A Question of Genius is on today

By | May 10, 2010

On BBC 2 at 4:30pm. I can’t say the first series did very much for me, but there you go.

15 thoughts on “A Question of Genius is on today

  1. Des Elmes

    Didn’t watch it today due to other commitments, but a glance at the usually very reliable Life After Mastermind shows that there have been changes.

    – There are still four rounds to determine the daily winner, but there are now only six contestants at the start of the show as opposed to eight in the first series, with one eliminated in each of the first three rounds and two in the fourth.

    – The first two rounds are largely the same as before, but there’s a new third round, while the old third round is now the fourth, and in it contestants have 90 seconds each as opposed to 60 in the first series.

    – But the biggest change is that there’s no accumulator round for determining how much money the daily winner’s Question of Genius is worth – it’s now straight on to the QoG for the rather tiny sum of £1,000. However, the multiple choice option for half the cash is still there.

    These do appear to be changes for the better – but, as I said before, many viewers won’t be terribly happy about one thing that hasn’t changed: the host.

    Former Grand Slammer Melanie Beaumont was the winner of today’s first show, answering her QoG correctly without needing the choices.

    Reply
    1. Jennifer Turner

      Melanie Beaumont was also on the first episode of the new look Postcode Challenge. A ringer ne’er so obvious… be.

      LINK! LINK! LINK!

      Reply
  2. David B

    The thing that really bothers me about this show is that there’s apparently no penalty for speculative buzzing, so if you don’t know an answer just buzz in and say “Cabbage!” and stop your opponent from answering.

    At the very least, you should be walled for one question per point value.

    Reply
      1. Chris M. Dickson

        I dunno, it reminded me a lot of that from ITV’s Mike Mansfield’s Dickie Davies’s chicken-in-a-basket version of A Question of Sport, Sportsmasters. Which – and do correct me when I’m wrong – is Jean-Michelle Jarre’s Calypso.

        Hello! My wife and I had a lovely holiday, thank you.

        Reply
  3. MarkD

    [quote]The thing that really bothers me about this show is that there’s apparently no penalty for speculative buzzing, so if you don’t know an answer just buzz in and say “Cabbage!” and stop your opponent from answering.[/quote]
    There was a penalty – I’m assuming it wasn’t explained on the show because they have to cut out a few of the random buzzes.

    Reply
  4. Tom H

    Just the kind of trailer we hate here – where there’s no studio footage:

    Reply
    1. Mart with a Y not an I

      It also makes it more darker, and menacing than it actually will be – particularly as Shouty McCall will be hosting.

      Reply
  5. JC

    There were some odd things going on with the buzzing in on QoG. It looked like sometimes the question could be buzzed for twice, and other times just one shot. I was surprised not to see more Cabbaging going on – editing the failed buzzing out, if that’s indeed what they’re doing, does make this a bit confusing.

    The change I liked the least was the new round 3, “A Question of Accumulate”, err, I mean “Knowledge”, where after getting a starter right, the contestant gets a free run at a 1, 2 and 3 point question, which is enough to win the round immediately. The first contestant to get a starter right got some ridiculously easy Politics questions and went straight through. It felt a bit too random.

    Also a bit disappointing that there is no longer any fanfare to announce the Question of Genius itself. But pleasing that they kept the Pressure round.

    Reply
  6. Des Elmes

    BTW, Kirsty Wark’s more prolific Newsnight colleague turned 60 today.

    And you’d think this is a birthday he’ll never forget, what with the changes at 10 Downing Street…

    Reply
  7. Alex

    Ah, so it appears now that the champion continues the next day, and the amount of cash is determined on their Pressure score (£100 per point).

    Reply

Leave a 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.