The Code returns Monday afternoon

By | March 19, 2017

Probably worth pointing out as it’s easy to forget, the new series of fun multiple choice true/false quiz The Code with Matt Allwright and Lesley-Anne Brewis begins Monday afternoon on BBC1 at 2:15.

I don’t expect many format changes, so you can read what we thought of the first series here.

Edit: Actually it sounds like there’s been a change in round two.

67 thoughts on “The Code returns Monday afternoon

  1. Mathew Palmieri

    Should be fun.

    In other news, harry hills alien FUN capsule just premiered on itv this month, airs on Thursdays on 8:30pm uk time. The premise sounds like Room 101 meets that S4C children’s quiz Diwedd y Byd? (Aka that show with the hilarious ending if the contestant’s failed the endgame. http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Diwedd_y_Byd%3F )

    Also, via the Internets, I’ve discovered a super serious dark version of EXIT/DERO in Arabian, View-able here ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxfsydYJDmw )
    It’s Based mostly on the SYFY version, Albeit with a darker SAW theme, and i saw the mummy game from TORE in one episode.

    Speaking of escaping situations, The 3rd episode of ESCAPE! is up.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      There is no game for Harry Hill’s Fun Capsule, although there is a running gag about having to have ‘a round’ so they can sell the format. As a show it’s quite funny, but it’s very Not Successful.

      Reply
  2. Michael

    Slight format change – in round 2, you can now only open two answers before having to decide whether one you’ve seen is correct or not.

    Reply
    1. Andrew 'Kesh' Sullivan

      I’m sure it was like that already, wasn’t it?

      I’m hoping they’ll speed things up this series by allowing the contestants to lock in a correct answer when they KNOW it’s right instead of having to go through the motions of opening up the questions.

      Reply
      1. Brig Bother Post author

        I assumed Michael meant that you opened up two questions and then decided which of the three was correct from that, where previously you had to open two then discard one.

        Reply
        1. Michael

          Exactly. Last year, you could open two at a time before you could discard one to see the third set – this year, it’s only two that you see before you need to lock in the correct answer.

          Reply
        2. Oli

          That’s a very subtle tweak in the format, and clearly designed to speed things up.

          I think it could’ve had a material effect on that first couple’s chances, however. Had they chosen to discard JK Rowling, they might’ve figured out that Chrysanthemum was the right answer.

          Reply
      2. Paul

        Andrew, what would you do as a contestant: a) Immediately lock in the answer you think is right, or b) first see the other hidden question(s) before making your final decison?

        Reply
        1. Andrew 'Kesh' Sullivan

          If I knew with 100% certainty that an answer was right, I’d lock it in. But if I wasn’t so sure and there was an answer I knew was wrong, I’d discard it to see the other question, then try to work it out by process of elimination

          Reply
        1. Delano

          One at a time, but now with one evaluation of a question and its answer instead of up to three separate ones.

          Reply
    1. Oli

      Apparently that’s rolled over from the last series.

      I’ve also just noticed that in Round 1, Matt no longer asks the contestants in which order they want to reveal the questions.

      Reply
      1. Michael

        I’d assume that’s just because 90% of people were doing top-to-bottom last year and it became redundant. The Round 2 change is a way bigger deal though, cause that can mess with people’s strategies if they play it badly.

        Reply
        1. Oli

          Agreed on both counts. Both changes move the game along more quickly, but only the second one can affect a team’s strategy… or an individual’s tactics, assuming that flexibility in the number of contestants has been retained.

          Reply
          1. Michael

            From what I’ve heard, they’re moving away from single players (although there are still some) and more towards teams of two especially.

          2. Danny Kerner

            The question is if this high jackpot is the reason why there is a lot of groups this season. Is there some rule put in place about how much they can give to a single person in a daytime format. currently this is the highest guaranteed jackpot in a daytime format. 11,500

          3. Michael

            I suspect it’s more to do with the same reason that Hunted US didn’t want singles – they want to see the relationship between two people.

          4. Brig Bother Post author

            There is no rule but big jackpots in daytime are hard to justify for value for money reasons, which are more easily mitigated by making them progressive jackpots.

  3. John R

    Nice to see they’ve sped up things with a few format tweaks, rather than axing the bit showing the bloke putting the extra £500 in the safe every time.

    Reply
  4. Callum J

    Recognised one of the first contestants Carolynne from Cash Trapped last year.

    Reply
      1. Andrew 'Kesh' Sullivan

        Apparently she did Debatable as well last year. Doesn’t that just stick in your craw that she did FOUR shows last year? I can’t even get on ONE for love nor money…

        Reply
        1. Whoknows

          She might do a lot of office based run-throughs for commissioners. Normally there’s a small pool of people willing to come in for free (travel expenses paid of course) and they often do it on the promise that they’ll get on the show (or another the company makes) if commissioned.

          So if you want to get on a quiz show and you’re based near London that’s probably the easiest way in!

          Reply
          1. Brig Bother Post author

            I think Andrew’s Yorkshire, sadly.

            We often put up contestant calls for office runthroughs so it is worth going for them if you get the chance.

          2. Andrew 'Kesh' Sullivan

            Yes, I am based in Yorkshire.

            Only thing about those runthroughs is that they usually just want people from the London area, so that’s me out right away.

            I’m just feeling really despondent about applying for anything more in the future, because I’ve been dealt another crippling blow. A fortnight ago, I was at an audition for Impossible and one of the other guys who was in the same audition group as me has been given a place on the show. Now, I MIGHT still get a call sometime today, but to be honest, I don’t really hold out much hope. It’s like no matter what I do, I still come up short and it just irks me when I see someone do more than one show in such short spaces of time. I just don’t know what it is that’s stopping me from getting on anything.

  5. John R

    News that will probably shock everyone today in that the BBC have decided to axe Can’t Touch This

    Reply
    1. Des Elmes

      Just for a moment there I thought you said Who Dares Wins…

      Axing WDW after moving it back to its rightful 8pm slot – and after that sandwich filling money list – would be absolutely bonkers.

      But then again, we still don’t know the reason why OC was moved to Fridays – if indeed there was one, besides change for change’s sake…

      Reply
      1. David B

        The short answer is the schedulers think that people will hunt out OC no matter where it is in the listings, and use the inheritance from UC to support some of their newer or weaker programming. While this is true to an extent, if there’s one time slot in the week where it might not work…

        Reply
        1. Des Elmes

          Well it clearly isn’t getting as many viewers as it was getting immediately after UC – so surely the schedulers should think again?

          Reply
          1. David B

            It could be argued that losing a third of the audience is a little bit careless, yes.

  6. Setsunael

    French news : France 2 is rumored to be working on a new adventure game for a prime-time slot. No more details at this time.

    Unlikely to be Le labyrinthe de Cristal, i guess.

    Reply
    1. Matt Clemson

      Much like how other countries use Fort Boyard (or indeed the Argentinian Wipeout arena), were there any situations of international broadcasters looking into using our Maze for the original run? It seems like something that *should* be worth putting out on the marketplace.

      Reply
      1. Chris M. Dickson

        Good question, but will the new set remain in place when filming is not happening? (I’m not sure whether or not that was the case for the previous set; David may know…)

        Reply
        1. David B

          It was a permanent set and could be hired corporately in the off-months.

          Reply
      2. JamesW

        Was that not the key pillar of the CITV/Challenge recommission plan i.e. build and maintain a set for other countries to use. A more cynical man would suggest that’s why so many American, Canadian and Australian ex pats ended up as contestants in the last series (backdoor pilots?).

        Reply
        1. David B

          Other countries did come and see the set, mainly in the first couple of years I believe, but when they saw the scale, cost and shooting time of each episode…

          Of course, these days we think nothing of building massive swimming pools in Argentina.

          Reply
  7. Thomas Sales

    Look carefully at today’s episode at about 19/20 minutes in. There’s a continuity error involving misplacement of the 0 in the middle of the code.

    Reply
  8. Brig Bother Post author

    I’ve just seen a figure of 670k (12.9%) for yesterday’s ep, which sounds a bit low (second lowest share on BBC/ITV daytime, 130k behind Judge Rinder). Although that’s a bit better than Chopping Block on ITV at three.

    That’s about the same as the continually renewed Decimate. I don’t know how the last series was doing other than “evidently well enough for a renewal”.

    Reply
  9. Kniwt

    So, after today, I am left wondering how many VTs they made of the disembodied hand sticking another £500 into the safe. Not counting the initial load, we got up to 25.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      They’re cheating though, they’re just repeating the same one over and over now. Or at least they were last week.

      Reply
      1. John R

        Turns out the bloke has been working overtime sticking an envelope in the safe too each time containing the winning code…

        Reply
        1. Danny Kerner

          It’s a nice novelty now of receiving the winning code in a envelope. I guess for independently verifing purposes so that the code had not been adapted before the choice.
          If they want to do this & give it better TV appearances they should have a locked perspect box on set next to the keypad lock that a “security” man could post through from the back of the set once the code is locked in to eliminate any suspect fiddling claims.

          Reply
        2. Danny Kerner

          Also if there is a lot of wedges of money they should have a goody bag marked up with the Code logo on. With him trying to carry those wodge of cash was slightly awkward

          Reply
      2. Kniwt

        OK, you piqued my curiosity on that. So I went back to the beginning of this series and grabbed all the vault-stuffings (no vault-stuffing was shown for £10,500). The stacks are definitely bigger at the end, but some of the ones in the middle sure look the same.

        http://i.imgur.com/MnejDdc.jpg

        Reply
        1. Brig Bother Post author

          Ha! Brilliant.

          The thing I noticed is that rather than alternate which column he puts the money in, he was only putting them in the left one. Although I’ve only watched last Monday and Tuesday.

          Reply
          1. John R

            The jackpot got won today but it only shows the bloke putting in £500 with £2500 already in the safe afterwards!

  10. Michael

    Jonathan was on another show, but I can’t remember which one for the life of me.

    Reply
    1. Totally Not Jonathan

      Might you be thinking of The Krypton Factor, The Chase or Decimate? (Or indeed 21 Questions Wrong?)

      Reply
  11. Michael

    I suppose it’s time to reveal that I was on Tuesday’s episode. Yes, “Back Across the Ocean” was a Survivor homage.

    Reply
      1. Michael

        Pleased to say we didn’t disgrace ourselves, especially as two friends of the Bar.

        Reply
  12. Brig Bother Post author

    This seems to have stabilised around 800k/14%. It’s no Father Brown, and it’s a bit less than !mpossible, but it’s better than some games they’ve had in the slot.

    Reply
    1. Paul

      !mpossible was on air in colder, darker December/January. The Code is on air in warmer, sunnier March/April. You should better compare The Code with Think Tank (same timeslot last year).

      Reply

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