Show Discussion: Jeopardy UK

By | December 29, 2023
88 Comments

Monday 1st Jan 5:45pm, weekdays 4pm after
ITV1

For years and years and years nerds up and down the country have gone “we want a UK version of Jeopardy!” something that’s been done three times in the past now already and I for one am glad it’s finally happening so people might shut up about it.

I don’t hate Jeopardy, not at all, but having banged the drum for “it won’t work” for years and years it would be remiss for me to change now. So here’s a list of things I think are going to annoy the ITV1 afternoon audience:

  • ‘Answer’ and question. It’s just stupid.
  • Jeopardy is played for thousands and thousands of dollars in the US. The top value questions here are going to be £150/300. But at least it’s a real stake and not points. Someone might lose, I don’t know, £500 on a Daily Double.
  • Contestants bouncing around the middle section of categories Daily Double hunting like they’re Jeopardy professionals or something? Irritating to the average viewer in the US, come and meet ITV1’s audience!
  • Smugness of host and clue writing? Come and meet ITV1’s audience!
  • This is going to to be Single/Single/Double/Final, effectively 1.5x the material of the US show, but with about 2.3x the running time. Irritating pacing!

In the positive column, Stephen Fry’s a proper get and I know at least some of the clue writers and they’re talented. Also I was very wrong about the prospects of the Deal or No Deal reboot and look how that turned out. I can’t wait to see how it all goes down, they’ve given it a proper push, saving it from a planned October launch with the berthing on New Year’s Day. Let us know what you think in the comments.

It’s like a pub quiz except more expensive than that

By | December 21, 2023
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What appears to be 2024’s HOTTEST new Live Experience: the gameshow-style quiz and gameshows that try and ape the feeling of being on a gameshow, except with your friends and optional alcohol.

The first off the blocks that we heard about a little while ago is Quiz Boxing, open in London right now and Belfast coming soon. In it, 4-12 of your friends answer questions on screens in something set-up a bit like a boxing ring. 60 minutes, £25 per person.

Next! It’s open in Sheffield it’s ‘activity bar’ Gameshow All-Stars, this I think is meant to be closer to a bar where you also play games ‘loosely inspired by’ TV classics such as Countdown, Plinko off of The Price is Right and, erm, the Batak wall from Bodyheat? £15 a go, or you can go for the premium package which includes four drinks for £65. There had better be more than Coke for £12.50 a throw, blimey.

Finally threatening to open next year is Gameshow Studios, which looks very big scale going by the website but there’s not much there yet.

Meanwhile Chris, the erstwhile ex-host of the original escape room blog Exit Games now has a new site on Challenge Arcades – stuff a bit like The Crystal Maze Live Experience. Fingers crossed he picked the name for the genre that best catches on this time around.

Finally, friend of the bar and top German electronic musician Daniel Logemann is running a German Fort Boyard 1990 marathon watchalong on Youtube from 5:45pm UK tomorrow, it’s a good show, probably the best version of the 1990 version of the format (you heard). You can win autographs from Reiner Schoene and Rita Werner. Link here for a host’s message and here for the shows themselves, from 6.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope it is relaxing for you, because the first week in January is going to be crazy.

A Question of Morte

By | December 15, 2023
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The Mirror reporting that TV institution, well, a show that has been on for fifty years anyway A Question of Sport has been axed.

The Paddy/Ugo/Samantha refresh, one of several to try and appeal to younger audiences throughout the years, failed to catch fire.

I’m not a sports sort of person, I can’t say AQoS is something I ever really loved, but I appreciated its wide variety of rounds and ideas, some more successful than others, frequently, er, inspired by more successful relevant formats, mainly I’m sad they never found an arrangement of the theme tune better than the one they had in the eighties (and some of them since have been absolutely turgid).

The other defining thing about A Question of Sport, most shows increase the stakes as they progress, A Question of Sport gave out about 70% of its points in the first round. Incredible.

At 24 years, is Sue Barker the longest running female host of a quiz?

About a decade ago you couldn’t watch A Question of Sport on iPlayer. Did anyone get to the bottom of why that was?

A Question of A Question of Sport, there.

Netflix Stats and Chill

By | December 12, 2023
1 Comment

Oooohhhhh this is interesting, going forward Netflix will be releasing stats twice a year for all shows that have been watched 50,000 hours or more and the first tranche, representing January – June 2023 can be found here.

Suddenly I have completely forgotten what shows are on Netflix and when they released, but some numbers that caught my eye:

Physical 100, released 24/1/23 – 235.0m hours
Siren: Survive the Island, released 30/5/23 (so only one month’s ratings) – 11.7m
Cheat Season 1, released 1/3/23 – 6.5m
Too Hot to Handle Germany Season 1, released 28/2/23 – 40.2m
Too Hot to Handle Season 4, released 7/12/22 – 42.6m
Love is Blind Series 4, released 24/3/23 – 229.7m
Nailed It Season 7, released 5/10/22 – 5.1m
The Mole, released 7/10/2022 – 24.0m
Dance 100 Season 1, released 17/3/23 – 16.6m
Squid Game Season 1, released 17/9/21 – 87.2m

Thinking Cheat wouldn’t do especially well is mainly right with a caveat – it’s just inside the Top 3,000 for the period, but that’s out of 18,000 items total (and that’s the stuff that made 50k hours plus). It’s clear to see what sort of content draws the big numbers though, and it’s not that – in actual fact it’s the lowest performer of any Netflix original added that week bar one, and something doesn’t open lower worldwide until Agent Elvis over a fortnight later. The Mole has done well quite given that you’d assume its peak period would be the three months before it would count in this chart, and that it is a fairly poor version of The Mole.

Anything else catch your eye?

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

By | December 4, 2023
4 Comments

And there’s not much worth bothering to write about.

It sounds like Jeopardy‘s launching New Year’s Day and Wheel of Fortune is launching January 6th. We reckon The Traitors is launching first week in Jan and will once again be three-nights-a-week.

The Poll of the Year will launch 2nd January as it tradition. If things are missing from the New Shows list do shout so we can add them in time.

Lots of Advent games going on in The Social Medias, #dealvent, #wallvent (might be a bit late to join that one if you haven’t started) and #adventcalendarofgames all Things That Are Happening.

Cold innit?

Edit: New Year’s Day has Riddiculous starting 3:45, The Chase 4:45 and Jeopardy 5:45pm. Presuming they all move to 3/4/5 for the rest of the week, but I don’t know in what order.