Show Discussion: The Fanatics

By | January 7, 2015

The-Fanatics-01-16x9-18pm, Wednesday, Sky 1

Sorry I’ve just discovered this is on tonight and I’m busy and writing this on my phone so will come back to this tomorrow, tonight a Doctor Who fan, someone who likes boxing and a London Underground enthusist take part in a quiz. Whether you need to have an interest in those things to enjoy the show remains to be seen.

If you watch, let us know what you think.

10 thoughts on “Show Discussion: The Fanatics

  1. Simon F

    Well it’s not going to set the world of quiz shows on fire but neither it is terrible. It’s OK – not a huge amount of playalong value unless you know something about one of the subjects (in my case today, I know a little about Doctor Who).

    It’s probably a 5/10 quiz. Might watch it if there was nothing else on.

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  2. David B

    I think 5/10 is rather harsh. It’s got nice production values – particularly, a nice set. Specialist subject quizzes are always tricky, but it does what it can to build in some playalong and, where it can’t, it does its best to jazz up the questions by using the different senses for each round.

    It’s very slick compared to most recent terrestrial offerings. Watching a preview via Sky+, it was a pleasant 42 minutes. I would agree it’s not Appointment To View, but very little has been in the past year.

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  3. Brig Bother Post author

    Yes, would agree with David, for a quiz you can’t really play along with they have at least picked a decently wide variety of topics and tried to pitch some questions at its more accessable end. I think they’ve got the tone of the show right – it could have been rather pisstakey, but Baz Ashmawy seems to try quite hard to look enthusiastic (although I think it fair to suggest he’s not a natural quiz show host). I quite like the set and music package (NICK FOSTER ALERT) although the graphics I’m a bit lukewarm on.

    I probably won’t be TiVoing it but I certainly thought it was pleasant enough, and certainly better than other recent Sky quizzes.

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  4. Smogo

    I caught the first half and thought that the opening round (Mash-Up) was very playalongable… until they got to the tube stations one which was way more difficult than the other two. Very unfair; we don’t have the innate ability to identify buildings like we do faces.

    Besides, the fact that I got 3 out of the 4 boxers in that round (and I have zero interest in boxing) shows that the face mash-ups were way too easy.

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  5. Brig Bother Post author

    From @overnights.tv:

    Sky1 launched new gameshow #fanatics at 8pm, but to below benchmark 0.43% Share/95.8k (Total) http://www.overnights.tv

    As suspected, quite a hard sell thematically but I accept it’s pretty good on a technical level.

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  6. Chris M. Dickson

    Bearing in mind that (a) I too watched on demand – does as little as 43 minutes really fill a Sky hour these days? – and (b) I’ve met Geoff the London Underground fanatic (name drop, clang) and consider him a good bloke, this was a pleasant surprise as far as I’m concerned. Everyone looked like they were having fun and everyone looked good for going on it. Nothing at all revolutionary, but a very solid effort. The acid test is whether it’s interesting when it’s a show on three topics, none of which are to my taste, and whether all subjects will continue to have a smattering of relatively accessible questions throughout.

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  7. Mart With A Y Not An I

    I agree with David B. 5/10 is way too low for this. More like 7ish out of 10.

    Watching on catch-up I was mildly entertained by it all. As a fully paid up member of the London Underground Railway Society, obviously I was watching to see how easy I could slip into ‘beat Geoff’ mode.

    I agree that the mash-up picture round does have an inherent flaw in that some subjects are going to be more difficult that others.
    A slightly fairer way would be to offer a choice of photo montage categories – so you would get Station exteriors or tube train carriage interiors for the underground and offer up Dr Who assistants or Dr Who monsters for Dr Who.

    Still, there was a pleasing difference in the rounds, but ever so slightly disappointed that the final round was that old faithful of 60 second rapid fire questions.

    Baz (having not seen his other ‘project’ for Sky 1) took a little bit of getting used to, but he won me over as a host, and really seemed to be impressed by the knowledge on display, rather than just acting on the instruction “go wow,Baz” off the autocue.

    By the way. Hate to ask this, but has anyone on here been tapped up to appear as a game/quiz show Fanatic?
    Because all three looked like they were asked to appear, rather than actually applying via the usual alleyways.

    On the list for the 2016 Poll already. Nice little show.

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  8. Mart With A Y Not An I

    Ahh thanks, Brig.
    Guess it was in those entries further down the page?
    I don’t normally head that far south usually, as its where the past recording entries see out their useful lives, until someone decides to have a clear out.

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  9. Jason Hill

    I was on the second episode with Roger, who I recognised from the first series of 15 to 1. (I applied through the usual channels). I had a great time on the show and realised from the offset that either Roger or Glen would win, being ‘super specialists’. I love my fishing, but I do draw the line at camping out for days on end on the river bank! The most tense section was definitely the final round. I would have added another quickfire round, myself, as a possible improvement.

    Reply

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