The Cellar

Before we start what is actually a fairly exciting week (by recent standards), just a reminder if you haven’t noticed that last week’s Run For Money is now up – watch it before it’s inevitably taken down. It’s got a great ending, and the next one isn’t until October, I think.

Anyway:

• University Challenge (8pm, Monday, BBC2) – Go on then.
• Wipeout (Tuesday and Thursday, ABC) – the last time for a while it’s on twice a week, I think. I believe this Tuesdays one is a couples edition.
• Big Brother US (Thursday, CBS) – Probably won’t bill this after this week, but it will be mildly interesting to see how the saboteur twist plays out. I was never a massive fan of America’s Player in honesty so I wonder what will be different here.
• Magic Numbers (Friday, The London Studios) – just noticed this, it looks like a run through of upcoming Stephen Mulhern premium rate phone-in-a-thon that is a bit like Talking Telephone Numbers. Tickets through Applause Store, do shout if you go – I’d have gone myself but I’m busy that night unfortunately.
• 101 Ways To Leave a Gameshow (6:30pm, Saturday, BBC1) – After a Total Wipeout repeat which may prove a bit of overkill, it’s been a long time comiong but finally we’ll see if Steve Jones and Nemone can entertain for more than five minutes. I hope they do have 101 ways for people to leave, and don’t think people on the internet won’t be counting.
• Fort Boyard (Saturday, France 2) – Well it’s make or break year for the fort, and the French have taken on the two-team version of the show that’s proven mildly popular in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. They’ve tweaked it, will it work? Let’s hope so. This should be avaliable on the Fort Boyard site after the episode has gone out, although the fact they haven’t updated it yet is a bit of a worry.

I’m busy quite a lot of this week, and I know you lot like to chat about Uni Challenge and how fixed Only Connect is, so here is a post just for you.

It’s American reality season, which is good news for us because that means easy entries:

• The Bother Series of Poker 2010 Event 1 (Tonight, 8pm GMT/1500 ET) – if you’re playing in this tonight then best of luck. If you intend on playing but haven’t deposited with Full Tilt yet, I advise against waiting until 7:45pm to do it, sometimes it can take a little while to go through. You should still be able to join in anytime up until 8:10 in theory, although how it will work out in practice I’m not sure. There’s no lobby chat, so I’ve put a new page up for discussion relating to the first event. When the game gets going, you can chat as a player or as an observer at will, in theory. Good luck!
• University Challenge (Monday, 8pm, BBC2) I don’t normally make a habit of billing (or indeed watching) this, usually tuning in about ten minutes befre the end waiting for Only Connect to come on, and even then mainly to judge the contestants’ attractiveness because yes, even I am sometimes that shallow. However, last week’s was exciting enough to warrant watching it for ‘proper’ reasons, so Uni C gets its first outing on the Board of Excitement.
• Only Connect (Monday, 8:30pm, BBC4) But Only Connect is all about the interesting questions, and this week the people I won’t be making value judgements on are Exeter Alumini vs Gourmands. It’s the Will Young vs Giles Coren battle THE WORLD HAS BEEN WAITING FOR.
• The Krypton Factor (Tuesday, 7:30, ITV1) – this series is just sort of pootling along without really capturing anyone’s imagination, and last week I actually forgot it had been on until the Wednesday. But thankfully I was saved by the V+ Box where I’ve got it on series link and I watched it and it remains still not as good as last year but y’know, entertaining enough. It’s such a shame.
• Survivor: Heroes vs Villains (Thursday, CBS) And probably a day later for naughty Brits. It’s the big two-oh for Survivor and The Probstmeister (as nobody calls him) is back for another season in Samoa with twenty previous players, some for a third time. I’m pulling for Cirie, Boston Rob or Russell to win, all of whom were brilliant players in previous seasons and none of whom won. Also if Boston Rob wins, the fans will go mental which will be funny. And it will be interesting to how much Coach will play up at ‘be’-ing Coach. Maybe one day we’ll get to find out what happened to Tontine. Also I was tipped-off that the third series of South African Survivor – with celebrities! has started, but that they “can’t seem to acquire it.” So there we are.
• Solitary v4.0 (Saturday, Fox Reality) Unfortunately because it’s on right at the end of the BoE week I’ve not normally had the chance to watch the previous episode before billing the following one. So this is Episode 3, it will probably be a bit like Episode 2 but with one fewer people in it, and that’s a Brig Bother GUARANTEE.