Saturday, 7pm,
ITV

New talent challenge show fronted by Stephen Mulhern, people with unusual talents are put to the test in challenges devised for television, if they can complete the challenge they win £1,000, if they lose they have to take a Take Me Out-esque Walk of Shame.

We saw an episode being filmed although it’s filmed in such a way they can chop and change to form shows with four items as they see fit. I think their ability to put these shows together will be critical to the show’s success, some challenges a bit dull but some are genuinely incredible although it’s shame that there’s not much effort put into the set-ups (compare and contrast with Epic Win which is probably the closest equivalent, let alone You Bet).

It doesn’t hurt that it’s the lead-in to The X Factor, but these days that is no guarantee of success. Still, I reckon it’s you’re probably likely to enjoy it more than you’re expecting although I say that with the caveat that I don’t yet know how it’s been edited.

Monday 9pm,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 8pm,
ITV

Probably the most intriguing of all the MEGA MONDAY shows, popular ITV1 personality Giles Coren (Vicky’s brother and outspoken restaurant critic) fronts the much anticipated UK version of so-so popular throw-everything-at-a-wall-and-hope-it-sticks US quiz 500 Questions.

500 Questions charges contestants with answering 500 questions correctly without ever getting three wrong in a row. There is a light strategic element in category picking, and an opponent hopes to throw a few spanners in the works to take their place and try and win money for themselves. One of the big criticisms of the US show is that this opponent feels very much like a fifth wheel, there were murmurings that Wall to Wall were going to try and adapt the format to suit the savvier UK audience but we’ll have to see what, if anything, they’ve done. Contestants get to take home cash if they get through at least one round of fifty questions.

Here’s some brief discussion on series one and series two of the US show for background.

If it’s at the same speed as the US show you can probably expect it to get through around 200-230 questions in its four episode run so expect lots of complaints about that. We’re intrigued that the advert paints Coren as quite an abrasive host which would be quite different to how it’s played out in the US. Whilst it’s only really been successful as filler in the US it sounds like in Germany it’s been quite successful. Our episodes have actually been filmed on the German set.

Obviously we’re now looking forward to Giles Coren turning up on Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and Celebrity Juice in the near future. If Judge Rinder will do them…

Weekdays, 6pm,
BBC2

It’s fair to say that this Mega Monday has four new shows but there are two shows that are of most interest to us. This is one of them.

Debatable tasks contestants with finding the correct answers to questions for big money but helping or hindering them are a panel of three celebrities who will debate the answers between them. It sounds a bit like a comedy panel version of Think Tank really.

This is the first we’ve seen of Patrick Kielty for a while.

Weekdays, 6:30pm,
BBC2

And so Eggheads takes its regular Summer break (does it? I don’t know) to be replaced temporarily by Make Me An Egghead, a tournament where quizzers compete to become one of two new Eggheads to replace CJ and Daphne.

To all intents and purposes it appears to be exactly the same as Are You An Egghead? from 2009 but with slightly different Eggheads in the line-up. The two players battle it out in a series of quiz rounds on the traditional Egghead categories, winning a round earns the right to pick an Egghead to help you in the final round.

We ponder if “don’t put all your Eggheads in one basket” will make a reappearance.