Stool Pigeon – November 2019 : The Results

By | November 13, 2019

Thanks for all your submissions, I’m now going to try and make sense of them all. Hopefully an element of truth to some of them in between the gags and obvious lies, we’ll try and judge which are which but please bear in mind the only people who know the truth are the anonymous writers and the people involved. So without further ado…

  • Hearing that Rylan has signed up as the new Chaser. (Looking at his husband, don’t think Rylan’s the chaser type.)
  • Rylan has signed up to replace Richard Ayoade on Crystal Maze. (Again, so much crossed wires with Rylan news! He’s not hosting, he’s in talks to play a new character called Dadsey.)
  • I don’t have a scoop this month, just wanted to say i hope you have a great holiday, and make sure to watch EPIC GAME SHOW premiering really soon! <3 (Thanks very much. I’m not going on holiday though.)
  • I don’t have any gossip, but I like filling in boxes, and it seems more honest not to make something up. I like you, you’re all right. (Oh, you guuuys.)
  • Very Hard Questions is going to be on More4. Hosted by either Gyles Brandreth or Jon Snow, unclear at this point. (EDIT: Understand it’s going to be Jon Snow.)
  • Very Hard Questions, Channel 4. Not much to go on. (Intrigued by More 4’s content strategy if indeed that’s where this is going, this and Celebrity Countdown trying to carve a niche? Perhaps we were all wrong about IQTV after all.)
  • There was a junior version of Pointless in development. (Ageless.)
  • ITV is aiming high for the celebrities for their version of the masked singer. Potential celebrities include two members from one direction and a spice girl. (Actually mildly surprised that it was filmed two months ago and none of the names have been leaked yet.)
  • One of the new Masked singer costumes for our series in Jan is a bumble bee queen. (Bumble Bee Queen, Queen Bee… BEYONCE CONFIRMED.)
  • ITV insider here – I can confirm that we really want the taskmaster format and we have the ideal season 10 lineup all ready to commit. We did put a strong 6 figure sum up for a three-year commitment however we will only run the series once a year compared to UKTV’s current 2 a year. However, we have pitched a Christmas edition idea into the pitch to Avalon & Alex Horne. Avalon was keen however Alex did have a few concerns in how this would work. I can also confirm that we will not ditch Greg for another host if we achieve the purchase. We do not know the plans of the other parties involved but can confirm that both the BBC & Channel 4 have requested pitches. (Obviously we can’t just look at the phrase “ITV insider here” and assume they’re actually an insider, but this feels interestingly plausable. My biggest concern is that for better or worse Alex Horne is just not very ITV (he’s more Radio 4) and that is a worry, but you also can’t not do it without him (or Greg) and I can’t see a typical ITV audience taking to it. Would be very happy to be proved wrong though.)
  • Ninja Warrior’s main casting site is now accepting applications until the 31st December, so I wouldn’t write it off just yet.
  • Ninja Warrior UK will return in Winter 2020, but not on ITV…. (Hope it goes to Dave.)
  • Channel 4 have lined up the following panel for Taskmaster, assuming they win the rights race: Alex Brooker, Big Narstie, Sandi Toksvig, Steph McGovern, Harry Hill. (Brooker, Toksvig and Hill are plausable, Steph would be too busy doing her new daily show to film it, Big Narstir is probably exactly the sort of thing people are worried about. So I think this is made up.)
  • When The Wall was filming, Remarkable hadn’t planned for anyone to lose on Freefall, so when Rhys and Callum did, they didn’t have backup contestants ready that day and had to send the audience and crew home early. (I’m surprised that this would be the case, you’d have one back-up team in Poland for the duration, surely?)
  • The Wall has been recommissioned for a second series. (Not surprising. They probably ought not to stick it out on its own though.)
  • Been active talks recently about a UK adaption of the Japanese game show Documental, which would be known as Last One Laughing. (Oh now that’s really interesting, I’ve been meaning to watch the Japanese one on Netflix (or Prime, I forget which) for ages. Ten comics put up a large amount of money and enter a house, they’re eliminated if they laugh, last one left wins all the money. Some ITV2 potential I think.)
  • Seems like Family Brain Game is not coming back. (Well it’s time for the A Word In Your Ear revival we’ve been crying out for, then.)
  • Have it on good record that the new Chaser is the Telminator- though what a shitty nickname!
  • Further to the announcement of a new Chaser, Paul Sinha said that “I hope that people respect [the new Chaser’s] choice of pronoun”, indicating someone like Emma Laslett, perhaps? (I fear Paul Sinha has never used Social Media. I don’t know many people in the LGBTQuiz+ community and I don’t know many quizzers called Terence, but perhaps you do and you can work out who the new Chaser is from that if, indeed, either are true. I look forward to everyone overearnestly declaring how lovely they are.)
  • Trinity Broadcasting Network have made a pilot of What Would Jesus Do?. Apparently a Taskmaster style programme where the contestants (non-celebrities) are awarded points based on how closely their solutions to various challenges and scenarios match with what Jesus would have done in the same situation. Presented by Dan Walker and Rev. Kate Bottley. (I was totally ready to accept this as fact right up until Dan Walker.)
  • Can confirm here that Anton Du Beke will not be returning to Strictly next series, nor will Karen Hauer or Graziano Di Prima. (Strictly survived the death of Brucie, but Anton Du Beke? Crikey. Look forward to seeing how many turn up in the Jungle next year if true.)
  • Pointless will be filmed at MediaCity from next autumn. (Another show not filming in London. Shame.)
  • Rylan to front a revival of Channel 5’s Night Fever. (Of all the Rylan rumours, this one’s the most plausable.)
  • ITV are considering bringing back either Beat the Star or Gladiators for summer 2020 (Really not sure they’d have the budget to do Gladiators justice. Beat the Star would feel like a really random show to bring back.)
  • CM USA could be put on netflix next year. (Suspect Channel 4 might have something to say about that in the UK.)
  • You should post a link to that Venn diagram, that’s the best thing I’ve seen all week. (Pity about the ‘h’ in ‘wacky’ though. Do give @UndeniablyAlex a follow.)

Phew.

31 thoughts on “Stool Pigeon – November 2019 : The Results

  1. Mika

    Gladiators is something I’m kinda surprised the reboot didn’t last longer.
    Though also completely unsurprised it bombed in the States.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      As I always say, I’m quietly quite pleased that the old Glads are still well thought of and carry some celebrity currency. More so than the recent Glads seemingly.

      Reply
      1. Lee Turner

        There was a segment on Good Morning Britain a couple weeks ago where they had the gladiators on.

        Reply
  2. Chris B

    Think the C4 taskmaster lineup is certainly a joke given they all have C4 series (or will have next year when Steph moves over)

    Reply
  3. Daniel Williams

    Reading the nickelodeon press release, it seems its more their animated shows will be on netflix.

    I am with Alex for the Itv potential taskmaster,i don’t think a Christmas edition would work. Part of the joy from taskmaster is that the contestants build up banter over the series and a Christmas one off wouldn’t work.

    Perhaps the Queen bee could be referring to a queen of the jungle, can toff or vicky Pattinson sing?

    Reply
    1. Danny Kerner

      In regards to Taskmaster ITV not necessarily a one off xmas special but lets say its the series finale instead. But that would mean it would go out from late Oct for 10 weeks (if thats the amount they agree to do each year)
      As for the queen bee who says they could be a good singer, they may let a few pants through, although it wouldn’t fit the ethics of the show format.
      With my venue insider it would fit the potential delay of Ninja Warrior UK or move of Network Producer. No 6 months booking would indicate either potential plan.

      Reply
      1. Daniel Williams

        Ah, was a little confused by the wording.

        Another thought for the Queen bee, could perhaps bee Stacy Solomon?

        Reply
  4. Brekkie

    Someone clearly had the idea of Rylan hosting Night Fever after KaRYoke on Radio 2, but it would work.

    Surprised More4 haven’t actually done more intelligent quiz shows over the years. The only one I can recall is a spin off to That’ll Teach Them in it’s early days. Celeb Countdown was truly awful by all accounts though – I tuned in to be greated to a 5 minute explanation of a 20 year old numbers game so swiftly tuned out again.

    Reply
  5. Danny Kerner

    Still concerned about the phrasing on the application page of Ninja Warrior UK stating ”
    Please note that the Programme has not yet been confirmed and you are just registering your interest at this stage” The extension could be positive news however with the producers being Potato which only work with ITV it can only be delay. If not cancellation is more likely.

    Reply
  6. Danny Kerner

    if they are trying to get rylan in some kind of role in S4 of TCM that could mean they might be done with Jarhead. to be frank they have exhausted all the potential things we can do with a head in a jar. Plus it means if he is busy during March/April it could be for this.

    Reply
  7. David B

    The phoney stuff is getting a bit irritating if I’m honest, as this exercise needs a decent signal-to-noise ratio to be useful. Aaaanyway, The Telminator rings a bell with me as I think we nearly had him on Quizmaster. He was on the Chase, and can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCQbMXWr0D4 But that doesn’t match the other piece of goss, which is true. (And Paul Sinha’s Twitter account is @paulsinha, most cryptically).

    Reply
  8. John R

    It’s quite amazing really how long The Chase has been going now how they’ve had additions along the way but no leavers!

    Also I suspect Pointless with their busy recording schedule may find it quite hard to fill up an audience at MediaCity compared to Elstree

    Reply
    1. David B

      For Pointless, apart from a few ‘tops of heads’ you don’t really see the audience. So they could just use as many rows of seats as thought necessary. The audience seating is moveable anyway, IIRC.

      Reply
      1. Alex S

        I think there’s about two or three rows in front of the jib and anything else is out of vision. I used to book 2 audiences a day, three days a week in MediaCity for a daily TV show and managed just fine, so I wouldn’t have thought Pointless would have an issue.

        Reply
  9. Anon

    Paul Sinha deleted the Facebook post referenced above because most people didn’t realise it was a joke. (Have to confess, I don’t know what the joke actually was!)

    Reply
  10. Matt Clemson

    A bit sceptical about the Strictly claim; Anton is plausible, but has been plausible for a fair while now; I’m not instinctively seeing a reason for it being *this* year as opposed to any other.

    I don’t see Karen being let go unwillingly after this season – she’s been quite well-received and in a popular partnership – but I could perhaps see her deciding that she wants to move on to other things.

    Graziano seems the oddest possibility. People didn’t take to him particularly *last* year, and I would perhaps have considered it *then*, but this year he’s just been quietly doing the backup dancer role adequately… and is good friends with Johannes, who has been the breakout pro this season.

    …and no matter what, I’m used to cast changes being announced around Aprilish. While they’re going to be decided prior to that, of course, I suspect it’s not something that would be done mid-series. If nothing else, it could have a significant impact on morale!

    None of which is to say that it’s categorically *wrong*, I certainly don’t know and it’s all on the edge of plausibility – but there’s parts that don’t ring true to me.

    Reply
    1. Chris B

      Whilst I’m not a Strictly superfan who is into the politics of it all, I do enjoy it. On Anton, the show does seem to be skewing younger every year, and it’s at the point now where during some of the pro routines on a Sunday, Anton sticks out like a sore thumb. Not a reason to chuck Anton (in fact I’d argue to bring in a couple of older pros), but maybe he just wants out? I suspect he has a job for as long as he wants it at Strictly. I guess it’s nice this year he has been given a celeb who isn’t a bit of a joke for once, and I’d be thinking if he had got Anneka this year – for example – he might have been off.

      Reply
  11. Brett Linforth

    I don’t think Anton has any plans on going anywhere – not too sure about Graziano or Karen though. Going on who out of the two has been there the longest, I’d say Karen might want to move on first. I could have it totally wrong, of course – merely speculating!

    Reply
  12. Philip

    Just wanted to let Alex Macmillan and other House of Games fans that the Champion of champions weeks seem to begin during the first week in December with the week with David O’Doherty and Rick Edwards. Bad news is it includes Naga Munchetty and Scarlett Moffatt. With another Champions of Champions week featuring June Sarpong, I guess they will all happen in the middle of the series during December using people from Series 3.
    Just out of curiosity, I was just looking at the official episode guide where they post pictures of each team. For the previous week (25 November) the description of the team does not match the picture. Pardon my ignorance, but Does anyone know who is in this picture? It looks like Chizzy Akudolu, but I am not 100% . It could mean that there is a third COC week.

    Reply
      1. Philip

        I could make out Chizzy and Ellie Taylor but I was wondering who the two men were.
        It makes me wonder if it’s the Gregg Wallace week next week as per the description or the week corresponding to the picture. Whatever it looks like there are 3 weeks of COC.

        Reply
  13. Simon

    As a Northern-based quiz show fan, I’m quite happy that Pointless is moving from London to Manchester.

    Reply
    1. Des Elmes

      I’m very slightly surprised that, up to now, no-one has mentioned Going for Gold making almost the exact same journey in the early ’90s (in its case, from the Beeb’s own Elstree complex to the now-demolished Oxford Road studios).

      Unless I’m very much mistaken (copyright Murray Walker), this move came about when TOTP moved to Elstree and John Birt decided that Manchester would be the home of most of the Beeb’s game shows.

      It’s probably harsh, but probably fair, to say that Pointless is now television wallpaper (and it’ll be interesting to see whether or not it gets back in the Golden Five). But assuming that it is indeed moving north, what could the reasons be? Of course, the Beeb moved a lot of stuff out of the London area in the late noughties and early tens – but they haven’t been doing it *quite* so much since they vacated Television Centre in 2013.

      Reply

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