Right, let’s open the box and dive in:
- Rylan is hosting a reboot of Jailbreak. I guess lockdown programming is going to be a thing now. (Untrue. But I liked Jailbreak, although you have to take it an immersive escape room experience rather a serious attempt to break jail. In many ways years ahead of its time.)
- Channel 5 are bringing back Richard Bacon’s 19 Keys – now titled”COVID-19 Keys”, hosted by Tim Vine. (Not true, because it’s Rylan.)
- Before Jane McDonald left C5 she was put forward to front revivals of shows including Blankety Blank, Telly Addicts and Wipeout. C5 didn’t go for any of them. David Tennant has been put forward to pilot a UK version of a rather big US gameshow that is scheduled to air later this year. (There was certainly a story going round that Jane McDonald had her heart set on hosting a Blankety Blank revival and she was so upset it fell through with C5 she quit the channel, although I don’t know how true that is. I can well imagine David Tennant fronting a gameshow, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened yet actually. The question is: which one?)
- There was a UK revival of Deal or No Deal in development throughout last year, but as far as I know that was abandoned a few months ago. (Is it too soon? Have any of the Deal revivals around the world lasted especially? Other than the Italian one, obv. It appears to have been quietly dropped from MNBC and Direct 8.)
- I know it isn’t strictly a quiz, but I like gossiping about tv, so… ITV did some audience testing of ITV 2’s CelebAbility through YouGov, made participants watch a whole episode whilst tracking your mood about the programme through a good/bad slider, and then rank the constituent parts of the show. Gave it both barrels, sub-par Taskmaster rip off where Iain Stirling is totally wasted as a host. I mean some of the games had already been done to death and the celeb chat bits were both long and boring (looking at you Katherine Ryan trotting out tired old material.) Don’t expect it to return. (Well it has already had three series, so…)
- Barnstorm Games are apparently working on a Cash Trapped app – if not, House of Games, no? Some other things (taking advantage of the fact that I can only write something in this box once) – Omid Djalili set to present ITV game show, ‘Winning Combination‘ – New series of CT to be let out soon – New Russian doll prize for House of Games, series 4. But you already knew them, didn’t you. (Two out of the three. Great to hear Barnstorm working on something, my gut says it’ll be Cash Trapped over HoG because Endemol haven’t given Barnstorm an app yet. Still, would be happy with either.)
- Those reports of a Stars In Their Eyes comeback a few weeks ago were way wide of the mark. ITV have commissioned a new show that has a vaguely similar premise, but with plenty of key differences and a completely different format. It’s a new programme, by no means a revival of an old one. (Your Face Sounds Familiar series two waits expectedly for a space to open up in the schedules.)
- I don’t have any gossip, but being in lockdown feels like we’re all taking part in a global version of The Circle. (Send).
- Schlag den Brig 3. (Now there’s a thought.)
- Boris Johnson to host a reboot of Supermarket Sweep, enforcing strict item limits on empty shelves. (Bit trite. You could have at least made a “hospital trolley dash” joke.)
- Latest Fingers on Buzzers with Richard Osman is very good, with definite allusions to a particular DonD identity. (I’m a week behind with my podcasts but I enjoyed the Nick Helm one and I shall look forward to this. I note they have a NEW GRAPHIC. If the allusion is what I think it is, I’m not sure it’s really much of a secret any more.)
- Channel 4 to continue to produce their regular game shows, but using the pods from the set as Naked Attraction as isolation chambers to ensure no spread of the virus. (Heh!)
- The Daily Star have a weekly quota of stories about The Chase they need to publish on their website. Last I heard it’s currently two a week. (Plausible, but may or may not be true.)
- The Quibi version of Legends Of The Hidden Temple has had a casting page up for several weeks – www.legendscasting.com. They’re looking for teams of two, who will supposedly have to be in Los Angeles in May, though given recent events I seriously doubt this. I got this link through Quibi’s email list, and am putting it in the anonymous Stool Pigeon box as I’m not 100% sure it’s supposed to be shared publicly. I joined Quibi’s email list for the sole purpose of receiving this casting link – as Brig said on Twitter, Legends is almost certainly the only reason anybody is interested in Quibi.
- BBC following in footsteps of Have I got News for you and planning to record Question of Sports and Would I Lie to You remotely in next few weeks. (I don’t think this is true, they’re not topical, filming can wait, by the time they make it to air lockdown will likely be over.)
- Would you like a tasteless but on-topic joke about a true industrial accident? The Warrington Guardian recently reported that a local utility company had been fined because in January 2018, three workers there had been attempting to remove a pump for maintenance when the pump’s incorrectly pressurised contents caused tens of thousands of litres of diluted slurry to be released with sufficient force to knock the workers off the concrete plinth on which they had been standing, causing multiple fractures. “It’s the Takeshi’s Castle Experience. Sixty minutes, two hundred thousand quid plus seven grand in costs.” (I am 90% sure I know who wrote this.)
And there we are. I’ve kept some of the more pointless ones out, I daresay I might go tighter next time on the less funny obviously fake ones. Until next time!
In other news, this is sort of amazing, French comic Noam Cartozo has been entertaining his street with organic web-based show Questions Pour Un Balcon, which has apparently become so popular it’s attracting sponsorship.
