Genuinely fascinated by how well IQTV is or isn’t doing. Their Twitter currently has 32 followers. Please give them a follow, it’s embarrassing.
Our IQTV correspondent Gordon Donaldson:
They tell me feedback from Virgin Media viewers has been positive so that’s a start
— Gordon G Donaldson (@gordygeorge88) 6 September 2018
Nope, still can’t get excited.
Wednesdays, 9pm,
Dave and UKTV Play
I think Taskmaster‘s the only show we’ve bothered to give a show discussion post to seven different series now and here we are again as Rhod Gilbert, Kerry Godliman, Phil Wang, James Acaster and Jessica Knappett compete in ridiculous tasks over the next ten weeks.
In related news, Alex Horne did a very interesting Ask Me Anything on Reddit on Tuesday, including the revelation that We Need Answers might be due a comeback.
The Taskmaster book is out on Thursday 6th, £7.99 on Kindle and (right now) £9.35 hardback on Amazon.
It’s the first Monday in September, that means today there are BRAND NEW episodes of Pointless, Jeremy Kyle, Judge Rinder, Tenable, Tipping Point (I presume) AND The Chase to watch today. Will any of them have any significant changes (probably not?)
I actually had no idea they recorded more Tenable, so that’s a nice surprise.
Sundays, 7pm
ITV
Philip Schofield returns with a new series of visi-quiz 5 Gold Rings and its pretend hi-tech floor.
There have been a number of changes since the first series – new set (the last series was filmed in the Netherlands on their set, this one was filmed at Elstree) and new gameplay mechanics – this time teams only get one crack at each question, and if they get it wrong their opponents can come in and steal the money for themselves, so it’s no longer effectively two solitaire games leading up to a final – the advantage for the final feels better earnt. It also means more questions as everyone is guaranteed five plus a floor flip.
I went to a recording back in December and you can read about the experience here.
I reckon the changes that have been made are solid and good. I don’t know if they are enough to break the show out into proper ‘hit’ status. You can still appalong, or at least could at the time of recording, but like most appalongs I just find it too much hassle for not enough reward whilst trying to watch a TV show.
Let us know what you think in the comments.
MORTALL KOMBAAT!
Ultimate Beastmaster series 3 has dropped on Netflix, and this one’s especially interesting because there’s a Great Britain team.
At time of writing I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet so don’t know what other changes there are (although I’ve read there’s a new tournament format and eight countries being represented this time round, with none other than Dannii Minogue commentating for the Australians) so feel free to discuss it here.
There’s no Crystal Maze tonight as it’s ended its run. So! Thanks to a tweet from @danielmarkhurst let us revisit what ITV were determined to make “the new Crystal Maze” in 2010 with the second of two episodes of… The Door, with thanks to the uploader:
It’s not the first time ITV had tried to upscale Bushtucker Trials into their own format as they tried making a big thing of Scream If You Want To Get Off, starring Nigel Marven and Charlie Brockett, but despite the claims at the time it was the scariest show on television it basically ended up being It’s a Knockout + an occasional animal in South Africa. It didn’t last long.
It always amazes me to remember that in the first series of I’m a Celeb, one of the trials was just Nell McAndrew on a Bucking Bronco.