Watching Telly: Pointless

By | January 28, 2011
7 Comments

Right, I’m LIVEBLOGGING this from an Internet cafe thing in Westfield as I wait for the off-peak trains to start.

What is there to say? Not much really.

  • It was very fun, as Americans would say.
  • Geek Hero Richard Osman is really, REALLY tall. I had heard this previously, but unless you’ve seen him in real life you wouldn’t understand – from my position in the audience pit he was practically as tall as the contestants standing on the high level of the stage. At least eight feet.
  • Many studios look big on telly but are in reality quite small. Pointless looks small on telly, but actually feels quite large in real life.
  • It’s funny on screen, but it’s much funnier live – the jokes, the looks, the awkward silences and filling, it’s all quite Jane Austen.
  • Both were brilliant, Armstrong acknowledges the audience more though.
  • An interesting situation came up where two teams tied with 200 points i.e. both members had failed to come up with an answer. I don’t know how regularly that occurs, but in a tie they confer and give a third answer, best score wins. I idly wonder if such a situation comes up it might be easier if they just went to an emergency thrid round sort of question to break the tie. Something interesting and funny happened with this though, so look out for a question on Eurovisaion host cities.
  • Recordings take about 90-100 minutes each. Not an awful lot in the way of stopdowns really, I noticed Greg the floor manager off of Deal or No Deal (or used to do it at any rate) was doing that here as well.
  • Oh, in the two episodes I saw, there were no new rounds. Armstrong suggested there were some new graphics in the head to head on the podiums, although I couldn’t see them. Also Armstrong’s podium moves from the tier to the floor for the final for no reason I can discern.
  • I hadn’t considered this before, but the audience don’t start “ooohing” until the Point-o-meter (my name, but they can have it if they want) hits 70.
  • Yes, go and see it live.
  • I can get the train now.

That’s Your (Pi)Lot: Hold On To Your Seat!

By | January 26, 2011
40 Comments

Right, these are actually tomorrow, so check back tomorrow night for some opinion.

Most interestingly, tomorrow’s pilots are going to be hosted by… Michael Ball. Let’s hope he doesn’t set one step out of time eh readers? It’s eyebrow raiser to be sure, and I’m not overly convinced but we will give him a fair crack of the whip. Edit: Or the second one is, at least.

You can read about the original French show here.

Right, I’m back.

  • Yes, two pilots today. The early one was hosted by Ben Shephard. Does the thought of Ben Shephard hosting a show get you excited? Me neither. Especially a show like this.
  • The first one may have overrun a bit, as this started about an hour and a half late. To its credit, it was a pretty straightforward recording when it got going.
  • So yes, Michael Ball. actually, I thought he was quite good – I’m not entirely certain he’s the perfect fit, but in a show that has a lot of music and fun, his avuncular luvvie-ness counts in his favour. Friendly without being too matey, he interacts with the contestants well and has just about the right amount of piss-taking. Whatsmore, for someone who suggested he had no idea what he was doing there, there were minimal fluff-ups – only three or four pick-ups for mistakes in the entirety of the show.
  • The set is rather bare in comparison to the French show – a blank curtain they can turn whatever colours necessary, then a sort of concentric rib cage effect round the studio with coloured panels dotted around hapahazardly. The champion’s chair is red and similar to the French one. The set lacks a bit of warmth but it’s colourful. The graphics, from the glances I was able to make to the monitor, are identical to the French show.
  • There is no having the audience pointing to the chair and shouting “… YOUR SEAT!” which in an everyman sort of show is a misstep I think.
  • Champion gets his own lounge looking like the french one, with the portraits of previous winners on the wall.
  • The game is basically the same as the French show with one addition I will get to in a moment. Round one (titled “Round One”) features six contestants each getting two questions each – top four go through, champion breaks ties presumably. About three or four of these were music questions, and the audience were encouraged to dance, sing  and clap in their seats – samples probably went on a bit too long, and they were faded out rather than having Ball cut them out which is a shame. Chats were fairly lengthy, and there was a lot of banter between host, challengers and champion watching from the large monitor. “Duo, Square or Got it!” replaced by “Duo, Quad or Got It!” it is a shame they couldn’t think of a better term than “Got it!”
  • Break then round two, again exactly like the French show – three duos, three quads, two got its and then the Champion’s question. Only two get eliminated here. Actually different to the french show is that the questions aren’t on a given category.
  • Break then the all new round three with the two remaining challengers – six subjects go up on the board, each challenger will answer three in turn, but the champion will select who gets which question. Champion gets to decide who goes through if the scores are tied.
  • Break then final (titled The Stand-Off) – this is exactly like the French original, although if the viewers at home could see the category the Challenger is strongest at, this wasn’t conveyed to the audience.
  • The pay-off is £100 a point which I think is a real gamble in a 5pm slot on ITV in 2011 – that means on most days it will be giving away less than Weakest Link. I maintain that £250 a point would feel more exciting and not break the bank, but then it’s not my money. If the early episodes lead to £500-600 wins, they’d better hope the audience finds what is basically a fairly standard quiz with fun musical elements has enough of a hook to keep them watching at an hour at a time.
  • If the Champion matches the score of the Challenger, the Champion wins – this has always been the case, but I wonder if it will appeal more to the UK’s sense of fair play if in the event of a tie the Champion keeps his seat but the money is split between them? Just a thought.
  • Yes, I’m broadly positive. In fact this might give ITV a bit of a headache – The Chase currently pulls in a large audience of almost three million people in the slot and it’s unlikely they want to give that up. Hold On To Your Seat demands contiguousness, and there’s no guarantee it will work here in the way it is successful in France. It’s probably a nice problem to have, but you don’t really want Seat to have lengthy breaks in the way The Chase can. Of course, the idea that Seat is intended for the 5pm slot might be way off.

I’m off to see Pointless tomorrow! In the meantime, here’s some music:

We haven’t had a round-up for a while

By | January 25, 2011
29 Comments

Right, new content alert – I’ve done an iDevice review for Lingo HD. It’s an unofficial game, but it actually plays the word game element quite well so have a look. Will try and do an Amazing Race app review at the weekend.

Meanwhile, the Digital Spy forums are suggesting that ITV have bought the rights to Zodiak’s popular-in-Denmark Sing if You Can, also known as Twist and Shout. In this show, celebrities try to sing whilst being distracted in a number of wacky, zany and painful ways like being lowered into a tub of ice, having dodgeballs thrown at them, that sort of thing. Saw the promo film for it a while ago, it has many of the elements of a potential hit (Celebrities! Singing! Mild peril!) but it doesn’t feel like a potential hit, shall we say. Make of that what you will. Edit: I don’t know where I got the idea it’s big in Denmark, but is has apparently aired on a minor channel in France. And also Turkey.

Also TNA Wrestling is coming to Challenge when it launches on Freeview in February. Are they going to call it Sky Challenge? Anyway, this is obviously Sky moving Bravo’s popular programmes across, it will be interesting not only to see how well it does but also what other plans Sky have in store for the channel – in theory they’re willing to throw some money at it, and it’s been boring for years so it wouldn’t take much to feel like a meaningful shake-up.

Appropos of nothing, despite my expectation that Fort Boyard would be axed in France following a couple of poor rating seasons, it doesn’t appear to have actually happened yet, and Olivier Minne has just signed to become a France 2-only celeb. Hmm.

Board of Non-Excitement 23rd-29th January 2010

By | January 23, 2011
13 Comments

There’s really really not much on this week – Wipeout‘s both Winter and Total if you’re into that sort of thing (Thursday on ABC and Saturday at 6pm on BBC1 respectively), and a new eight-part run of The Million Pound Drop – LIVE!!! begins Friday at 10pm and also Saturday for the next four weeks, just don’t forget that we’re legally obliged to call it The BRILLIANT Pound Drop now, because it’s just so brilliant.

To make up for a non-exciting week on screen, it’s a more exciting week off screen – I’m hoping to have not one, not three, but TWO recording reports for you this week, one of which is one of the two exciting pilots for Hold On To Your Seat!, the other of which is Pointless which I am very excited about. So look out for those.

Meanwhile next Sunday night is the second edition of the world’s most exciting series of poker, the Bother Series of Poker. Last week I thrashed all oncomers, and I hope to do so again next week – it was nice to see so many new faces, so don’t feel intimidated and join in the fun. Last year’s winner Andrew Smith videoed it and put together a highlights package of sorts and here it is:

Details for Game two are up on The BSOP Page.