but I think Nickelodeon will go for someone a lot younger.

        3. Chris M. Dickson

          And while we’re talking about The Crystal Maze, it’s the theme for this month’s Puzzled Pint, and who knows how well or otherwise the theme will play out for solvers outside the UK. If you’re near London, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Norwich or dozens of other cities around the world, or even if you’re not, take a look at the location puzzle.

          Reply
      2. Mark A

        I like gameshows where getting a question wrong does not end your game, but rather makes the top prize unachievable. It means no matter how badly the contestant is doing, there is always something to play for.

        BTW its not just nickelodeon that’s focusing on game shows. A lot of US kids network TV seems to be skewing towards game shows these days, Such as ANW Junior on Universal Kids and there are plenty of game show offerings for kids on Netflix.

        Reply
    2. David B

      I love the wrap-around LED strip on the contestant’s podium. That’s very cool.

      Reply
    3. Chris M. Dickson

      I enjoyed this more than I was expecting; it’s a change (and one I find pleasant) to have a show where the contestant is practically guaranteed to win some money, previous winnings are never at risk and wrong answers don’t end the game. This gives a much gentler atmosphere than the original version, which is to my taste. The host was pretty good, too. I don’t love the show, but it’s a welcome change of pace.

      This reminds me of a question I had the other day, to which again I don’t know the answer: which current UK game show is the most generous to the average contestant? I’m not talking about what the most that can be won is, or what the most that is won in practice; I’m talking about the most that can be expected to be won if you don’t know whether you’re going to win the game or not, so the show that’s the most generous to its losing contestants as well as its winning ones. (So WWTBAM? has a huge potential prize, but usually four or five of the six people starting Fastest Finger First in a show will go home with nothing.)

      Reply
      1. Matt Clemson

        It’s no longer running (although it is recent!) – I’d have to assume Secret Fortune has to be one of the highest ones ever in that regard?

        Reply
        1. Brandon

          You could get a couple of questions wrong in Secret Fortune and still go away with big money, and you would have to screw up ridiculously badly to go away with the lowest prize of £100

          Reply
          1. Matt Clemson

            Yeah, that’s the thing; with things being ordering-based, it might be tough to get the top amount, but it’s also very hard to get the bottom; it’s inherently going to trend towards the middle of the money breakdown

            Is there anything that actually recorded how much they gave away each episode? It wouldn’t surprise me hugely if we’re looking at a mean in the five figures.

  2. Danny Kerner

    Well with the regards to US crystal maze i do think a wrestler will get the gig as they have perfected their wittyness during promos plus the improvisation is there. John Cena is the strongest contender followed by Dwayne Johnson. David Tennant would help sell the international broadcast deal and the weakest link to the UK is Jimmy Carr. But would he work with the Nick ethics.

    Reply
    1. Alex

      Quite often a wrestler’s promos have been heavily scripted to within an inch of their life, so they don’t naturally have that wit. The ones like Cena, The Rock and The New Day that have their own charisma typically get it from another source. Xavier Woods from THD has his YouTube channel, John Cena was a battle rapper before he got the wrestling gig, etc.

      Reply
      1. Alex

        Xavier Woods would be in for a great shout. He’s got clout with Nick, appearing on Double Dare a couple times, he has the stage presence to carry it off, and he’s not really in any major storylines right now in WWE (he’s comic foil to the WWE Champion, but they’re part of a threesome) so they can get away with him going away for two weeks or whatever.

        Reply
    2. David

      I thought The Miz would be a good host if they went the wrestler route- he’s worked with the production company doing the show for over a decade in various shows, has the personality, and also can get away for a few weeks since he’s not in a top storyline right now,,,

      Reply
  3. Chris M. Dickson

    Thomas, I gratefully defer to your much more recent data on the matter than mine. 🙂

    Reply
  4. David B

    Great Game Show Marathon this year, especially the amount of money raised – and lovely that it was so easy to follow the action to boot.

    I was happy to help in a small way by writing the questions for “Win Dave Mattingly’s Money”. I would’ve loved to have written for the Beadle version had it come back for series 2, so it was nice to be able to scratch this itch. Quite tricky to get a good pun AND a good quiz question, it turns out. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out, given that I was writing for a foreign audience. Anyway, if you want to see it for yourself, the video link is https://www.twitch.tv/videos/436219455 and the timestamps are: Start @ 07:58.50, Round 2 @ 08:24.40 and the Head to Head @ 08:32.30.

    Reply
        1. Brig Bother Post author

          I ended up watching about eight or nine hours of it live, I thought the set was smart, the mics are better but still room for improvement. I thought The Golden Shot was brave.

          Reply
  5. Brandon

    In response to that question the other day about the most generous show per average contestant, if I’ve understood the question correctly, the answer is still Millionaire. There have been 18 episodes hosted by Jeremy, that makes a total of 108 contestants. A total of £1895000 has been won, giving an average of £17546 per contestant. I’ll be very surprised if anything beats that.

    Reply
    1. Chris B

      I think the original point is what show is the most generous to the losing contestants. So the average per contestant looks good on Milionaire, but the fact is the vast majority of people in FFF go away with £0

      Reply

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