So it sounds like ITV have sold Saturday Night Takeaway to the US. For it sounds like a $25m series. Serious stuff, and we’re intrrigued how it’s going to work – how will they work the ads in given that nationally everyone is likely to be playing their own thing? Or will they finally, FINALLY live the dream and have contestants playing for ads actually broadcast during the show? Or will they change that bit completely? We know they’re changing the title.

Of course the last time they tried something along these lines in the US is was Johnny Vaughan non-hit My Kind of Town. NEVER FORGET.

A couple of badly timed and or badly located shows coming up, if you go and see any of these do let me know:

• Relatively Clever – New Sky family quiz hosted by Mel Giedroyc. Some puzzles done by Only Connect people so likely worth a watch – I was actually meant to be attending a session tomorrow but real life has got in the way, so we’re super interested to know what you think if you go. Films at Elstree. Tickets: Applause Store.
• Get Your Act Together – New variety competition where celebs team up with variety acts, and also may or may not be from the mind of Endemol Joe. Pre-recorded heats film at ITV Towers on the 10th and 11th. Tickets: Applause Store.
• Smart Ask – Pilot where contestants must try and stump experts with their questions for £500,000. Not to be confused with the Canadian quiz of the same name. There’s a lot I don’t like about this from the description, not least the name which fails to be a very good pun or make any sense, but if it is what I think it is (if) there are good The Chase alumni working on it so let’s not write it off just yet. Films 2nd November at ITV Towers. Tickets SRO.
• Pointless – sounds like a ton of celebrity specials are filming next month at Elstree. Tickets SRO.
• Cheat – Pilot where contestants can try and get away with cheating if they don’t know the answers. Films Salford on November 5th. Tickets: Lost in TV.

OK so the big news today is that I was trawling through GSNN and found a contestant call for something that sounds awfully like a US pilot for The Genius for a cable network. We don’t know if that’s what it is though, so let’s not get overexcited just yet.

In other news, Buzzerblog has the skinny on Who Gets Nothing, where contestants have to decide between them who gets what from ten unequal amounts of cash, the lowest of which is zero and the highest as much as £500,000. This sort of thing has failed to be successful in the past (Unanonemous and Divided both very much non-hits basically everywhere, but they did sell to a lot of places and both shows whilst not perfect weren’t completely awful either) so I don’t really see why it would suddenly start being successful in the future. You might still be able to be in the pilot if you want, although seeing as you won’t be playing for actual money (you’ll be paid a fee) I’m not completely certain what the point is.

In other news, Fort Boyard Ultimate Challenge is nominated for a kids BAFTA in the entertainment category up against Junior Bake Off, Hacker Time and Swashbuckle. Commercial TV for the win!!!! It’s a shame they can’t seem to decide how many series the show has had though.

It’s no secret that we believe Foster/Bolam should basically soundtrack all gameshows these days, so last night I was delighted to discover Nick Foster has a Soundcloud with a load of interesting things on it. It’s certainly not exhaustive but there’s some really good stuff on there. I’m particularly taken with his naming convention for The Cube background music and hope to see “mildly intense” make an appearance and more seriously the eggtimer music from 5 Minutes to a Fortune.

In other news Dishonest Friend of the Bar Endemol Joe has popped up with some news for all you old school Bar readers, quoted here a bit like Gerry Adams in the 80s and 90s:

Can I just say if you remember me from a couple of years ago when I said on here I was developing a new show called Ultimate Champion, which involved celebrities mastering different disciplines such as singing, magic, dancing etc. I was telling you how I was pitching these shows to different broadcasters. Well, three months ago I finally got the go ahead with the format which is going to be shown next year. The name has been changed to Get Your Act Together, but it is everything I hoped for and more. Never give up on your dreams!

An inspiration for us all, perhaps there might be hope of a Bar Good Friday agreement yet. I guess we’ll finally find out who he really is (although as was pointed out to me, if it just said “Endemol Joe” in the credits we’d collapse laughing).

So you say if I cut the red wire the site will work and a massive bomb won’t go off?

*cuts red wire*

Oh! Well that’s worked out quite well. Welcome back everybody, I hope you didn’t miss us too much. If you note any problems or issues then please let me know. Many thanks to our very generous host over the past eight years, hopefully now I have total control I might feel a bit more inclined to experiment with the coding a bit. Or not.

News in the last few days is that Fremantle France has optioned Bother’s Bar favourite The Genius for French speaking countries. Before everyone gets overexcited, that means Fremantle have the rights to make the show but nobody has actually commissioned it yet AFAIK. We’re still waiting to see what’s happening to the proposed Dutch version. Looking forward to episode three of the Korean one which should be up soon.