Monday 1st Jan 5:45pm, weekdays 4pm after
ITV1
For years and years and years nerds up and down the country have gone “we want a UK version of Jeopardy!” something that’s been done three times in the past now already and I for one am glad it’s finally happening so people might shut up about it.
I don’t hate Jeopardy, not at all, but having banged the drum for “it won’t work” for years and years it would be remiss for me to change now. So here’s a list of things I think are going to annoy the ITV1 afternoon audience:
- ‘Answer’ and question. It’s just stupid.
- Jeopardy is played for thousands and thousands of dollars in the US. The top value questions here are going to be £150/300. But at least it’s a real stake and not points. Someone might lose, I don’t know, £500 on a Daily Double.
- Contestants bouncing around the middle section of categories Daily Double hunting like they’re Jeopardy professionals or something? Irritating to the average viewer in the US, come and meet ITV1’s audience!
- Smugness of host and clue writing? Come and meet ITV1’s audience!
- This is going to to be Single/Single/Double/Final, effectively 1.5x the material of the US show, but with about 2.3x the running time. Irritating pacing!
In the positive column, Stephen Fry’s a proper get and I know at least some of the clue writers and they’re talented. Also I was very wrong about the prospects of the Deal or No Deal reboot and look how that turned out. I can’t wait to see how it all goes down, they’ve given it a proper push, saving it from a planned October launch with the berthing on New Year’s Day. Let us know what you think in the comments.
Literally none of recent international Jeopardy versions have taken off.
If I wanted to watch a wall of text for an hour, I’d go and read a book.