Come on Glenn, when are you announcing the good stuff?

Rat In The Kitchen

Right, time’s up – I’m reusing the same post here so that the comments (which I usually turn off) still make sense, so without further ado let’s try and sort the fact from the fiction – as ever the only people who know the truth are the writers and the people involved:

• Following the continued success of Hunted, Rylan is being tapped to front a reboot of Wanted for the back end of the year. (Not true, his husband Detective Dan would likely be so good as a Tracker people would just complain to OFCOM.)
• Rylan to be on taskmaster Rylan to be on house of games (So little effort seems to have gone in to this one I probably shouldn’t have bothered reprinting it tbh.)
• Someone on Twitter made a claim in January that The Adventure Game is making a comeback in the near future, with a reboot in development. HOWEVER, I got in touch with the BBC and they state they still fully own the rights to T.A.G., so take that all with many grains of salt. (I take that with a lot of grains of salt I think.)
• The Crystal Maze UK will not be involving Civilians for the 4th production year and this decision was not down to Fizz but Channel 4. I’m also hearing word that the 2nd half of Season 3 will be going out in 3 weeks on the 6th March. (And so The Crystal Maze trundles on, very much the answer to the potential Fighting Talk question “What’s the Morrissey of gameshows?” at this point. Happy thirtieth birthday for Saturday.)
• Saturday Night Takeaway to take over the slot currently occupied by The Masked Singer when that show reaches its conclusion after this week. (I wonder if they’ve got any new features planned given an extra year to come up with some?)
• This isn’t really Industry Gossip, but on the topic of The Masked Singer UK, did anyone forget that Ceelo Green actually revealed he was the Monster a few weeks ago during the “Two Lies and a Truth” interlude? The panel seemed to act as though his response to being directly asked the question “Are you Ceelo Green?” was the first time he’d given himself away… I guess they all forgot about his earlier revelation because they thought it was a bluff? (They should have opened with Two Lies And A Truth in week one to open up the possibility space.)
• The Chase has been given a huge recommission. Somewhere between 600-1000. ITV also rumoured to be bringing back Poker Face later this year. (Huge if true, that’s 3-5 years worth, are they trying to lock people in whilst relatively cheap? Poker Face always seemed like a fan favourite rather than a public one. I’d be well up for it though.)
• Contrary to press reports, Big Brother‘s return isn’t imminent, sadly. There’s a chance, but it’s still very very early days. The Daily Star massively jumped the gun. That said, talks are ongoing. (In response to Alex’s comment, presumably. The Daily Star jumped the gun on Taskmaster moving to C4 as well, but they ended up being right (when I had several industry people tell me they were wrong), so who knows?)
• Queen Bee = Nicola Roberts Octopus = Katherine Jenkins Hedgehog = Jason Manford (This is in relation to The Masked Singer, out of context it’s like something from The Da Vinci Code.)
• Dave are partnering with Nintendo to make a comedy-gaming show based around their games, hosted by Doc Brown. (I think Doc Brown deserves better than Channel 4 Coors Lite Rap Battle break bumpers, I don’t think this is an idea with good synergy to be honest – Dave have tried a gaming show, they had a good go at it, don’t think they’ll bother again. Unless Nintendo are paying them loads.)
• Her from Survivor & Mock The Week is hosting a gameshow. (Not much to go on here, but Zoe Lyons hosting a show wouldn’t seem like that bad an idea. Perhaps she’ll get to host a rebooted Survivor UK that’s continually threatened.)

Not a classic edition of Stool Pigeon to be honest, but some potentially interesting tidbits all the same.

TV’s Michael Harmstone has alerted us to some Instagram viral advertising for Belgian Mole set in Greece this year. Do click through to the short video, it’s quite something, but tongues are wagging that the Omega is a suggestion of an ending. Whatsmore Belgian Mole has form for this, the original series ended whilst it was hugely popular as well.

This would make us very sad, obviously, as it’s the best thing currently in regular broadcast and has been consistently excellent throughout its four previous series. However, we’ve been saying for years it must be due a duff season surely so perhaps a break will be worthwhile.

I don’t suspect this is a go-er for the average Bar punter, but the casting researcher is nice so knock yourselves out:

For some reason I found myself watching the latest episode of the horribly clinical National Lottery draw last night, where everything is automated, although possibly Alan Dedicoat recorded an extra line or two of dialogue of news to open the draw with in what must be the easiest money ever made. I know people “just want the numbers”, but I can’t help but think some sort of human touch would make it a bit more likable.

Compare and contrast with something I’ve become quietly obsessed with, which is the Irish Lotto’s Telly Bingo on RTE, where Declan Buckley, who’s been hosting the show for twenty years twice a week (for several years initially as his drag act Shirley Temple Bar) manages to get through a phone game and a bingo drawing in ten minutes utterly charmingly.

So my question for you is what’s the best international lottery draw show? It might have the best music or the best machine or the most drama. Importantly we’re only interested in the draws, so lottery sponsored gameshows are (mainly) out.

Something that may be of interest to punters, a free to play game released on Steam the other day called Split or Steal which, yes, is Bother’s Bar format favourite The Prisoner’s Dilemma as an online player vs player live experience. Make and risk fake money to buy things which make you more fake money and then make BIGGER RISKS for BIGGER FAKE MONEY.

Not sure I see the appeal but lots of positive reviews (I haven’t played it myself) but if this looks like your sort of thing then knock yourselves out.