Rose d’Or Predictions 2017

By | August 26, 2017

The nominations for the world’s foremost TV entertainment prize actually came out last week but The Crystal Maze was more important, frankly.

Nonetheless I think it’s time for my annual round-up of the game show category. Last couple of years I’ve been pretty confident of the winners, this year I’m not sure I’d bet my house on it. Here then are the runners and riders, bearing in mind that these are apparently the best shows of those that paid to enter:

Babushka: A really, really nicely produced unbelievably terrible format. The good news is that the judges in the end are normally pretty good at picking the right winner and will probably see through the shiny. Estimated chances? 5%.

Só Pra Parodiar: A Brazilian show and a bit of an unknown quantity, only that it involves lots of Youtubers making parody music videos. Clips on Youtube are quite stylish and well done but difficult to judge as a TV show. Estimated chances: 20%.

The Wall: This is the best show here (although to be clear it’s a solid 7/10 than a 9/10 humdinger) based around it’s fantastic set piece. Does it really do much original though? It’s Plinko Millionaire. Estimated chance: 30%

Bigheads: Neither the best nor most successful of the four shows on offer, however what it does have going for it is that it does leave an impression on first viewing (just not subsequent ones) and you only need one good episode to win the Rose d’Or. It’s also, with its costumes and physicality and “satirical intent”, precisely the sort of thing Rose d’Or judges tend to go for, for better or worse. It might be too soon after Wild Things and not be as good as Wild Things but if there’s a show on the list precision engineered to win a Rose d’Or and nothing else it’s probably Bigheads. Estimated chances: 45%.

In other news, with Virtual Reality almost as big as 3DTV now, keep an eye out for TV Norge’s Lost in Time in the VR category which has been briefly discussed here.

Clocks

By | August 21, 2017

Haven’t had a post for a few days, er nothing interesting’s happening until later in the week er, what’s topical? The eclipse? Nothing relevant. Big Ben shutting down? Ah! Well in that case here’s an episode of little remembered kids quiz Clockwise with Charlotte Hindle, featuring an end game with Big Ben. Sort of.

 

This was then reversioned, gunged-up and given to Darren Day as a Double Dare replacement on Going Live. He’s hosting it an octave higher that you’d normally expect here.

We’ll probably have a Show Discussion post up for The Crystal Maze for Wednesday if O2 are doing their previews again. There’s a preview video of fails on DS right now.

Show Discussion: Len Goodman’s Partners in Rhyme

By | August 19, 2017

Saturday, 6:45pm
BBC1

Modern day Noel Edmonds Matt Edmondson brings his funny party game Obama Llama to Saturday night primetime, fronted by the UNDISPUTED KING OF RHYMES Len Goodman. Contestants are charged with taking part in rhyming challenges, describing and acting rhyming things, with celebrity team mates. Contestants can win a holiday or a pen from Len.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

A Question of Sport is on tonight

By | August 16, 2017

Since we mentioned it in the Barrel Scraping post, the new hip and fresh A Question of Sport starts tonight on BBC1 in the new hip and fresh timeslot of 10:45pm (except for people in Northern Ireland). It is then repeated on BBC1 at 7:30pm on Friday (except for people in Wales), which I valiantly missed when talking about this on Twitter earlier, ahem.

Of note: the stripey Tron-style set which looks a bit like the current set of Des Chiffres et Des Lettres. There’s a preview clip of them setting it up on the AQoS page on the BBC.

Show Discussion: Cheap Cheap Cheap

By | August 13, 2017

Weekdays, 3pm,
Channel 4

And so as ever it comes to TV’s most innovative man Noel Edmonds to come up with something genuinely a bit different, which may well crash and burn but might also turn out to be massively entertaining. It’s a gameshow, set in Noel’s shop, but also has sitcom themes running through it.

We’ve often longed for a UK version of incredible Italian show Avanti Un Altro and for better or worse this might end up being the nearest UK equivalent. The general manager is Barry From Watford, who’s an established thing, and chaos is provided by other characters as well. I’m quite interested to find out how much is script and how much is off the cuff, because 30 episodes of 60 minutes would require a lot of writing.

Pairs of contestants must determine which of three items is the cheapest. Do it eight times in a row and they leave with £25,000. Get it wrong and they leave with nothing.

We can certainly see elements to take issue with from the start – that money ladder is all over the place in the top half, and it sounds like you have to decide to play on before you see the question which is stupid – there’s no jeopardy in walking away which they will if you have to gamble blind, you have to lure them in. It also remains to be seen whether people coming for a quiz get annoyed by the comedy and vice versa.

Despite all this we’re looking forward to finally watching it and have our fingers crossed for it, even if it might not quite work.