Show Discussion: Four Rooms

By | April 29, 2013
16 Comments

Weekdaily, 1:45pm,
Channel 4

Four Rooms is one of those shows which is not massively massively popular, but rather a hit with the people who do actually watch it, so it will be interesting to see how it copes as a daily prospect, and without arguably it’s biggest personality in terms of Jeff Salmon.

In Four Rooms people bring intriguing objects in to sell to the four dealers (three regulars and a rotating spot, so it’s been suggested). They can visit the dealers in any order, but if they don’t like the offer on the table they can’t go back if they walk out. They can also not sell to any dealer if they don’t take any of the offers. It’s quite good fun, and the items are usually quite interesting (in fact some of the interest in the daily show will be seeing if they’ve found enough interesting objects and/or people to fill a 40 episode (I think) run).

Tamara Beckwith off of The Big Breakfast is one of the new dealers, so that’ll be nice.

Poker: Sunday: 8pm: Free

By | April 27, 2013
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We’re playing a game of Triple Stud (Stud Hi! Razz! Stud Hi/Lo!) tomorrow night at 8pm as part of the Mix It Up Real Good series on Pokerstars (in retrospect we should probably be playing Courcheval, but that wasn’t on offer when we put the schedule together and besides, I think we’re going to play it as this year’s “all-in-the-same-boat” post BSOP money variant party). It’s free to play, so join our club and then join our game.

In other news, TV’s Paul B has enquired if anyone can remember a Spanish language format that’s described as Sing If You Can meets Articulate. It was apparently at MIP a few years ago. It’s not Extreme Activity so I’ve drawn a blank, although it sounds like fun. Anyone?

Edit: Celebrity Tipping Point Tickets. Don’t hang around!

It’s Rose d’Or nominations time!

By | April 26, 2013
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The full list is here.

In the gameshow category:

  • Oh Sit!
  • Joho against Klaas – The Duel Around the World
  • Smart Face

Wow, really? I mean Oh Sit is fairly good fun but certainly no more than that, Smart Face is apparently coming to ITV and involves picking someone off the street to answer questions for you (and TV people still get excited about this despite the fact that vox-pop based quizzes have never ever been popular on television ever), so my money is on Joho Against Klaas by default as the only one I don’t know much about.

The Rose d’Or are the awards that programme-makers covet the most because they symbolize the pinnacle of success for entertainment programming.

…there.

Round up

By | April 25, 2013
11 Comments

Here is a round up of interesting things people have posted or has become apparent recently:

  • Mel Giedroyc has apparently been chosen to front C4 draw-y game Draw It! This comes hot on the heels of Sue Perkins being a team captain on Win Lose or Draw Late about ten years ago.
  • Rylan off of The X Factor has apparently been chosen to host the new upmarket Big Brother’s Bit on the Side. The main show will also apparently feature older people this time round and will feel more like a “social experiment”, TV’s most meaningless phrase.
  • The Cube is coming to France 2 as a 30 minute daily show.
  • The Chase has been recommissioned in Germany for eight more episodes. There will be six celeb episodes of Gefragt Gejagt (Answered Hunted IIRC) and two civilian ones.
  • NBC’s The Million Second Quiz will be a genre-redefining rip-off of 24 Hour Quiz, by the sounds of it.
  • Meanwhile Exit, SyFy US’ take on Bother’s Bar favourite DERO! will premiere on June 4th. It will inevitably be disappointing, but this picture doesn’t look too bad.
  • Dick de Rijk’s got a new show in Bulgaria! It’s called Good Luck! Bad Luck! (although locally it seems to be called Undress For Your Luck) and appears to be a general knowledge version of that bit with the surveys on Play Your Cards Right.

AND THAT’S ALL THE NEWS *shuffles papers*

Cry God for Harry, England and St George!

By | April 23, 2013
17 Comments

It’s St George’s Day today! And earlier I asked a simple question on Twitter:

And got flooded with loads of answers. Some good, some not so good. The best ones so far are Fluke, Through the Keyhole, I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue and the one which I came up with which was Pointless (It’s about lists which are a quintessential element of the English school system, it’s hosted by posh people, everyone else in the world finds it baffling).

Can you do better? Remember, we’re talking about ENGLAND here rather than Britain.

Meanwhile, the BBC’s Garry Scott has advised that Gordon Burns will be hosting a live three hour quiz for Radio Lancaster/Manchester on May 16th from 7pm. You can listen and play along live, OR you can be one of the teams playing there for real! There are no prizes as it’s a charity event, but if you can put a team of four together and can get to Blackburn on that date then drop Garry a line.

Fifty Fifty 24

By | April 22, 2013
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It’s the new Fifty 50 Show! And I’m a guest, so do listen to it. This week it is mainly about gameshow apps, and why the good ones are good.

A list of all the apps I’ve reviewed over the last few years is here, although some of them aren’t sold any more, which is a bit aggravating. I wonder why the Crystal Maze app was taken off? Here is my exciting press quote for the Fort Boyard app, and here is the review it actually comes from.

Also! 1001 Things You Should Know began a new series today, although it’s not on 4oD yet for some reason. Anyway, they’ve got rid of the numbering and it sounds like the leading contestant decides the categories for all the contestants for the final, by the sounds. May as well use the original Show Discussion post for it.

Challenge TV have bought up Knightmare, and they’ll be showing series one and two from Friday 10th May at 10:30pm. Which is immediately after series one (I think) Fun House! Wow.

I’ve had people enquire about The Line Up, it’s happening eventually, I’m just a bit busy. Think of it as having a Sommerpause.