Just caught up with the first episode of this, thought it was alright actually – plenty of questions and I didn’t feel like it was dragging its feet particularly.

However yes, it has been rather obnoxiously produced. I like uptempo background music but not when it’s drowning out the actual talking, and ideally it should build tension without giving away what actually happens. Cutting to a break mid-question is rather twattish, especially if they’re going to insist on spending half a minute setting it all up again after the break. Did they really need a Santa Claus voiceover to tell us things Ben Bailey, whom I liked, could have told us fairly easily?

I also think the speed round would have been much better if it played out continuously – time up, hear them scream, move immediately on.

There’s an 8/10 show in there somewhere, if it was produced by completely different people, basically.

I’m not going to get the chance to watch Who’s Still Standing? until Wednesday night, although I was enjoying reading my Twitter feed last night for a running commentary. I have no doubt that moronic international TV execs will use the US one as a model, like they do for everything that is not really successful.

So let’s continue our Bother’s Bar Exit List Inspired Maze Season, here is the amazing Maze round from brill John Sachs afternoon quiz 4 Square:

http://youtu.be/__aykl3CxY4

Both Ian McKim’s theme and maze theme are avaliable on TV Ark.

Meanwhile thanks to Sphil for finding this, the game called The Maze from American Gladiators:

http://youtu.be/4rrFZ0ipeNs

It’s *almost* CHRRRIIISSSSTMASS!

• The Bother’s Bar Festive Freeroll – Last call for this, it’s 8pm this evening and is free to play for an £11 prize. If you want to play, make sure you’ve signed up to Brig’s Poker Club – I will need to approve you before you can register for the tournament, so don’t leave it until 7:55pm to do. More details. The trophy and medals for the BotherSOP 2012 will be revealed next week, hopefully. (8pm, Sunday, PokerStars)
• Home for the Holidays – Vernon Kay fronted reality show from the Will MacDonald stable. Two newlyweds stay in a large mansion for a week with both their extended families. WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN? Well they could win half a million. Daniel Nettleton aka the Tree of Temptation is involved with this, so some of the tasks might be quite funny. (8pm, Sunday, C4)
• Deal or No Deal – Panto Season! (4pm, daily, C4)
• Fear Factor – it was fun last week. (Monday, NBC)
• Who Wants to be a Christmas Millionaire? They’ve not revealed the celebrities for the Monday night live show yet. The New Year’s show records on Tuesday – presumably the celebs that don’t get to play on Monday. Edit: No I’m wrong, the NY special recording today. (8:30pm, Monday, ITV1)
• Who’s Still Standing? – US show doing a Million Dollar Mind Game, episodes being burnt off over the Xmas period. Quiz with trapdoors based on a popular Israeli format, hosted by Ben Bailey. (Monday and all week, NBC)
• World’s Strongest Man – back on Channel 5 and back between Christmas and New Years where it belongs. And actually a bit before! (from Tuesday, 7pm, Channel 5)
• The Cube Celebrity Special – Jason Grimshaw and Hayley Cropper from Corrie take on The Cube. (Saturday, 6:30pm, ITV1)
• Christmas University Challenge – although rather boringly, it just sounds like an episode from their Graduates series running over the festive period. (6:00pm, Xmas Day, BBC2)
• All-Star Family Fortunes Christmas Special – TOWIE vs Benidorm. (7:00pm, Christmas Day, ITV1)

Also! Rather excitingly, we’ve been sent an OFFICIAL trailer for Fort Boyard: Ultimate Challenge. It will be shown at 7:45am on Sundays from New Year’s Day on CITV and ITV1, with repeats at 5pm on CITV the next day, for ten weeks.

It’s the last Schlag den Raab of the year!

Stefan’s lost the last two matches, he won’t want to lose three in a row (it’d be a first, in fact).

It’s on 7:15pm GMT (8:15 CET) on Pro Sieben, and hopefully naughty internet streaming as well.

It’s also the first episode of Winter Wipeout this evening, 6pm, BBC1.