OK then, let’s see what has transpired. Don’t forget that these are given anonymously, so the actual truths are known only to the relevant parties. Here we go!
- This is a bit of a weird opinion, but I think if the Weakest Link comes back it should be presented by Greg Davies playing a similar character to on Taskmaster. He feels so much more of a natural fit than all the other people being suggested. [Speaking of which, it’s been almost a year since the CiN Special and everyone was clamouring for a new series off the back of it despite the one-off being, well, not that good. What’s happened with that?]
- Jeremy Clarkson’s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire originally used pairs of contestants. I’m not sure what about Clarkson’s cheery demeanour made people think this would be a bad idea. [Not sure I ever really liked it as a pairs game, to be honest.]
- Safeword US debuted its new season last week. They’ve screwed up the format: Teams play games to earn points, but have to post embarrassing things online to keep them. Loser takes a lie detector test. [I must confess I’ve never really watched Safeword, even if it does star FOTB Rick Edwards.]
- I recently saw the words ‘University Challenge Dating Show‘ floating about as a format pitch. [I hope Jeremy Paxman will narrate. This sounds like a horrendous idea. And yet! I’m as guilty of playing the would/wouldn’t game as everyone else on Twitter.]
- With the popularity of Fornite these days, I wouldn’t be shocked to see them try and make a TV version of it (If they were smart, they’d adapt the Battle For Money format- that show seems tailor-made for it)… [Funnily enough, I wrote a post about this sort of thing all the way back in March.]
And there we are! New season starts next week so hopefully we won’t be opening the Stool Pigeon for a little while.
Millionaire as a pairs game was probably most interesting in the special where the winner of each Fastest Finger First would choose another of the contestants (I think it had to be of the opposite sex?) to join them. I think that was in about 2003 and I’m pretty sure it’s on YouTube.
“Who Knows You?” premiered in Italy! Here’s how it works:
a “Protagonist” guest is introduced, along with seven other guests. Six of them know the Protagonist, one of them is a filler.
The pair of contestants must match the guests with their relationship to the Protagonist. More correct matches, more money for the final game.
The final game is answering correctly to 5 questions (3 options each) about the Protagonist’s personal life. Get all five right to win it all! Otherwise the host will tell how many they got correct and the contestants get another chance to answer the questions. They may give up half the prize to be told WHICH answers were correct.
Watch it here (if it’s not blocked -_- )
https://it.dplay.com/nove/chi-ti-conosce/stagione-1-episodio-1/
Ah, kind of like a reversioning of Identity.
This sounds worryingly similar to Identity, but anything’s better than that so the Italians can’t have made it worse.
The Italian Identity (Soliti Ignoti) was already an improvement because they would play with all strangers even if the contestant misses a few. An incorrect guess just resets the bank before moving to the next stranger, and only if the stranger’s passport has a “danger” stamp. At the end, a final guest is introduced and the player has to guess which stranger is a relative of that guest.
This new game is pretty much a variation of Soliti Ignoti.
It’s also just hit me that this sounds a bit like the “This is my…” round from Would I Lie To You
First promo for “The Circle”:
https://youtu.be/FQgAIXJr4H4
Uni Challenge dating wasn’t far off…
Well, as a joke.
https://corporate.uktv.co.uk/article/love-factually-welcome-geek-island/?anticache=241181552
It’s funny that this would be announced today, not long after we joke about it on here. That clever advert did its job, because now I’m going to watch some documentaries on UKTV catchup
Interesting side note – the Power of Veto competition in yesterday’s US Big Brother (S20E28) is basically Reflex Done Right. Quick events, slow down for the relevant bits, show things in rapid succession. It does the usual BB trope of diary cam confessionals interspersed with the action, but I’m ignoring that as its irrelevant to the comparison.