As we dip our hands in the bag marked “emergency filler content that was in a comment you might have missed” a follow-up to last week’s Murphy’s Micro Quiz-m, here’s another RTE show from 1986, Jackpot with the late Dermot Morgan. Yes, Father Ted. The game’s as prosaic as it comes – machine selects a category, answer a question on that category, if your opponent gets it wrong you can steal it, first one to light all letters of ‘jackpot’ wins £50 and the option to go for three bonus prizes, although if they get the first question wrong they have to leave the show (mid-80s jeopardy). I don’t know if it’s the same format that Terry Wogan was involved with in the 60s. Morgan tries to inject comedy into the proceedings although doesn’t seem quite comfortable. Anyway, here you go.
It’s Schlag den Star on Saturday!
Yes I know it barely feels like two days since the last one, but SdS it is. This episode it’s a battle of the musicians as Joey Kelly, member of popular Irish-American band The Kelly Family takes on Alexander Klaws, who was in the German Tarzan Disney musical and won Germany’s first series of Pop Idol, Deutschland sucht den Superstar. Musical turns include Yvonne Catterfeld and Joy Denalane.
Also, and this is something I’m very excited about, one of the things we’ll be doing throughout the ad breaks and boring bits, our fil rouge if you will, is the very first English language (it probably isn’t but I’m trying to build excitement) edition of De Slimste Mens ter Wereld. “They” won’t make it so we bloody will. Which of our commentators will end the night as OFFICIALLY the smartest person in the world? Will there be technical issues? I don’t know! But join us on Saturday from 7:15pm (GMT) to find out!
Show Discussion: 5 Gold Rings
Sundays, 6:40,
ITV
Features app playalong: Android, Apple
Phil’s back with a new visual quiz where contestants are challenged to answer questions by putting a ring around where they think the answer is on a big touchscreen floor.
Two couples play, each one hoping to win £25,000. After each question their personal pot goes up but the size of the rings go down. Teams have two lifelines – ask some people in the audience or flip the board and get another question. Whichever team has done best in their individual round gets control of the final all-or-nothing winner-take-all question. And using super whizzy technology, even though the show is recorded there are graphic inserts to show how people are doing at home.
We’ve seen the Dutch show, 5 Golden Rings (no I don’t know why they opted for a slightly different title), we thought it was OK although we don’t quite understand why telly people are getting very excited over it (it’s certainly done unremarkably in the Netherlands on SBS6, although not a flop). It’s up against Countryfile which doesn’t help, but the demos might tell a more interesting story if they’re ever revealed. It certainly doesn’t need to be 65 minutes.
Wild Things returns March 12th
Hurrah!
Here’s the press release:
The multi-award winning family entertainment show Wild Things is returning to Sky 1 this March for a brand new 10 x 60 series. Once again it will feature couples working together to complete the hilarious Wild Things challenge.
The format involves one member of each team becoming a Wild Thing, a giant woodland furry creature. This also means they are unable to see a thing, so they must rely upon their partner to guide them through a series of physical comedy challenges in order to win a £10,000 prize.
Wild Things delighted audiences throughout its first and second series, which saw presenters Jason Byrne and Kate Humble guide us through some of the most bizarre physical challenges to hit TV screens. The exciting news is that this year each episode will also feature a very special celebrity challenge.
This seasons celebrity duos are: Joe Swash & Stacey Solomon, Keith Duffy & Brian McFadden, Scotty T & Marnie Simpson, Pussy cat Dolls Kimberly Wyatt & Ashley Roberts, Anthea Turner & Bobby Davro, Dick n’ Dom from Da Bungalow, Lauren Goodgder & Heavy D, Michael Underwood & Angelica Bell, Radio 1’s Dev & Ashley James , Comedians Hal Cruttenden & Mark Watson.
If you want to see celebrity hissy fits, egos getting quite literally bashed and famous faces covered in muck then make sure you do not miss this!
Episode 1 of Wild Things broadcasts on Sunday 12th March at 8:00pm on Sky 1
Sky channel 106, Virgin 109, Talk Talk TV 301
Wild Things is one of our favourite shows of the last few years, you can read our show discussions of series one and series two in the links.
Murphy’s Micro Quiz-m
The Nintendo Switch is out today, so let’s jump back 34 years to computer technology of 1983 with RTE’s Murphy’s Micro Quiz-m (no, not a clue what the -m is all about), kind of a proto First Class meets Ask the Family, but with quite good prizes and buzzer noises. Thanks to David for the heads-up.
5 Gold (Mobile Phone) Rings
You can get ready for 65 minutes of playalong appability for 5 Gold Rings on Sunday by downloading the official playalong app.
Presumably it’s also (or will be also) on the Apple Store as well. Edit: Link for Apple device.
Remember: if they ever mention the amount of people playing as a percentage, that means the numbers are disappointing.
As a reminder, we’ve seen the Dutch show, it’s OK.