A-maze-ing Grace

By | December 20, 2011

I’m not going to get the chance to watch Who’s Still Standing? until Wednesday night, although I was enjoying reading my Twitter feed last night for a running commentary. I have no doubt that moronic international TV execs will use the US one as a model, like they do for everything that is not really successful.

So let’s continue our Bother’s Bar Exit List Inspired Maze Season, here is the amazing Maze round from brill John Sachs afternoon quiz 4 Square:

Both Ian McKim’s theme and maze theme are avaliable on TV Ark.

Meanwhile thanks to Sphil for finding this, the game called The Maze from American Gladiators:

35 thoughts on “A-maze-ing Grace

  1. Brig Bother Post author

    Both A Question of Sport (Xmas Special) and Live Millionaire scored about 4.5m last night. Not bad for either, although suspect Sue Barker will be happier.

    Reply
  2. Brig Bother Post author

    Other things of note:

    I’ve been informed that Home For The Holidays managed just 0.65m last night, which is very poor. Edit: 0.72 with HD and +1. Which is still very poor.

    Also Pointless got it’s highest ever rating, 3.9m. Very impressive.

    Reply
    1. David Howell

      Is that 3.9m the highest rating for a daytime game show since early 2007 when DoND used to get that many?

      Reply
    2. Travis P

      Very impressive given it’s a nine month old BBC2 repeat.

      That said, there isn’t much competition on the other channels at 5pm. Who wants to see the poor man’s Masterchef: The Professionals?

      Reply
  3. Thomas

    I stopped watching Home for the Holidays part way through the first episode. I found the people in the house too irritating and found it all to be a bit mean spirited.

    If I want ‘mean spirited’ over Christmas I’ll stick with my own family 😉

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      I wasn’t really concentrating on the first ep.

      Second ep I enjoyed the first twenty minutes or so then got bored. Still, Peter Andre is on tonight!!!

      Reply
  4. BigBen

    Don’t suppose there’s a link going around to a video of Who’s Still Standing is there?

    Reply
  5. Weaver

    In the sidebar, Mr. Bother noted how Pointless had dropped a round to bring in more chat. Did Have I Got News for You do something similar? According to Off the Telly’s history, the early series had a props round, an archive round, a connections round, a tabloid headlines round, and a sub-heads round, as well as the games we know and love today. And all in 30 minutes!

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Yep, the first few series have got quite a different feel, although the show’s imperial era in the early 90s is basically the show we know today, albeit with four odd one outs and plus or minus a maverick round.

      Reply
    2. David B

      I think there used to be 6 or 7 rounds in the very first series. It was very speedy indeed.

      Reply
  6. Bob

    Pointless is a great gameshow and deserves its 4m. The Chase, a fellow gameshow, can only dream about getting those type of ratings.

    Reply
    1. The Banker's Nephew

      …I thought Bob was a rather thin disguise. At least, I think it is.

      Reply
      1. Des Elmes

        It’s not his real name. 😉 😉

        His real name does have three letters in it, though, with ‘O’ as the second letter… 😉 😉

        And it’s not the first time he’s made his dislike of The Chase clear. 😉 😉

        He also dislikes The Cube. 😉 😉

        Reply
        1. The Banker's Nephew

          Does he also think The Million Pound Drop is the most incredible, fantastic, amazi-wonderful thing on television?
          Cos if he does, then Pat, I’d like to solve the puzzle.

          Reply
    2. Score

      The Chase has already had 4m on numerous occasions for its celebrity specials. It’ll be interesting to see if the ratings for those have any effect on how it does back in the 5pm slot after Christmas, and whether it can overtake Pointless or not. I remember it was finally beginning to overtake Pointless in the Autumn and then the series ended, but they’ve got a longer run this time (74 episodes) so it might just manage it and sustain the lead.

      I wonder if the BBC will ever give Pointless a break or whether they’ll let it run all year round?

      Reply
      1. Brig Bother Post author

        I think the intention is to go all year round – they’re currently having a lot of success with mixing their repeats and their first-run episodes so I can’t see it changing any time soon. Also it’s very unlike the BBC to mix up their late afternoon schedules when they’ve found success with something.

        Apparently new episodes go out in the new year, and they’re recording about five months worth of new shows in January and February.

        Reply
  7. Alex

    I’ve only just noticed that when someone clears The Maze on 4 Square the timer freezes on the number of seconds passed instead of the actual rotating times. Which makes me wonder why they didn’t just display the timer as seconds.

    Reply
  8. Alex

    Incidentally you could totally revive Fort Boyard Friday for a one off with Pivot (1996), Boite a bille, Labyrinthe obscure and/or Bobine (any version but the first one in 1998).

    Reply
  9. David B

    There’s a rather good episode of Odd One Out which I haven’t seen before on your favourite cuboid-shaped download site. The first game is well played and the second game is very funny indeed. Although it’s funny what they count as ‘difficult’ on that show since there are some real gimmies that go begging.

    Also, OC fans will be ready ticking off connections we’ve used before.

    Reply
    1. David

      I got that a couple of weeks ago- it would have been hilarious if someone had actually stumbled on the right answer in that incident..

      Reply
  10. Bob

    I really enjoyed Who’s Still Standing. My one gripe was that the music wasn’t as good as it could’ve been, but the show was very good overall. Ratings also soared up 20% for the second episode following terrific word of mouth for the pilot. It is a hit.

    Reply
    1. Alex

      At what point does one episode going up 20% equal hit, Joe? It’s a bit early to stamp “HIT” all over it. Whilst it’s a good start, maintaining it’s the much bigger test.

      Reply
      1. Tom H

        Given that it’s now described as a ‘weekend’ show, looks like it has been moved from the Tuesday ITV1 graveyard.

        Reply
        1. Travis P

          If it this then it’s a massive late change. Digiguide still has it listed for 8pm on 10th and 17th January.

          Reply
        2. David Howell

          But that might be based on where it was intended to be in the first place and the blurb may not have been updated.

          So basically it could be any time on either ITV1 or ITV2, and the fact Digiguide is giving it the High Stakes slot could mean absolutely nothing. Watch this space, I would say.

          Reply
      1. Brig Bother Post author

        Yes – it’s a very good promo.

        Don’t worry, I can’t work out when a Youtube link is a link or a video when done in the comments either.

        Reply

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