The Writers are going on strike again in the US, so expect lots of quick-to-make reality and gameshows in the US over the next months. And less scripted stuff on Netflix.
In other news look what’s been unearthed! The first half of an episode of Remote Control from 1992. This week featuring Phil Cornwell doing an incredible Jim Bowen. Thanks Neil Miles!
Balance the cars on the seesaw for 20 seconds. Win and Joko and Klaas get 15 minutes of primetime TV to do whatever they want with. Lose and be contractually obliged to commentate on Charles’ coronation on Sat 1 for an hour. Last night’s finale of Joko & Klaas Gegen Pro 7, currently the gold standard of studio-based challenge shows.
What happened to it being called I’m A Celeb All Stars? Anyway I’m not convinced by the prospect of people you’ve already seen doing things they’ve already basically done… but in South Africa! It’ll probably be good for around 4-5m (the lower end I suspect) which is more than ITV will usually be getting in the slot for three weeks, so fine, but I fear this might have a knock-on effect for this November, especially if it doesn’t really take-off which as pre-record and without the reactive element that the live shows do so well may well be a possibility.
The new Takeshi’s Castle launched on Japanese Amazon Prime Video today, and although we know it will be coming at some point, we fear it might not join Prime Video in the Rest of the World for a while.
Which is a shame. Here is the Japanese store page, perhaps you can VPN in if you can’t wait.
Fun fun fun, the BBC are co-prodding with NBC Universal on a new Belgian format Destination X.
In it, groups of people are driven around Europe on a blacked out bus. The bus stops, and given what they can work out from what they see, real clues and fake ones, and doing challenges to earn further clues, they have to mark where they think they are on a map. The person who is furthest away gets eliminated. Presumably it’s a different place each episode and you’ll get to play along at home.
Might actually be good fun – great ratings on VTM in the Flemish region of Belgium, and we love a Flemish format here at The Bar which tend towards more imaginative than most. And there’s De Mol, which is the best show on television.
It does strike me that popular Youtuber GeoWizard, amongst his travelogues and straight-line challenges and his playing of GeoGuessr, basically did this a few years ago, although I’m surprised he only seems to have done it once.
Sunday-Thursday, 9pm,
C4
Apparently the first reality show to be named after a Steps Top 40 hit (although surely there’s a gameshow called 5, 6, 7, 8 waiting to go somewhere), Scared of the Dark sees Danny Dyer challenge eight celebs (one of whom is already blind and presumably there as a sort of control subject) to live in the dark for a week with all the challenges and travails that involves. Undoubtedly it’s being pitched as an interesting experiment into sight loss, in reality it’s probably just going to be a week of celebrities going ‘ah!’.
And here lies a bit of a problem – this sort of thing has been done quite successfully in the past – Total Blackout, In The Dark With Julian Clary/Junior Simpson, er, Noel’s Hole from Noel’s House Party, but really these shows were pretty short lived – ultimately there’s only one joke with it – look at their lack of spatial awareness! – and by its very nature you can’t do an awful lot visually with it. You can get an extremely fun 10 minutes out of the idea. A thirty minute show is possible. An hour a night for five days, ninety in the final? I can’t see it. Ironically.
Channel 4 have gone big on this as well, moving all their big hitters like Hunted and Taskmaster out of their slots for the week. Is the lure of Gazza arguing with Chris Eubank in pitch blackness going to be too much to resist? Let us know what you think in the comments.