Happy New Year! feat. some discussion of Sell or Swap in the comments

By | December 30, 2016

Happy New Year to all our readers!

Probably not much going on until Monday January 2nd when !mpossible (pronounced Exclamationmarkmpossible) starts on BBC1 afternoons, followed that evening with the launch of the Bother’s Bar/UKGameshows.com Poll of 2016. It’s sure to be a riot.

Whatever you’re doing, have a good one.

Edit: Although it is Noel’s Sell Or Swap this evening on Channel 4 at seven which is likely to be of interest.

Edit Edit: New Ninja Warrior NYE from 7pm.

26 thoughts on “Happy New Year! feat. some discussion of Sell or Swap in the comments

  1. Wrong Guess!

    Well I know what is going to be number 1 on my worst show of 2016 now…

    Reply
  2. Callum J

    I actually quite enjoyed Sell or Swap. It was insane, needs work, but very good fun.

    Reply
  3. John R

    That was absolutely awful, when even Noel hasn’t got a bloody clue what is going on you know you’ve got more than teething problems with your format!

    Reply
  4. Brig Bother Post author

    Right. OK. Well that was a rather spectacular mess. An *interesting* mess, but a mess nonetheless.

    I love a good auction, I used to spend entire evenings watching Bid Up TV back when it did rising price auctions and was good, and there’s no reason why this couldn’t have worked, in the same way national and local radio has done quite good charity money-can’t-buy auctions in the past.

    He may have his quirks but when it comes to live entertainment television Noel is probably the best in the world, his ability to carry on in the face of everything is extraordinary, that even he was struggling a bit is damning.

    When it comes down to it, the entire thing was much too complex, the live stage bidders were quite annoying, it was never really clear how you could join in at home – you have to pre-register (on an actual telephone!), what then? How do you determine which bid takes precedence? The bidding board couldn’t keep up with the bids as it is. Then multiply all this by three on a rotating stage (as suggested on Twitter, Johnny Gould and Uncredited Woman Auctioneer pretending that the auction had been continuing off stage was spectacularly annoying) and it’s amazing anyone could keep up watching, let alone joining in or hosting.

    Then we were let down with the way that everyone took the money, making the show’s central decision a non-decision (NB: I didn’t quite catch what the last couple did over the credits). That most of the VTs suggested they needed the money for something or other, it comes as no surprise that experiences like a gourmet meal for twenty people didn’t stand much of a chance of getting selected. The Skype and video messages felt very much like trying to show something off for the sake of showing it off (I know, I know, it’s a pilot), and somebody obviously telling Noel in his ear that somebody has an exciting swap over the phone only for it to be underwhelming just pissed all parties off.

    Live auctions have happened before and there is the grain of a decent idea in here but it needs to be pared right back. It would be much less aggravating if the studio bidders were all swappers and people at home were all money bidders – then the seller has a much easier time determining what he might swap for and it would be easier to prepare in advance. It would be much easier if you could place bids online (it seems incredible to me that the futuristic forward thinking interactive Channel 4 limited this to telephone). It would be more useful if the lots up for bids were available to browse beforehand. It would be much easier to follow if at a maximum two auctions were going on at once – a big one throughout the show and four or five mini ones.

    So a swing and a miss (or more accurately a swing and a mess). But I will suggest that it was worth trying and that you don’t find new hits resting on your laurels, so there is that.

    Reply
    1. John R

      They swapped at the end…for a garden makeover valued at £9,000 with the highest cash offer being £6,000 so not really the hardest of decisions there!

      Noel was having to do the whole question over the end credits for that one, and Channel 4 literally cut them off the minute the word ‘swap’ was uttered.

      Reply
  5. Brig Bother Post author

    To anyone asking if this is eligible for Poll 2016, the answer is “oh gawd, I don’t know”. Give us a few days to work through the logic of the format and previous decisions to determine if it’s game enough. My gut says there’s enough decisions being made throughout the show to count in its favour, and people are competing to be bought. So probably.

    Reply
    1. Brekkie

      More Hall of Shame than Hall of Fame so expecting C4 to commission a 300 episode run any day now.

      Reply
  6. peter H Todd

    Noel’s Sell or swap was brilliant. I and a few others went along to see it. It’s a great format, before the show went live Noel & the exec prod was making sure that the items were on the moving sell or swap in order.
    Mark olver as always was the warm up.
    I do know that the CH4 bosses were in the audience to see how the show was going.

    The show was filmed in the same studio as Deal or no deal at the bottleyard studios. Also next door Noel’s other new CH4 game show Cheap cheap cheap is going to be recorded next door from 16th January.

    For me Sell or swap should be commissioned but not as a full series but just specials say once a month.

    Reply
  7. peter H Todd

    Yesterday whilst waiting for rehersals we were taking to one of the Exec-prod. He was saying about Crystal maze. He was 100% that CH4 will be commission the show and the set designers are around the bottleyard studios. So it looks like the fans will be on in Bristol.

    Reply
  8. Carol

    Hi everyone

    We where actually on the show as swappers with our Hobbit house

    The general feel is this was an entirely new venture very very much an infant but it does have potential like all things to grow and develop

    Various things happened through the day that led to things not going to plan certain folks having been invited along and having there food and Acconodations paid for did still have diva paddies and strips and I mean general public

    Noel was polite and professional and just a lovley lovley man

    If anyone can deal with chaotic live tv this is your man after several years of wrangling with Mr Blobby and so many years expeirience he is externally capable

    I do feel that the general public given any opportunity will rip anyone or anything apart which is such a shame

    This was someone’s vision and I can assure you a HUGE amount of prep went into this production and all on the crew worked very hard. This show has created jobs for hard working folk and no OK it was mayhem as live tv can be but I have to also add all of these folk leaving feedback on Twitter etc sat and watched the show weather it was good or bad they all sat and they all watched it and then they all talked about it so the show gained audience and it was watched so that’s a result

    Also folks tend to only say negatives to have a bitch and moan because that’s who a lot of the general public sadly are these days

    Personally I loved the day I like Noel anyway he is just Fantastic and a very clever and positive man and I feel good or bad the show is better than watching the same old shit and repeats again and again

    If it goes no further then ok but I say at least they tried if no one tried there would be just the same crap over and over

    Happy new year to you x

    Carol and the North Shire Team x

    Reply
    1. Chris M. Dickson

      Ha, you’ve got a good bit of publicity from it at the very least. Turns out that you’re only about fifteen miles away from me in Middlesbrough, so I’m delighted to hear about you!

      Reply
  9. Chris M. Dickson

    I hated Noel’s House Party. I loved, and love, to hate Deal or No Deal. With the lowered expectations for this going in, I was actually very pleasantly surprised. This is a mess, but in a good way, and it’s a mess that matches very well with Noel Edmonds. It’s really not far off from being something exciting and compelling live TV.

    It didn’t feel completely real, somehow. It’s good that there are descriptions of the items up for auction on the web site, but if I were to take the show seriously, I’d want to see some detail about what it is you’re potentially buying. Obviously it would be pretty dead air live on TV, but having the information online would help with the credibility. It’s the sort of show where playing along involves thinking about how you’d decide as the seller; you don’t know quite what the swaps entail. Someone offers you £9,000 of gardening services; what exactly does that get you? Is the swapper any good? (I liked that they mentioned that they had 15 years of experience.) Could there be someone who offers something money-can’t-buy that is a genuinely exciting swap offer?

    It was a little more same-y than I had hoped, and I didn’t like the annoying clicky buzzy music in the background when going through the resolution of the auction, and I don’t know why there are people up on stage and it’s not the whole of the audience potentially bidding as would be the case in a more conventional auction. But this had a buzz and a pace to it, to the point where I’d be disappointed if I never were to see a second episode of the show.

    A lot closer to Hall of Fame than to Hall of Shame for me.

    Reply
    1. Brekkie

      Perhaps gameshowing it up a bit and narrowing down the bidding pool to a team of regular dealers who have items to offer and a budget to buy would make it easier to follow.

      Reply
    2. Brig Bother Post author

      Unfortunately the impression I get is that this bombed quite spectacularly. I almost forgot it was on and I was looking forward to it, so it’s probably not much of a surprise.

      Reply
  10. Des Elmes

    The last-ever National Lottery Live on BBC1, then.

    Gaby looked fabulous, and did point out – not once but twice – that it was the end of an era, as well as the number of years she’d been hosting the draws for. Having Deadly appear on screen at the end was definitely a Good Thing – and he too was very smartly dressed.

    Sophie looked and sounded fantastic, as always. A chat with Gaby would have been nice, but I presume this wasn’t possible.

    I’d have still preferred it if a few facts and figures from the past 22 years had been pointed out, or if a burst of the 1994 music – the best and most memorable, of course – had been played. But hey, one can’t have everything.

    So it went out with neither a bang nor a whimper – but it did go out with dignity.

    Reply
  11. Mathew Palmieri

    Oh by the way…. escape the night (that youtube red tv show/whodunnit… ripoff/clone) got renewed for a second season. http://www.tubefilter.com/2016/10/17/youtube-red-renews-joey-graceffas-escape-the-night/
    you can watch the first season in its entirety using dark arts here.
    https://123movies.is/film/escape-the-night-season-1-13759/watching.html
    You know that first episode that looks promising? After that it gets worse once you realize the format is “solve escape the room puzzle, than vote people up for elimination with no link between.”
    Seriously.
    Quoting Wikipedia for the show…
    “To find the artifacts, the guests must solve puzzles the house presents to them in order for them to continue. Once they have found an artifact, they must vote for who to participate in an elimination challenge. There, if they lose, they are eliminated via death. This is the standard format for the episodes, as there are variants where guests simply vote on who is eliminated, others have the guests work together in the elimination, where failure meant a specific elimination for a guest.

    (Spoilers for the episode 5 and the rest)
    Halfway throughout the series, it is revealed that in order to truly defeat the house the remaining guests have to free the spirits of the previous owners by doing their unfinished business. This is done via solving puzzles and voting guests for elimination; otherwise, there is no difference between this and the first half.[9] In the final episode, one or more guests must solve puzzles and succeed challenges to defeat the “Wicked One” seen in the cold openings, complete the vanquish spell with the artifacts and bury them before sunrise to “escape the night”. The winning guests are able to leave the house and travel back to 2016.”

    You think there’s more, but THAT’s it! The group is either solving escape room puzzles. or voting people of for the elimination challenge, with no link between,meaning that the best player at the puzzles could be voted off and eliminated. Why? ill get to that later. And that until sunrise “time limit”? only relevant at the final episode. At least whodunnit had a GAME.

    You think that unlike whodunnit,since there no traitor this time that leaves more time for the group to solve puzzles, well at the end of episode 2, it revealed that “one of them is working for the evil” Who is it? why its NONE OF THEM. But the butler ,an NPC! meaning that a guest could be eliminated because there SO good at the puzzles that the guest suspect that they are the “wicked one”.
    when in reality it just creates more group tension and filler and worthwhile players get eliminated due to unnecessary suspicion. And what is with this “society against evil” Stuff? (it sounds like a bad supernatural fan fic.) its only there to mark clues and Thats it.

    SIGH….. Over all, its worse than whodunnit. HOWEVER I am going to give it a second chance due to the renewal. Im mad Cause i liked whodunnit but That dosent get renewed, And it got plagiarized by this.

    (did you know this got produced by brian graden. media, witch later made finding prince charming, a straight up bachelor clone?)

    Reply
  12. David

    Remember that Locked show from Israel that had that interesting set with all the doors? I finally found a full ep of it:

    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4pwic5_%D7%A0%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%A4%D7%A8%D7%A7-5_fun

    Basic rundown from what I could glean from this ep and a couple of others:

    A team of two plays. They are given 5 keys to start, and then are surrounded by 5 rings of doors. The rings have, respectively- 3 doors, then 6, 9, 12, and finally 15 in the outer ring.

    They pick a door in the ring and put one of their keys in the lock. One of three types of doors can light up- white, red, or green.

    White doors have questions with 4 options. If they get the question right, they put money in their bank (from inner to outer- 1000, 2500, 5000, 10000, and 20000) and they get to keep the key they used. If they’re wrong, they earn no money and lose the key. Three of the white doors are bonus doors- get them right, and not only do they get the money, they win an extra key.

    Red doors are bad- it instantly wipes their bank and costs them the key they used. There are no red doors in the first ring, but at least one in each of the others (I believe there is one in the 2nd and 3rd rings, and two in the 4th and 5th rings, but I’m not 100% sure).

    Green rooms are good- it lets them go to the next ring- but they don’t get the key back. Once they find the green door, they can move on to the next ring immediately or stay in that ring to earn more money at the risk of losing keys or hitting a red door (and if they decide to stay, they can only move on after a right answer it looks like).

    If they get past ring three, they earn another set of 5 keys. If they get through ring four, they have the option of stopping and keeping their money to that point. If they get through ring five they double their bank. If they run out of keys, they leave empty handed.

    Reply

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