Look it’s hot alright?

• Boom! started in the US last week (you can always tell when someone can’t remember the exact date) on Fox and did pretty badly. If it was a straight port of the Israeli show this would be to be expected (I think it’s a bit boring despite the premise) but it’s been localised by game show supremo Bob Boden and chums and the result is… a bit better – questions don’t go on for ages, the money works differently (I would suggest there’s something not *quite* right with the mega money bomb, gambling half to make four times as much is a no brainer – gambling makes for exciting television but there’s no real decision here), host Tom Papa is pretty good… it’s just like Benchmark in that it’s clever and I can see what it’s doing but I’m ultimately not that bothered by what happens. Still though, get on a VPN and check it out on the Fox site (or indeed other dark magicks you might use). Perhaps the problem is me.
• Family Feud under Steve Harvey is now basically the biggest show on television.
• Battlebots is on as well. It’s doing alright. Perhaps someone will try a Robot Wars revival one day what with it being the ORIGINAL and BEST yeah?
• US Millionaire is reverting to a modified money tree and Chris Harrison from The Bachelor is going to host and oh God Millionaire is so boring and probably should have been cancelled by now.
• We might get English subs for episode one of The Genius on Wednesday.

Here’s The Desert Forges in German because nothing represents the heat of the desert better than a remix of Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight:

I wonder what physical/skill based thing Talkback Thames are mixing with a quiz *this* time? Perhaps nothing at all. Anyway it sounds like fun so go for it:

It’s Fort Boyard tonight and The Genius tonight (but likely to be a few days for a translation). Follow our discussion on the relevant pages.

I mean Prized Apart is on tonight as well, but it’s the episode I saw being filmed and the market task is a bit dull. But there’s that as well if you can’t be bothered to work out a VPN.

Well this sounds like a laugh:

My favourite bit of The Crystal Maze was when they went “WHAT HAVE I GOT TO D…oh it’s alright I saw this on telly last week.”

In general would people prefer all classic games or some new games too? #crystalmaze

— The Crystal Maze (@CrystalMazeHQ) June 24, 2015

Surely, surely, most of the idea of The Crystal Maze and why it worked as a returning show was that it constantly threw new things at contestants (and indeed shouting viewers) to work out. Surely that is the experience and to me it’s a bit worrying the question has to be asked in the first place. Of the 300-odd games the Maze had over its six year run, 90%+ were unique concepts, others used existing apparatus in different ways.

I still don’t know what the plan is regarding what you get for your money, for a team of eight players I want 16 games, four per zone, two per player *minimum*, accepting that the puzzle dungeon if you get locked in counts as a game. Each game is going to need to be reset before the next team come round – if it all hangs together properly it’s going to be quite some feat.

I do want this to be brilliant, but I do wonder if they’ve bitten more than they can chew.

Challenge are making an hour long Bullseye documentary called You Can’t Beat A Bit Of Bully for later this year because.

Here is channel director Steven Ladlow’s Boring Press Release Quote (courtesy of Broadcast):

“Bullseye was a landmark for British TV gameshows, occupying a golden age of primetime TV viewing. This will be a great opportunity for viewers to witness first-hand how the show became so popular from the people who were instrumental in ensuring its success.”

It will be interesting to see if they can uncover anything we don’t know already, the history of Bullseye has been detailed variously many times. It’s been nine years since Challenge tried a relaunch of the show with Dave Spikey, and like all Challenge relaunches there was initial interest and a fairly quick tail off.