Weekdays, 6:30pm,
BBC2
Broadcasting LEGEND John Craven invites teams of four to take on the eponymous Brain to win a cash prize. Questions are of the brainteaser, logic, visual variety rather than general knowledge. Let’s see if it fares better than Brainbox Challenge with Clive Anderson back in 2008 which is probably the most recent show based around this sort of thing.
Of interest: The Brain is voiced by popular Whose Line Is It Anyway player Josie Lawrence, and most of the questions have been set by our very own Dan Peake! So if the show’s very good blame Objective, if it’s rubbish blame Dan.
Interesting that they’re happy to shift Eggheads half an hour for Two Tribes but play this out at half six.
Well they put Best Time Ever (US Takeaway) on the fall schedule-live Tuesday nights at 10pm Eastern (which to me is just a very weird place to put it)…
Yes that feels rather late, although it was obviously never going out on a Saturday.
I’ve christened it Worst Title Ever With Neil Patrick Harris, do join in.
I’m poised and ready to be hit with your blame guns! Hit me with your best shot!
*runs about wildly, flailing arms*
Showing my age here: that logo reminds me of the John Craven’s Newsround logo.
Er, I have nothing to say on the quiz yet, as it’s not aired.
It’s the end of a reality era- they’ve announced that American Idol will end after next season (it’s 15th). I guess they wanted to give it the victory lap.
I am intrigued…when I filmed this, John was sat behind a table and us contestants were on a sofa with no desk in front of us….I’m guessing we won’t be shown now and they decided to redesign the set after we filmed!!!
Sounds like you were on a non-broadcast pilot that was never meant to be aired.
Just found out that they are showing them in a completely random order, as is normal…but the “rubbish set” episodes will just slot in somewhere…so they will look a little odd when they are shown…but it will still be shown.
Seems they started showing the sofa episodes today
I enjoyed that, the selection of games were interesting and did catch me out a few times, especially those noughts-and-crosses puzzles! I also like how the show is more generous with its prize money than most shows, seeing as they give 2 extra minutes on the accumulated time so it’s not a case of ‘Oh dear, you didn’t beat The Brian in 57 seconds, so you leave with nothing’, and just over £2400 is still a decent sum to go away with.
I like it and will watch it each evening.
It is a nice endgame mechanic. When it was announced I didn’t really like it, but as soon as it played out I changed my mind straight away. It’s like a dialled back AuA mechanism.
Funny, I immediately drew a parallel with AuA too the moment they revealed the mechanic…
Ad I just noticed a GLARING typo, I put The Brian instead of The Brain, so all I can think of now is the team going up against the Confused.com robot… 😀
I don’t quite understand the time mechanic of the end game. The last 15 seconds will be a slow death to win a pitiful sum or zero, rather than the thrilling climax to the show.
Other than that, there was a lot to like even if the basic premise (areas of the brain) is a bit old hat.
I enjoyed it too. Perfect example of how a show can fit perfectly into a 30 minute slot. No messing about with answer reveals. Great playalongability too.
First off, I’ll say that I’m a smidge biased as I worked on the show, but I hadn’t seen it before tonight, and I’m very pleased with how it came across.
I was concerned it might feel like 1000 Heartbeats, but I feel we avoided that entirely. It’s got a good pace to it, John Craven is a good host and the sassy Brain works well.
Not completely perfect – THERE WAS NO POUND SIGN IN THE EUROSTILE EXTENDED FONT THEY USED (font nerds, unite!), and some of the right/wrong cues could have been clearer (particularly in the memory round with the colours), but overall a very promising start I feel.
Each of the six zones of the brain has more than two games, so whilst you’ve seen eight games so far there are plenty more for you to discover as the series goes on.
Yeah, that’s a given, I feel. I was comfortably sure there’d be more than just 2 games to each of the 6 zones. I agree on the distinction between correct and incorrect answers being unclear, it would probably have been better to have the video wall put a tick or a cross on-screen, which would help greatly. I WAS going to say to flash red or green, but that wouldn’t help red-green colour-blind people…
I did actually notice the Eurostile, very good game show font I feel (That and for use on Red Dwarf props)
John Craven is a surprisingly good fit, I smiled every-time he said “How many on the bus?”.
“Each of the six zones of the brain has more than two games, so whilst you’ve seen eight games so far there are plenty more for you to discover as the series goes on.”
I think this is a bit of a clever way to delay the dreaded Minigame Fatigue actually. If every zone was played every day then you’d see all the games pretty quickly (I’m guessing based on early repeats of games that there’s something like 5-6 games in each zone) but because you’re getting variance in categories it draws out seeing them all.
While I like the final as a format, I do find it odd that normally you get 45 seconds to answer 3 questions, but for the 8-question final you get a maximum of 72 seconds before you start losing money. A bit tight, even if the games do run a little quicker. 60% of the normal time per question seems a little tight to me, but hey I’m not in charge of the prize budget.
(though the darts one is killer in the final, takes forever for them to hit the board and mental arithmetic naturally takes much longer than say putting 3 clippings together to make a word)
Now since the show has officially aired its first episode, can someone please give me a complete rundown of the format?
A team of 4 goes up against The Brain, which is split up into 6 zones: Logic, Memory, Observation, Orientation, Multi-Tasking and Language. Each zone has 2 games, and each correct answer over the course of the show adds 3 seconds to the team’s Brain Bank, which will come into play in the final round.
The Brain picks a zone randomly and the captain picks which member of the team will take it on. Each game has a trial run to get used to the game, and then there’s 3 further questions, so you can potentially earn 18 seconds per round. In the first episode we had:
In the Observation zone, the games were Catch Me If You Can (identify which of 6 licence plates was the one you saw as the car either comes towards you or goes away from you) and Wrecking Ball (Count how many bricks are missing from the wall)
In the Memory Zone, the games were Follow The Leader (memorise a sequence of coloured lights, Simon-style) and Winning Line (watch the game of noughts and crosses and determine which was the winning line out of 4)
In the Multi-Tasking zone, the games were Seeing Double (count the number of items in the left panel while adding up the numbers in the right panel) and All Aboard (count the people left on the bus after people get on and off it)
And in the Language section, the games were Out Of This Word (identify the 3-letter word that fits into all 3 gaps to form 3 new words, for example COM—DER, DOR—T and RO—TIC, the word would be MAN (Commander, Dormant and Romantic)) and Breaking News (arrange the 3 newspaper clippings into a word, for example GO DI IN would be INDIGO)
For the final round, the team must attempt to beat The Brain by answering 8 questions (2 each) in the time they earned in their Brain Bank. The questions they see are taken from the games that have been played over the course of the show. If they manage it, they win £3,000 between them. The team is also given 2 extra minutes and for each second they use past what they earned in their Brain Bank, they lose £25 a second.
I thought it was very slow to get going (I understand going for one game example pre-titles, two is a bit unecessary, and waiting until the end of the show to see if you’re right or not, having gone through half an hour of other stuff, rankles) and quite a lot of the graphics irritated to the point where it was sometimes detrimental to the games – I thought the bus task was made extremely difficult because of the framing, traditionally with that sort of puzzle you’d be able to see the people walk on or off with more distance. The wrecking ball game shouldn’t take 3-4 seconds to resolve each time on quite a tight limit.
I thought the noughts and crosses game was highly original, and the number plate game, the rest felt like pretty standard Dr Kawashima stuff.
I did quite enjoy the final, throwing all the puzzles together quickly, a bit like Wario Ware. Intrigued to see what the average sort of prize is. It feels like the show as a whole could do with a little bit more energy, Josie Lawrence’s Brain could do with being a bit less breathy and a bit more mischevious I reckon, to contrast with avuncular Craven’s niceness.
I don’t know, I want to like it and it certainly has merit, and maybe it’s just having done a 13-hour day, but I did find it a bit irritating.
I do approve of Hosts Holding A Clipboard, like it’s Italian television.
Decimate 808,000 (12.4%)
Pointless 3,251,000 (28.6%)
Eggheads 932,000 (6.5%)
Beat the Brain 932,000 (5.8%)
The Great Chelsea Garden Challenge 1,911,000 (9.0%)
Judge Rinder 717,000 (13.7%)
DIckinson’s Real Deal 822,000 (15.2%)
Tipping Point 1,440,000 (19.4%)
The Paul O’Grady Show 1,383,000 (12.7%)
Countdown 345,000 (6.8%)
Deal or No Deal 344,000 (6.3%)
Couples Come Dine With Me 802,000 (7.3%)
Thanks Paul!
I read somewhere that Rinder’s picking up another half mill on ITV2 at 6pm, which likely makes up for some quite lowish numbers recently.
300k yesterday on ITV2.
He’s on repeats at the moment as well which probably doesn’t help.
That darts game is cruel
Depends how your mental arithmetic is. If you can add the 3 numbers up as they are spoken by the brain, it’s fairly simple
It’s alright when they aren’t doubles or triples, then things get fuzzy
Not much to add as regards the games but one additional thing which I think is a good decision is having The Brain speak her lines live so she can interact with the contestants – that could have easily been added in post reusing the same rules explanations over and over again.
As regards the query on scheduling (and this is all speculation), I wonder if Two Tribes would have also been at 6:30 were it not for the host.
I think it’s the Osman Factor – Coming off the back of Pointless on BBC1 at 6, I expect it’s presumed to be easier to get people to act on “…turn over to BBC2 NOW for Two Tribes with Richard…” than it is “…Richard’s on in half an hour on BBC2 – don’t forget…”
I suspect it would have been a tough commission without Osman on board, undoubtably.
Enjoyed the games more today, particularly the perspective one and the Dingbats one. And I can do the darts one.
Also I love how clearly all they’ve done with Craven’s wardrobe is given him a couple of different coloured jumpers to wear.
Language. Rearrange these words into a sentence in 3 seconds.
Just…I…Warm…This…Can’t…To
I can’t put a finger on it as to why.
Yes, it’s a competent and slick production.
Yes there is a pleasing variety of games, and some thought has gone into them (before Mr Peake sets his North Korean-esque death squads to hunt me down) yes the end game timing mechanic at last rips off one last seen in Italy, and it’s the resurgence of John Craven back in a studio, literally everyone who remembers him on Newsround wanted to see.
But why won’t this make my top 5 of 2015 in around 7 months time in the poll?
Is it because John should be perched in front of the desk, instead of sitting behind it? (kids, ask you parents)
Is it because the lighting is way to harsh from some angles – purple and white is never a good mix and has a blatant CGI roof over the main set area?
Is it because Josie Lawrence jars as she is being required to swing from ad-libbing smug character to scripted voiceover in the flick of eye?
As it’s an Objective Production, should all the games be played in a huge Perspex cube, and shown to us in really slow timeslice motion?
Is it because it’s missed the fad for brain training games by about 3 years?
Dunno.
5 on the left hand side of the forward slash and 10 on the right, John.
Also..
..Where’s the ‘And viewers may like to know that they can have a go at similar puzzles right now on the BBC Two website’? plug over the credits. Surprised at that omission.
Classic way to build an audience for the tv show by office lunch break word of mouth.
I like the puzzles a lot, love the endgame and find the rest pleasant but pretty slow. I’ve watched the first two episodes so far and am probably going to try watching just the endgame of an episode. It’s probable that the on-screen instructions alone will be sufficient to make it clear what each puzzle requires without having to go through the preamble – and 2-3 minutes of being surprised by quickfire puzzles of varying sorts sounds like excellent TV.
Oh, I guess this is the show that some people here thought might be related to The Genius: http://remotecontrol.mtv.com/casting-calls/now-casting-exciting-new-challenge-show/
MTV? Ick….
I am very late to the party, but I have finally watched enough of these to have an opinion.
I like it; a lot. I like Josie Long as the brain, she does a really good performance while still managing to rein back in to do the important stuff like instructions. She has a nice easy relationship with John, who in turn presents his bits in a nice, charming cosy way. I like how he gives little bits of advice, he clearly wants the teams to do well, as does ‘the brain’. It seems we may be leaving the nasty days of ‘you leave with nothing, goodbye’ behind us.
It moves along at a decent pace; although like a lot of shows explaining all the rules, every day gets a bit tedious when you sit down to watch a few on catch-up.
As noted above some of the ‘right answer’ cues are a bit clunky and the cash countdown could do with starting slow and getting faster, to shorten the amount of time playing for next to nothing.
Final gripe; dont tell us that the brain has ‘chosen’ four zones, and then do a faux-random generator effect to reveal them. Just get Josie to say something like ‘Now i’m really going to challenge you, with Logic!’.
We have had a few brain-training type shows over the last few years and this is quite easily the best.
We’re under halfway through the year and i’m pretty confident I’ll be throwing votes this way in the end of year poll.