With thanks to Buzzerblog for spotting this, Endemol Shine have a format called Trapped Doors knocking about, a show where couples must escape a series of concentric circles banking money along the way by picking good doors. Run out of keys and it’s game over.

The game doesn’t sound all that, it’s a scratchcard basically. But just take a look at the set. Very cool, and a potential health and safety nightmare.

In other news, Endemol Shine are working with the director of Bother’s Bar favourite The Genius for a new show called Society Game, which is looking for contestants. We’re trying to work out what it actually is.

“A mock society game show will unfold in a controlled village environment over 14 days between 22 contestants.”

— Bumdidlyumptious (@Bumdidlyump) June 17, 2016

“If you complete the challenges given to you and survive until the end, $100,000 will be yours.”

— Bumdidlyumptious (@Bumdidlyump) June 17, 2016

“Join the special survival game about ‘society’ and ‘leaders’.”

— Bumdidlyumptious (@Bumdidlyump) June 17, 2016

Interesting stuff. Basic translation suggests something a bit like Survivor In A Village, but I don’t know.

Great news for fans of comedy sort-of gameshows (or at least Unscripted Of Interest), the new series of Murder in Successville starts on BBC3 on iPlayer (with a proper broadcast at some point in the future) TODAY, episode one is Vicky Pattison.

Certainly the Jaime Laing episode last year was the hardest I’d laughed at anything for quite some time.

Meanwhile on UKTV On Demand, the first episode of the second series of Taskmaster is up on demand. I’m pondering whether I’m going to watch it tonight or enjoy it as a shared experience on Twitter when it goes out properly next week. Decisions decisions.

This might be a fun idea, ITV looking for families to take part in family editions of The Chase.

You can apply here, players need to be 16 or over and they want several generations ideally. You’ve got until October to register interest, so it will be a while before we see how it affects the team dynamic.

Last night we found the intro to pan-Scandinavian version of Treasure Hunt Skattjakten on Youtube from 1983, the intro has an incredible synth-jazz-fusion theme tune, not unlike the sort of thing you could find on a Spectrum demo in the early to mid-80s (Edit: It’s from Jean-Michel Jarre’s 17 minute Magnetic Fields Part 1, which might explain it):

Also of interest, although slightly less interesting is the intro to Rätselflug, the German version, as it’s just the same theme as La Chasse Au Tresor:

Yes! Despite the fact that it’s dull and nobody watches it the BBC has decided they’re going to continue making Decimate UNTIL YOU LIKE IT.

Still if it’s on you might as well apply and possibly win a bit of money, here’s the link to the online application form. Good luck!

It was Big Brother launch night last night where a selection of basically identical people who were sexually confident and up for a fight entered the new look slightly migrane inducing house for a shot at £100,000. Joining them in a second adjacent house are The Others, six people secretly aiming to take down the housemates and take their spot in the house, some of whom have previous with said housemates. Most of the housemates would have slotted into a Celebrity Big Brother pretty easily (Nathalie Rowe! That girl from The Valleys! Sacked BBC  journalist!) In theory the housemates don’t know about The Others, in reality it sounds like they’ve worked it out pretty quickly.

I hadn’t felt so bored watching a launch night in years. And this comes off the back of last year’s launch which was genuinely excellent. The cast seems terrible, I can’t see where the laughs are going to come from. There will almost certainly be fights, but between people I’m not sure I give a toss about. Right now The Others as a twist looking like a rather expensive damp squib that’ll probably be done in a week.

We’re in a slightly odd position where Celeb Big Brother offers some genuine diversity and unusual “how are they going to react?” situations and combinations whilst Wannabe Big Brother feels so drab by comparison when in theory you have a much wider pool of people to choose from. Even the line they’re trying to drop in every two minutes, “the game has changed,” feels like a complete exaggeration at this point. Who is going to provide “DAVID’S DEAD?” out of this lot?

Disappointing. And I had been looking forward to it as well.