Scottish contestants required for a show called Danger Balls, which would make a great nickname for someone.

We are looking for fun pairs living in Scotland to take part in our brand new BBC Game Show, Danger Balls.

You could choose to leave with guaranteed cash. Or you could hold on for a chance at the jackpot, but risk leaving with nothing…

Danger Balls: The game where only the last ball left in play at the end wins the big cash prize. So unlike Bingo or the lottery, players are hoping their numbers stay ‘in the bag’ for a chance to win. Every show features three teams of two who’ve each been allocated 5 numbered balls. As the balls are picked from the bag at random the teams must answer questions to eliminate an opponent’s ball or save their own. The show also has compelling moments of strategy. Will the players cash in their balls when given the chance or hold out and hope for the big money, even though it could mean leaving with nothing?

Contact us now for more information!

We got that blurb from SRO, but I can link directly to the BBC site here. Let’s hope they use “I’d like to cash in my balls!” as a catchphrase.

In other news, it looks like The Time It Takes with Joe Lycett starts next Saturday at 5:40pm, which I’m not sure shows a lot of confidence in it, but at least it’s only 35 minutes if it’s not very good. We hope it is though.

It is said that Einstein came up with the quote “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”

The Sun has reported that we’re due for another Blockbusters revival.

In other news, Channel 5’s upcoming Celebrity Game Night is giving me all sorts of positive Win Lose or Draw-style vibes – the host in Liza Tarbuck and the captains are Danny Baker and Susan Calman. They’re filming over the next week at Elstree if you’re free and interested. It looks like they’re dropping the members of the public aspect of the original but that probably doesn’t matter too much.

So I found myself watching a repeat of Catchphrase on Challenge last night. Carlton era. But I just want to know if you can spot the big graphical difference between these two vids, one from series 10, the other from series 11.

Series 10:

Series 11:

Spotted it? I never quite got my head around how it worked.

Clearly, that big screen is not really a screen as the Catchphrase logo in embossed glistening font at the top and tail of the show will attest, and the catchphrases are added in post (I’d suggest this is probably the same during the TVS era, even if there was some sort of back-projection thing going on). And yet in one there’s a clear reflection on the floor of what’s on the board which doesn’t happen in any series prior.

So how does that work? Are those Catchphrase logos simply on large removable bits of card, removed and added as and when? Has someone been charged with matte-ing the reflection onto the floor? Seems a lot of effort for not much reward. So, what?

Saturday 20th October, 9pm,
Here and on Youtube

Tonight will be a night of firsts – FIVE new games being played by us for the first time. The first EVER Arbitrary Semi-Final. And, for the first time, we’ll be broadcasting at 30 frames for second, as opposed to the five you had been used to. INCREDIBLE smoothness, INCREDIBLE jeopardy, like a razor with TWELVE blades.

As ever Team Audience are invited to ruin the chances of our seven panellists, taking on the role of the eighth player of each of our games and judging the answers. Chat in the Youtube stream is encouraged and we’ll be reading out the best comments.

To play along with each game, you need to log into jackbox.tv on your secondary devices and add the room codes for the games. Eight players begin but only SIX can make it to the Zeeple Dome, who will win and who will be left behind? Join us at nine!

Right, this arrived on Wednesday from WH Smiths (I know! In 2018!). Rollout is going to department stores first before going bigger. I’ve not had a chance to play it yet but don’t let that stop me from telling you about it.

Do you remember how the original board game from twenty years ago took years to set up, then you’d catapult a boulder under the settee and never get the industrial crane to work?

Well look at all this stuff.

That’s a lot of stuff. I’d suggest it’s actually not quite as imaginative as the first game but it’s a bit easier to set up.

The main board is double sided, with the maze element on one side and the dome on the other. Two teams play and it’s recommended you have a separate Mazemaster, although you can master for the other team if you want. The Mazemaster gets a lovely manual, detailing all of the games. There’s also a Timer App you can download, if you want something a bit fancier than the two minute egg timer provided.

Teams pick a zone and take it in turns to select one of the four challenges within. Each team also gets an ALIS card they can play on their opponents once if they think they will fail the challenge. The games range from quite small scale mental tests – word puzzles, riddles, circuits, to quite large scale physicals and mysteries (two of which involve some sort of treasure hunt around the entire and preferably different room, and involve some setting up with the contestants outside. Each of the mental games has between five and ten starting configurations for replayability.

For The Dome, a bunch of cards are placed face down spread across the board, you use the hands with the suckers to remove them from the table in the time earned. You may look under the card to determine its colour before it leaves the board at your own discretion.

And that’s it really. No idea how well it works in practice because I haven’t played it yet. In theory it seems quite nice though. We’ll do another review of it when we’ve actually managed to play it, as it is right now it’s not easy to find a copy of anyway.

Jackbox 5 is officially out on all major digital platforms which means Bother’s Bar’s Game Night 12: Champignon of Champignons will be LIVE this Saturday night from 9pm, for you to play along with all the new games. You Don’t Know Jack, Split the Room, Mad Verse City, Patently Stupid and Zeeple Dome will get a play in some capacity, and if there’s time maybe some Quiplash and Fibbage.

But have you ever wondered just who is the most successful Game Night panellist of all time is? Well wonder no longer as I semi-distractedly totted up some things last night (including awarding points and victories from early episodes when there wasn’t really a format), and THIS is what I’ve found.

GAME NIGHT LEAGUE TABLE (up to GN 11 – revised)
Name	Played	Absolute Victory	Moral Victories	Total Points	APpA
Matt Clemson	9	3	3	47	5.22
Alex Richards	7	2	2	39	5.57
David Bodycombe	5	1	3	38	7.60
Andrew Warren	3	1	1	16	5.33
Colman Bell	2	1	0	10	5.00
Dan Peake	7	1	0	33	4.71
Andrew Sullivan	6	1	0	20	3.33
Jo Ledwell-Clarke	4	1	0	5	1.25
Chris Field	3	0	1	24	8.00
Bob Hagh	2	0	1	10	5.00
AUDIENCE	7	0	1	28	4.00
TV’s Nick Gates	2	0	0	10	5.00
Alex Mcmillan	2	0	0	10	5.00
TaroNuke	1	0	0	5	5.00
Scott Rux	3	0	0	12	4.00
Peter Scandrett	3	0	0	10	3.33
Matthew Palmieri	1	0	0	3	3.00
Michael Harmstone	3	0	0	8	2.67
David Symonds	2	0	0	4	2.00
Gwilym James	1	0	0	1	1.00
Will Stephens	1	0	0	1	1.00
Laura Conlon	1	0	0	1	1.00
Liam Davis	6	0	0	4	0.67

Absolutely fascinating. People in red are the panellists for this weekend. As we can see our very own anti-Alan Davies Matt Clemson is top of the pile with three absolute victories, one of which was quite lucky because the first one was just awarded to him despite, in hindsight and with the current scoring system, actually tying with Andrew Warren in Game Night 1 (so they’ve both been awarded moral victories). And there was one episodes were only four games were played, where typically 6-7 will get played before the arbitrary final, but still. Incredible Average Points per Appearance from Chris Field and David Bodycombe who haven’t quite been so successful in coverting to PROPER WINS. Also of note: Alex Richards has been docked an ABSOLUTE VICTORY as the tape shows the final of GN11 didn’t go quite as planned.

If YOU want to find yourself on the scoreboard, Festive Game Night happens in the middle of December. But for now, join us Saturday!