Fort Boyard is back, back BACK!

By | May 27, 2011
35 Comments

Hold on to your hats kids, it sounds as though Fort Boyard is deffo coming back to UK screens, but in a twist, it’s going to be for older kids. I believe they will be shooting some US episodes as well. To be honest going by the Contestant Call it sounds like they’re trying quite a few things out (18 year old team captain and 13-15 year old team mates?).

But what of the exciting French show beginning July 2nd? Here’s what we’ve gleaned:

  • 13 new games, two of which are returning faves (the mud wrestling and the fight with the pugil sticks on a beam) with some high-tech twists, apparently.
  • The cells are now decked out in the style of a carnival, the jungle or high tech.
  • Three new characters – the mud wrestler, Justice White and The Firefly.
  • Teams must now get seven keys again.
  • It sounds like The Firefly will help on the high-tech games, whilst Justice White is who the teams go to if they don’t get their seven keys, he’ll give them the chance to make them up for a price.
  • Pere Fouras is now in charge of the Council, and this time, it sounds like a modified version of the betting from 2009 is returning – now this time you win or lose Treasure Room time if you win or lose the bet.
  • Can’t wait!

How can you tell when something is, in fact, a gameshow?

By | May 26, 2011
16 Comments

The answer is, of course, when the host right at the beginning says “this is not a gameshow.” Anyway, here’s some Silent Library (based, of course, on a segment of popular Japanese show Dauntaun no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!!) It’s a celebrity edition with punk (presumably) band All Time Low playing. The idea, of course, is that one or more people are picked at random to take a punishment, they and their friends laughing at them must try to remain as quiet as possible to win the money.

It’s mildly entertaining, I could see it being a minor hit on Channel 5 if done the right way.

Silent Library

By | May 25, 2011
18 Comments

Very quick as I’m in a rush, Broadcast reporting that Channel 5 have bought the rights to Silent Library, the show where people gather in a library and must perform painful and hilarious tasks whilst not shouting, and whilst their friends try very hard not to piss themselves laughing too loudly, for a cash prize of up to £2,000 (wooooh!)

This has already been done in the UK as Fist of Zen on MTV UK, of course.

In other news: Does anyone know anything about this?

And here’s some fun: If the Eurovision 2011 was jury only, Italy would have won. Possibly quite predictably, Blue did much better in the televote than the juries.

Show Discussion: Four Rooms

By | May 24, 2011
20 Comments

Tonight at 8pm on Channel 4.

Is it just going to be Dickinson’s Real Deal but with added game theory, trendy camera angles, “tense” music and a cast of eccentric characters, or will it be so much more than that?

Monday night fun

By | May 23, 2011
35 Comments

Here’s quite a good thing from our very good friends at TV Cream, it’s their top ten Rules of the Gameshow, featuring extended versions of clips you’ve already seen and interesting clips of things you probably haven’t, like Brucie going into the audience. Plus lots of Surely-Should-Be-Sir Fred Dinenage!

Apparently Tuesday’s Deal or No Deal “will blow your mind”. So there we are.

Board of Excitement 22nd-28th May 2010

By | May 22, 2011
38 Comments

Well the world didn’t end. Might as well watch some telly:

  • The Bother Series of Poker Game 10 – or come along and play some poker. (8pm, Sunday, Full Tilt) – Results here.
  • Scream if You Know the Answer! – Rest assured I don’t believe this to be the greatest show in the universe but it’s fun and Summery and I think better than you’d expect from a digital channel, and therefore worth supporting. And I would totally want to be a contestant. Tonight’s match ups see Denise Van Outen vs Jason Gardner then an unlikely battle between Neil Morrisey and Edwina Currie. (7pm, Sunday, Watch)
  • The Amazing Race Australia – This surprised me last week by basically being the show you wish they’d make in the US these days. Worth a punt. (Monday, Australia)
  • Four Rooms – Well I say “excitement”, it’s a new show where people with things to sell take or refuse offers from four different dealers, knowing they can’t go back if they refuse an offer. (8pm, Tuesday, C4)

I was also going to list Impossible? here but it rated so badly it has been pulled from the schedules. Whilst I don’t think the show was by any means perfect, I thought it was well produced and deserving of more that it got. I think Escoffey might be a problem – he’s not initially as charming as Derren Brown (and charm is so important in this kind of thing), and indeed there is/was something of an irritating nerd being cool about him, a sort of Simon Amstell pre-good Popworld. But somewhere during episode two something clicked and I was quite enjoying his performance, the more of a devious bastard he became the more I enjoyed it. Therefore I hope the other four episodes get broadcast somewhere.

Edit: It’s also the BAFTAs tonight at 8pm on BBC1. Of interest: Come Dine With Me in the Features category and The Cube, have I Got News For You and The X Factor in Best Entertainment Programme.