INTRIGUE AT ITV, a new audience call for another recording for Sing If You Can has come up at Applause Store and it looks like Vernon Kay’s being dropped in favour of Leigh Francis, presumably as Keith Lemon.

Celebrity Juice does very well for ITV2 (it was rating over 1.6m a few weeks ago) and I quite enjoy it, but Lemon for primetime? It’s not an obvious choice.

The show was always likely to come across as a bit naff on ITV1 so bringing more of a comedy element is probably for the best.

Edit: It sounds as though there might be a little more to this than meets the eye, although I’m still in the dark.

In other news BBC4 are planning an entire Connecting Wall night, based around everyone’s favourite third best round on Only Connect. Amazing.

Thanks to Buzzerblog for the heads-up, Popmonkey TV have bought the rights to “international comedy hit” (apparently) In the Dark, and are hoping to sell it it MIPCOM starting next week.

For those who don’t remember, a pilot was filmed with Julian Clary for ITV in 1996 (he also filmed a series in the States, but was pulled hours before broadcast). In fact it was picked up by Channel 5 and fronted by Junior Simpson, where nobody watched it.

Here’s the pilot!

It’s a slow news day so here’s some fun for the evening, about ten o’ clock on Twitter I’ll be playing a game called The Conveyor Belt of Death. It is a very simple quiz a bit like a game they play on Schlag den Raab on occasion – a category is given followed by ten answers. Seven belong to the category, three do not. Ignore the first reject, you need to reply to me with the item number of the second thing that does not fit the category – the third item is a back-up in case nobody correctly gets the second one. You only get one buzz so think carefully. The first player to do so in the first two rounds wins a berthing into the grand final third category, a tense head to head play off requiring knowledge and nerve where the winner (if there is one) stands to win The Running Man on DVD. BIG PRIZES. I’ll put the questions here in a comment after the game.

There are never-ending variations of the comedy panel game show, here are three upcoming ones you can go and see if you want to:

Name: Us vs Them
Description: Jack Dee hosts a quiz to see which team of celebrities knows more about the week’s news.
Apparent Unique Selling Point: It’s got two teams in it.
Filming dates: Looks like a pilot is being filmed in 25th March… hey, that’s today!

Name: David Walliams’ Wall of Fame
Description: David Walliams hosts a quiz to see which team of celebrities knows more about the week’s celebrity news.
Apparent Unique Selling Point: It’s got a video wall.
Filming dates: Wednesday 30th March.

Name: Alexander Armstrong’s Big Ask
Description: Celebrities are given random topics and have to make up and ask questions to other celebrities on those topics whilst Dave Lamb off of Come Dine With Me checks facts.
Apparent Unique Selling Point: It’s Mental – The Music Quiz for 2011! With Jane Austen-esque uncomfortable silences.
Filming dates: 6th April

Big Ask would be our pick I think, even if it is called something rubbish like Big Ask, as a proper Would I Lie To You?-esque battle of wits.

In other news! Don’t forget it’s BotherSOP Sunday this Sunday. The clocks will have gone forward, but you should still find it begins at 8pm UK time (3pm ET) – and many of the regulars can’t make it this week so it’s likely to be shorter (and easier to win) than normal.