Weekdays, 2:15pm,
BBC1
The second series of this (and so soon after the first one which had been lying on a shelf for ages) despite being rather down on the slot average invites a bit of comment and speculation – they weren’t watching it before I’m not quite sure why they’d start watching it now (it looks like it looks the same and it’s certainly being hosted by Shane Richie again) – the only change we know that they’ve made is that rather than a team of three with a pre-existing relationship we have three people who don’t know each other working as a team. Whether this will make the process less dull and whether there’s anything else up their sleeve remains to be seen.
You can read our show discussion post on the first series here.
It seems a strange format alteration; if the team members don’t know each other at all, it removes the tactical element in choosing who plays and what information to give them. Maybe they’ll be given some “getting to know each other” time before the recording.
I presume it’s to create a bit more tension when they overrule or something. I don’t know if it will add or lack the frisson you’d get when someone you know overrules you and gets it wrong, but I’m sure we’ll find out.
The set has some new lights and coins in it, Shane’s using ‘buddy’ every other sentence.
That appears to be it.
There’s a couple of other minor tweaks – the fake audience of hundreds as been replaced by an apparently real audience of 30, which is more honest for an afternoon slot but is still a bit of a disconnect for the theatrical stage.
Also, there’s something lacking with the sound this time around. It definitely seems to be missing a couple of effects here and there.
I think the coins ought to rearrange to a dot-matrix number of the amount won at the end. And ‘DECIMATED!’ (NB: 10 characters) when they lose.
The set tweaks are good.
I actually don’t recall seeing an audience call for it, wondered if it was just the crew making noise.
However there definitely was a studio audience last time, Lost in TV did the tickets.
There was no audience last time either. It was muted, but then then cancelled. Audiences cost too much money for daytime budgets…
It was quite funny going to see The Edge last year and there were anout about twelve people in the audience. However, it looks like they’ve attempted an audience again this time round…
I wonder if the audience is actually the contestants + significant other/friend from the other recordings during the day?
I don’t recall seeing an audience shout-out for the first series, I watched episode 1 all the way to the credits, to see where they recorded the show.
I wonder if, Brig, you saw the contestant shout-out on the Lost In TV website. During quiet recording periods, the ‘take part’ trawls, outnumber the tickets for shows pages.
Glasgow.
just watched the Affari Tuoi’s 13th season premiere! they have a new adjudicator and a couple new gimmicks:
there are 9 blue values, 10 red values and 1 grey which is the “trip up” box. when opened, the player gets one of the following effects at random:
-HALF the top prize on the board is halved
-FORCED SWAP the player must swap the box
-LET HIM DO IT the player chooses another contestant to replace him for the next 3 box openings
-ONE MORE BOX the next offer will be delayed by one box opening
-LOCK the player chooses one box and it can’t be opened until the final two remain
-CALL YOUR NEIGHBOURS the player must call the boxes from his or her geographical area (north/centre/south) before calling any other box
-ODD OR EVEN the player must choose “odd” or “even” and then he or she can’t call boxes with a number of the other type as long as there are any left to be called
-SAFE no effect
the other gimmick is pinball-themed
when the player opens 3 blue boxes in a row it’s a SPECIAL and the player can play a mini-game to win €3,000
when the player gets a second sequence of 3 straight blues, it’s a BIG SPECIAL and the highest value on the board is increased by €100,000
in the unlikely case of a third sequence of 3 blues then it’s a TILT and the game ends there and then and the player goes home with €10,000
also, this time the first offer comes after NINE boxes, then after every three, but this can be changed at any time by the production (in the first episode the sequence was 9-3-2-1-1-2-1)
so yes, there is a 1 in 1679.6 chance that the game ends before the first phone ring!
The adjustments made to this show are the equivalent of polishing a turd; it’s still excruciatingly slow. I’ll tell you what I wouldn’t mind seeing: Three players, each asked ten questions in a row, so a total of 90 questions asked. Wrong answers decimate their total. Whichever player has the highest amount of money after that goes on to the final, where they single-handedly try to get across the wall in the same vein of the current final. Slash that down to 30 minutes and air it next to Eggheads – a good episode of Two Tribes asks at least 90 questions.
Just seen on DS this got 750k (14.6%) yesterday. Don’t know how good that is, it’s a low point of the afternoon but it’s slightly ahead of Dickinson’s Real Deal opposite it.
Interesting press release on BBC Daytimes, sounds like there’s an antiques quiz coming:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2015/dan-mcgolpin?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_press_office&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=corporate
Found decimate totally boring… It’s so slow and basically ask 10 questions… Repeat. Slowly.
Still surprised Shane went for this, he’s used up his daytime quiz attempt for this? Why.
However, I liked the set and lighting.
You can only do so much with a format. I personally think the changes to strangers works because it leads to people being put together that would never normally meet, let alone do something together. I think the set changes are very good. Slowness is one of the first things quiz audiences attack, but I’m not so bothered about it here. It’s daytime, afternoon…nobody after lunch is feeling particular ‘high paced’. I like Shane as a host, he’s earthy…well Alfie Moon basically, but warm and friendly and good at recapping things. I think the speed that companies have to churn these out affects all sorts of things. The amount of questions they are produce in the short production time, the casting….everything really. Must be like a pie factory….
> You can only do so much with a format.
This doesn’t mean that anyone is obliged to watch it, or even if it’s a good idea in the first place.
No, agreed, but it looks as though there is a decent following at the moment percentage wise. Not sure if will be enough for the Beeb to recommission again, but the numbers generally are dropping all through the schedules at the moment…so not sure what figures they think are good or bad to be honest.
The Link was doing about a million. Interestingly the number I have for this on Wednesday is 0.66, so I don’t know what the term average is I’m afraid.
Looks like Judge Rinder has raced ahead of Decimate this week so you’ll now most likely get your desire, Brig, of never seeing Decimate again!!
I don’t really care if it lives or dies (it’s not like it’s completely awful, just boring and a bit counter-intuitive), I just think it’s not really done very well and is taking up space for something else which might catch on.
I am sure Tipping Point legend Hugh Rycroft will come up with something else in due course. Which isn’t Hive Minds.
Well, I’m sure The Edge will fair no better in the slot. Now, personally, I really think that is awful…
It was as much of a surprise to me to see The Edge returning. It sounds like there’s been some major tweaks, so we’ll see, although why you’d tune in now if you turned over first time it was on I’ll never know.