Show Discussion: The Wall

By | October 11, 2019
64 Comments
You mug.

Saturday, 8:35pm,
BBC One

We may never officially know which came first – Endemol buying the The Wall format or hiring hardman cockney actor Danny Dyer to be a gameshow host, and let’s be clear – it’s stunt casting that’s either going to look ingenious or fall very flat, and that’s just Angela Rippon reading the questions.

It’s the BBC’s very own version of International Moderatehit The Wall, where pairs of contestants try and win thousands of pounds (although not, in all likelihood, anywhere close to the US top prize potential of $12m) from the titular wall, gambling on their partner’s ability to answer general knowledge questions. For every correct answer they can drop green balls into the wall, adding wherever they land (and there’s actually a little bit of strategy to this, the bigger amounts are further to the right so they can drop further to the right if they’re comfortable) but wrong answers will take money away. The person answering the questions won’t know if they’re right or wrong or not, leading to a possibly interesting, possibly not buy-out decision at the end of the show depending on how they’ve pitched it.

The US original is basically fine, it remains to be seen if the much smaller stakes (and slightly longer ad-less runtime) still make it worthwhile. Let us know what you think in the comments, Tweacle.

Killer Camp

By | October 9, 2019
17 Comments

ITV Press release for this just come out, will be going out in the run-up to Halloween.

It very much sounds like The Sort Of Thing We Like. In fact we were talking about it in a previous thread.

Seems as good a reason as any for a video of 13: Fear Is Real, which was basically Werewolf with a horror-themed reality twist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0utGgxmty6s&t=4s

This was cancelled after one season, airing on The CW in 2009. It’s mildly entertaining, especially if horror movies are your thing (Sam Raimi’s an exec producer).

The Birthday Game

By | October 8, 2019
7 Comments

So here is a new thing, and by “new” I mean “there’s been six of them but I had no idea existed until they followed me on Twitter yesterday,” a podcast from Global Radio that exists only as a podcast called The Birthday Game with Richard Osman, and made by Remarkable Television (relevant links here, or you could just search for it in your podcast aggregator of choice).

In it, three guests try to guess the ages of celebs who have birthdays in the week of broadcast. Three points for dead on, one point for being a year out, winner wins a Colin the Caterpillar cake from M and S.

That’s it. It’s amiable enough, I’m 2.5 episodes in and it’s fine, enjoyment depends largely on the quality of guests they’ve got on – there’s plenty of time for small talk (indeed you should probably go into it with the mindset it’s some celebs having a chat and playing a game than the other way round). It’s a three-minute local radio feature turned into a 40 minute podcast, basically.

It’s hard enough to get people to watch light entertainment on TV these days, this is an intriguing content strategy from Endemol, in a medium you actively have to seek out. Not quite sure what it’s for (it’s not like any of the people involved need to have a podcast. Is it meant to be a loss leader? A loss leader for what exactly?) or what counts as success (@birthdaygamepod at time of writing has… 105 followers). In fact I can’t think of any quizzy or gameshowy podcasts that have properly broken out at all, off the top of my head.

Show Discussion: Head Hunters

By | October 6, 2019
16 Comments

Weekdays, 2:15pm,
BBC1

Well we’ve had quiz business politicking with The Boss, now Rob Beckett is hoping his new quiz will be employed a little bit longer.

Contestants must try and win a rolling jackpot at the end of the show by getting nine questions correct. To help them, they can build a team from a returning pool of contestants who will answer questions based on the categories that will come up in the end game. If they can impress, they might be worth luring down by making an offer to split some of the jackpot if they go on to win. Knowledge, tactics and negotiation is the key.

It’s a bit The Boss, a bit the end bit of Perfection, a bit Sell Me The Answer. But will it be a bit good? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Who is the best Mole host?

By | October 5, 2019
8 Comments

For some reason this came up on Twitter this afternoon (probably because I pointed out it’s three months until Wie is De Mol and six months until De Mol). Here is a list it’s difficult to argue with:

Belgium, UK, Netherlands, Australia, Netherlands, US, Netherlands, Belgium, US, Netherlands, US, Netherlands, France, Germany… Netherlands…Australia, Australia. If you’d like to research surnames.

The big question, of course, is where does German tennis star Michael Stich fit into this list?

This looks pretty good…

By | October 2, 2019
23 Comments

…although I’m not in love with the logo. And the screens should be bigger for 2019. Still though, SPANGLY.

Can’t wait to see how they MEGASIZE Take Your Pick, obviously.