Saturday, 7:15pm (UK)/8:15pm (Germany)
ProSieben or your naughty alternative of choice.

Well it seemed to go well last time when most of us weren’t around so why not join us for our Christmas-not-Christmas Schlag den Star 2018 Communal Watchalong Special? Grab a mic and join us on Google Hangouts, or just listen to us on Youtube.

We’re not always going to do this. But it’s Christmas!

Anyway, this episode, popstar Sarah Lombardi takes on rapper Eko Fresh over 15 events for Elton’s €100,000 briefcase. There will probably be some singing acts too, which we will probably ignore.

Here is a link to the Youtube commentary stream.
This stream is commentary only. You will need to have a naughty stream running at the same time for the visuals. We are likely to be about 15-20 seconds behind the visual stream (and about a full minute behind if you’re watching an actual satellite feed), sorry.

The Opera VPN has apparently stopped being useful for SdS. Bother’s Bar recommends shelling out for a proper VPN service. Bother’s Bar uses Tunnelbear, other VPN services are available. Matt Clemson recommends Windscribe as a free alternative. We cannot take responsibility for anything you do to your system, so be careful and use some common sense.

To watch it would be useful to sign up for ProSieben’s catch-up service – it’s pretty simple to work out, don’t click the box if you don’t want e-mail messages. You will need to put in a proper e-mail because it will send you a confirmation. 

If anyone knows of any relatively safe livestreams, do feel free to share.

It’s been a little while since the last one but join us on Saturday on Discord from 7:15pm for the live Communal Schlag den Star Watchalong!

This episode, popstar Sarah Lombardi takes on rapper Eko Fresh over 15 events for Elton’s €100,000 briefcase. There will probably be some singing acts too, which we will probably ignore.

In fact if it wasn’t for the slightly updated set and a new Banker you’d be hard pressed to discern it from the show ten years ago.

If you want to watch it I imagine you could probably find it on Youtube or Reddit or something, or even use the Dark Arts. The series will run on Wednesdays on cable channel CNBC, but a “holiday special” aired on the main NBC Network on Monday (making it surely the earliest Christmas Special for a gameshow since The Crystal Maze mid-advent Special last year).

In the spirit of Christmas, I’ll put some thoughts down underneath a cut so you can avoid being spoiled too much.

Continue reading →

The Blockbusters reboot is going to Comedy Central and Dara o’Briain is hosting.

Traditionally there’s not an awful lot to write about in December (it’s Christmas!) and I don’t have any leave left to go and watch anything being filmed (last year we did Top of the Pops/5 Gold Rings) but at the very least we have a lot of community stuff happening across the month. Get your eyes around these:

• 8th December : Schlag den Star – The freeforall seemed to work quite well last time so we will look into doing it again.
• 9th December : Friend of the Bar Anne Hegerty wins I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here – self explanatory.
• 15th December : Bother’s Bar Festive Game Night: 13th Night – featuring a massive elephant in the room.
• 28th December (TBC) : Bother’s Bar FIGHT NIGHT – LIVE! For everyone who gets a Switch with Smash Bros for Christmas, join in with Bother’s Bar Fight Night which, for the first time, we’re going to attempt to live stream for those who just want to watch. Details to come, add me as a Switch friend in the interim SW-2805-5403-1808.
• 2nd January : The BB/UKGS.com Poll of 2018 – Incredible.

I might attempt to do another Bother’s Bar Plays Badly. In the interim, here’s a fascinating playlist of someone playing old US gameshow video games.

Big Brother‘s second house. The X Factor Twitter Wheel. The X Factor Jukebox.

There are many examples of idea in TV that are bigged up and dropped quite quickly, either they don’t work, viewers don’t like it or both.

And so we come to Run the Risk‘s Dark Zone, replacing the show’s big race finale during the year comic and puppeteer John Ecclestone was given the reigns of the show. It’s a bit like Funhouse, but without any indication of scale and being rather difficult to follow. It’s probably no surprise that when Bobby Davro took over the following year they went back to being a big race, and making it more inflatable and gungier than before.