And so Bother’s Bar enters it’s annual Christmas Lull (i.e. we’re here and about but don’t expect to have much to post about for the next week or so, although we’ll put up a discussion post for Quizmaster) and so I’d like to wish all readers a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and we can all look forward to the Poll of 2019 opening on January 2nd. See if you can spot anything egregious missing from the 2019 UKGameshows list.

In the meantime, tonight there is the 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown Christmas Special (9pm C4), The Crystal Maze Christmas Special (10pm C4), Christmas Eve tomorrow features the BBC nicking two of ITV’s biggest stars with likely entertainment pilot Take Off With Bradley and Holly (will it be the next Johnny and Denise’s Passport to Paradise?) (BBC1, 8pm) and there’s The Chase Bloopers (ITV, 7:30pm). Christmas Day has Celebrity Millionaire on ITV from 9pm.

Plenty of other things on too of course, but these are the things I’ll likely be watching.

Friday, 9pm GMT
Here and on Youtube

What delights await inside the doors of the Bother’s Bar Advent Calendar?

GAMES! Games and surprises. Tonight seven panellists and YOU THE AUDIENCE will go toe to toe with each other and the best of Jackbox, and tonight a surprise opener we’ll be playing for the first time at 30 frames per second.

To join in all you need is our live stream – link will be here when it starts – and a device that can log on to jackbox.tv to input all your answers. I’ll be keeping an eye on the Youtube Chat all night, and tonight we’ll be requiring a Voice of the Audience for the final so keep your microphones ready.

Following tonight’s broadcast, Game Night Extra pre-recorded a game of Use Your Words last night, so if you wanted to know what that’s like then sub to the Bother’s Bar Youtube channel and it will pop up after.

Edit: Here’s Game Night EXTRA:

Still looking for Game Night contestants for Thursday and Friday, please apply and I’ll let you know if you’re in on Wednesday night.

In other news a couple of people have bought this up (I’ve yet to watch it), professonal no-money traveller Simon Wilson’s Youtube channel has Done A Thing with people racing to Monaco with no money to try and win £5,000, Race Across the World meets Lost. Here’s episode one.

Hello Gang! This Friday is the annual Christmas Game Night and I am looking for panellists.

You need:

• To be free on Friday night, from roughly 8:45pm to midnight GMT (although it probably won’t go on quite that long). I’m aware this might make it tough for working Americans – unavoidable I’m afraid, sorry.
• Have a microphone to chat with and a second screen to play with.
• A decent internet connection would be useful, as Google Hangouts runs on a P2P system (this will change to Discord in the New Year).
• A Twitter so I can send you info.

If this sounds like you now’s the time to apply. The easiest thing to do to show your interest is to leave a comment here. The second easiest thing to do is to drop me a Direct Message on Twitter – please don’t just reply to standard tweet as it risks getting lost and forgotten about.

To test my sound set-up I’m proposing recording Game Night Extra on THURSDAY NIGHT from 10-11. This will be a private recording that will go out after the main event on Friday, we will be playing non-Jackbox Use Your Words, and doubles as being a sound set-up test. You’ll need all the things above but to be free on Thursday night.

You can apply for either or both, please don’t be offended if you don’t get selected – we get oversubbed these days and I cast based on a number of different criteria. Needless to say if you’ve not been a panellist before you are very much encouraged to apply, doubly so if you’re female. I can EXCLUSIVELY reveal that we will be requiring a Voice of the Audience for the Arbitrary Final, so keep your mic ready even if you’re not selected.

I want to let people know if they’re needed on Wednesday, so please apply before Wednesday afternoon.

Yes I know Friday is an odd day to do it, but Boyard Land starts on the Saturday and I’m obliged to watch it, really. Think of it as a way out of work Christmas drinks, if you want. Good luck!

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

Join us for another exciting edition of Schlag den Star where once again two celebs will be battling it out over 15 mystery events for €100,000.

If you’ve got a microphone you’ll be welcome to join us and hangout in the Hangout – link will appear here after we start broadcast – remember it’s a privilege not a right. We will probably be moving to Discord for this in the New Year, so sign up if you want to join us then.

This episode it’s battle of the MEN as actor Wotan Wilke Möhring takes on footballer Jens Lehmann, with music from Milky Chance and James Blunt.

The link to the commentary stream will be live here from 7:15pm until end of broadcast.

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.