Here’s some unexpected fun for the weekend, and thanks to Nico W on the Discord to alerting us to it – it’s Dutch Big Money Celebrity Sardines on Amazon Prime and it’s Very Much The Sort Of Thing We Like. Nine Dutch celebs travel around various Dutch landmarks on a bus playing Sardines for €18,000. One person is picked at random on an extremely whizzy wheel (immediately one of the all time great gameshow props, I reckon) to go and hide somewhere on the location, the other contestants get 90 minutes to find them, and if they do find them they have to hang out in the same space until the clock runs out. If *everybody* finds the Hider, the Hider is eliminated. If not everybody finds the Hider then the Hider picks someone who didn’t find them to eliminate. There are added complications – there’s a currency called Triangles which can be spent to increase your chance of becoming the Hider or to buy various advantages, at various points during the Hunt special rooms open up offering risky rewards via mini-challenges and decisions. Hunters earn Triangles by finding the Hider, but they earn more the fewer people find them. Sometimes the Hiders haven’t thought about the implications of the space they’ve chosen to hide.

It’s decently entertaining and at around 45 minutes an episode (six episodes as far as I know) doesn’t outstay its welcome – it’s sort of a bit like Bother’s Bar favourite Run For Money except without the running or indeed much money but the location scouts have done a good job of finding decently sized buildings which are interesting and have lots of potential hiding spots. Stylish graphics. English subs are available. My one criticism is then “next time” bits give away a bit more than you’d really like.

Three eps on Wednesdays for three weeks from March 26,
Netflix

12 people rock up at Peter Serafinowicz’s mansion and each shown to a room, and inside each room a box, and inside one of the boxes one MILLION dollars. That’s for that player to take away provided none of the other contestants suspect them of having it and eliminating them. To help the contestants work out who is the secret millionaire, tasks are set, the winning of which earns clues to the millionaire’s identity. It sounds like there’s a Round Table and at the end of each episode someone gets accused and eliminated, the money being reassigned if the millionaire gets caught presumably.

It’s Fortune Hotel…meets The Traitors!!! Although there’s no obvious signs of case swapping or murders. What the trailer does suggest is lots of overemoting Americans being undercut by Serofinowicz who seems to be having a great time administering it all. Probably there’s little here we haven’t seen before, but it still looks like fun.

We’re always a bit worried about shows where producers give out clues to players – where does the difficulty balance lie? How hard done by should you feel as a contestant by a perceived gimme? Is it just an easy way to get a favourable result? We’ll find out how fair it all feels by the end.

When you’ve watched it, let us know what you thought in the comments.

Saturdays, 6pm,
ITV

100 people in a warehouse play silly games guided by Adam and Ryan Thomas. You don’t have to be any good at any of them, but importantly you must not come last in any of them or be eliminated, the last one standing wins at the end of the series wins a whopping £25,000.

This has been around Europe for a number of years, beginning as a daily segment on a Flemish show, really taking off in the Netherlands as De Alleskunner (The All Rounder), this became a surprise German Summer hit, and it looks like it’s the German show this has taken the visual inspiration from – whereas the Dutch feels like its set in a light and bright community centre, this is a large dark warehouse with a big lighting gantry. As such I think the 6pm slot feels too early for the show’s look (also it’s up against Gladiators which feels like a hiding to nothing), although it’s a big bunch of silly so they can’t put it too late either.

FOTB Tom F (and contestant on the show) is writing a series of blog pieces explaining the show’s appeal (here’s a direct link to the latest one) which is well worth a read, and a few series of the Dutch show are up on Youtube if you want something to compare it to (and it’s a pretty easy to follow watch even without subs). Watched it? Let us know what you think in the comments.