Look I know what you’re thinking, “Brig I know the world of gameshows and competitive reality has been, for want of a better word, really dull recently but it would be nice if there were posts not based solely around what Bother’s Bar is doing or has been up to as an exciting change of pace especially given you’re doing The Smartest Person at Bother’s Bar three nights next week on the Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.”

Well readers I hear you, so here are some things in the comments recently you might have missed, with thanks to various contributors:

• Taskmaster promos – Contestants in the upcoming series have been charged with making a billboard to advertise the new series starting April 25th on Dave. Here is a three minute film, although you have to register for UKTV Play now because everyone in television is awful. Also in the new series “to encourage greater audience participation in the show, each week viewers will be asked to complete a task set via Dave’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, with the winner receiving a takeaway voucher.” THUMBS UP EMOJI.
• “They” are looking for contestants for 5 Gold Rings. Looking at the recent viewing figures this could be the nexus point of a 3D graph with “most money”, “most fun”, “least chance of national embarrassment” along all the axes.
• Babushka is going to be heart attack inducing.
• The Boss with Susan Calman starts April 24th on BBC One.
• Murder in Successville returns to BBC3 from 19th April, first guest detective is Richard Osman.
• Finally Countdown is getting a new set, although it looks like evolution rather than revolution:

IF you missed it on the Schlag den Star Watchalong on Saturday night, David Bodycombe set up a game of Что? Где? Когда?, the Russian show that became Million Dollar Mind Game in the US, where logical questions are clouded in euphemism. As promised here’s an edit. Who will win, the commentators or the viewers?

Saturday,
7:15pm UK/8:15pm Germany,
Pro Sieben or naughty internet streaming

Tweet us! #bbsds

This is dependent on us being able to find a safe livestream. Follow us on Twitter for updates (bottom of post).

That’s right star schlaggers we’re back for another evening of celebrity challenges and commentary fun and frolics.

Join me and our regular commentators we watch two German celebrities battle it out over fifteen games both spectacular and mundane for Elton’s €100,000 case – LIVE.

During the boring bits we’ll have our own games and gossip, and we’ll try and remember to read out your tweets on the #bbsds hashtag.

But who are our two gladiators battling it out on Saturday night? Why it’s only bloody comedian Luke Mockridge (last seen on Ultimate Beastmaster) and vegan chef Attila Hildmann. Music will be provided by Take That.

Our commentary stream – live from 7:15 to around midnight
This stream is commentary only. You will need to have a naughty stream running at the same time for the visuals. We are likely to be about 15-20 seconds behind the visual stream (and about a full minute behind if you’re watching an actual satellite feed), sorry.

To watch it would be useful to download Opera and sign up for ProSieben’s catch-up service – it’s pretty simple to work out, don’t click the box if you don’t want e-mail messages. You will need to put in a proper e-mail because it will send you a confirmation. Go into your settings (Cog top right of Speed Dial screen, then bottom) – go to Privacy settings, click on Enable VPN. Go to Pro7 stream, click on blue VPN symbol in address bar, turn it on for Germany. Hassle but should work!

Back up – best in Opera or Firefox. Best with ad-block.

@bothersbar, @danielpeake, @davidjbodycombe @sensei256, @ogbajoj

Tschüß!

Well here’s some fun, Daniel Peake of the parish has just starting releasing weekly episodes of his new quiz Codebreaker (one word? Two words? Not sure). Contestants compete to crack a four-digit code, answering themed questions to earn clues and the right to have a guess. Interesting tactics from Jonathan, here:

Look out for episode three in two week’s time when I’m a contestant and get really into it. Also top marks for #hostholdingaquestioncard. Follow @codebreakerquiz on Twitter.

Edit: One word, I’m informed.

That’s right! Join us for another edition of The Bother’s Bar Schlag den Star Watchalong on Saturday night from 7:15pm UK as German comic and Ultimate Beastmaster commentator Luke Mockridge takes on vegan chef Attila Hildmann across fifteen challenges for Elton’s €100,000 briefcase – live. Music is going to be provided by Take That.

I do not know what this from David is about:

PSST! Look, Nick doesn’t know I’m posting this, but I’m planning something for the Schlag den Star live stream this weekend and I need YOUR help. If you have a few minutes to spare (and you aren’t Nick, Dan, Scott or Lewis!) then please email me via thelab@qwertyuiop.co.uk and I’ll fill you in. Thanks!

Meanwhile we ALMOST have enough people for a full run of The Smartest Person at Bother’s Bar and I intend to give people dates late Sunday night, so if you want to take part and haven’t got in touch yet then please do so.

Whoo-hoo! It was the C21 Format awards last night. Do you remember when they used to award best format to The Bank Job and Take On The Twisters? Great days.

The two awards of interest, best Competition Reality Format went to Get The F*ck Out Of My House (the asterisk is a ‘u’ btw), where a hundred people share a house until one by one they can’t take it and leave, with the last person left becoming the winner. We briefly discussed it in comments around Christmas.

But best studio gameshow went to a show called Doctors vs Internet, where a team of doctors race against a team of civilians armed only with Google to try and diagnose people’s problems. It was getting 50% shares in Norway (reminder: Norway), but it’s already been commissioned for a second series on the Netherlands’ NPO1, it says here. Here’s a page on it, and here’s a video: