Sunday Sunday

By | October 3, 2010

Sundays are normally boring of course, but tonight there’s The Cube and The X Factor finalists revealed. WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN?

The forms for our second BIG PRIZE competition of the year will go up before 10pm hopefully. Good luck!

Edit: And we’re off!

The INTERACTIVE Board of Crushing Inevitability 3rd October-9th October

By | October 3, 2010

Not much new stuff to get excited about this week, but let’s go through the motions anyway:

  • The Cube (6:45pm, Sunday, ITV1): This week, a man attempts to win £250,000 by playing EGGBOIL, where he must successfully boil an egg to a required consistancy and all without the aid of a clock.
  • Fantasy X Factor Launch (9:30pm-ish, Sunday, Bother’s Bar) – The unofficial X Factor fantasy competition returns for its fourth or fifth year, I forget which, with another £100 up for grabs. The rules and points scoring will go up later today, and the forms soon after the final 12 (OR ARE THEY???) are released. Oh, The X Factor is also on as well, variously.
  • The Amazing Race (Sunday, CBS): I went to Stonehenge, and all I got was a lousy watermelon right in the face. This was hilarious, because we all knew it was coming but the editors were happy to play the “will it/won’t it?” card for as good five minutes. The Amazing Race also represents the only time people get excited about the UK road network.
  • Only Connect (8:30pm, Monday, BBC4): Fantasy Writers vs Bridge Players, it says here.
  • 71 Degrees North (9pm, Tuesday, ITV1): It’s cold, apparently.
  • Survivor: Nicaragua (Wednesday, CBS): Episode two’s epic Tribal Council not withstanding, I’m not quite feeling this one yet. Hopefully this will change.
  • The Challenge: Cutthroat (Wednesday, MTV US): It’s not usual to advertise an MTV show, but having watched the last season of The Challenge I think I will bill this one – sure it’s mainly good looking young people getting drunk and arguing in a house, but the tasks are on the whole fun and quite demanding. This season unfortunate contestants will be sent to The Gulag to fight for survival. Which is tasteful. It should be available from the usual sorts of places.
  • The Apprentice (9pm, Wednesday, BBC1): Sir Lord Alan Sugar is back with Nick Hewer and new adviser Karren Brady in tow. I’m going to be honest, The Apprentice is a massive blind spot for me. I know its the sort of thing I think I’m likely to enjoy, and do tend to enjoy it when I watch it but I’ve just never got round to doing it properly. I will try and make the effort this time round though.

What else is getting YOU excited?

Winningest

By | October 2, 2010

It’s time for some more weekend CONTENT!

I’ve gone and reviewed the Wheel of Fortune HD app currently in the iTunes Store for £2.99. The iPhone version – WoF Platinum, is also in the store and will cost you 59p.

Don’t forget! Fantasy X Factor begins tomorrow night! Exciting!

Mark Watson Kicks Off

By | September 30, 2010

There we are, after wanting a new thing to come along I get an E-mail from Lost in TV advertising a new ITV4 show called Mark Watson Kicks Off, a brutal no-holds-barred comedy discussion show made from 100 per cent pear that sounds exactly like Fighting Talk and is made by World’s End, the same people who do Fighting Talk. Probably won’t go to this as it turns out, but if you do, do let us know what it’s like. It records mid-October. Looks like these may be pilots?

Dear People In TV Land

By | September 29, 2010

I’ve not seen any TV magic for about six months, and I’m aching for the heady and exciting days of new Endemol pilots that take about six hours to film to write about/slag off. Please do some new shows please thanks. In London. Or Cambridge.

In fact I’m so bored I’ll deploy this interesting gossip which I was going to keep until nearer the time. Someone who I will keep anonymous (unless they want to out themselves, of course) who went to both recording blocks of troubled future BBC2 quiz Perfection suggested that the adjudicators were paying much closer attention to the audience the second time round. That does suggest (alongside the official line that relevant monitors weren’t shielded) that there was some low-rent Major Ingram-esque shenanigans going on, doesn’t it? Or at least a lot of friendly audiences. I am sure we will never truly know.

There will be another iPod review at the weekend.

Oh that’s interesting, Mediaguardian suggest that talks between Endemol and Channel 5 regarding Big Brother have stalled, but they’re having a chat about bringing The Golden Cage to UK screens, which is especially interesting given that I’d presume TGC would cost more to make. In the original Dutch De Goolden Kooi, people live a life of luxury in a mansion but if you leave you’re out. Last one left wins the mansion and associated large cash prize. Could last weeks, could last years, although I think they sped up the Dutch show to end it by introducing mandatory eliminations somewhere down the line so… it also lead to an interesting situation in that you sort of had to bully to encourage people to leave, but obviously that looks and feels quite bad, and producers had to intervene on a number of occasions. The format was sold to ABC in the States in 2007, you’d have thought the “gameplaying” element would have been appealing wouldn’t you?

Pif Paf Pof!

By | September 27, 2010

This week one of the clues on Only Connect was Pif! Paf! Pof!, which it turns out is a foreign version of Snap! Crackle! and Pop! and not, regrettably, a connection to do with Eurovision entries.

(Note to puritans: mild sexual suggestion)

This is, of course, from Alan Cumming sitcom The High Life.