Show Discussion: Walk the Line

By | December 12, 2021

Nightly 12th-17th December, 8pm,
ITV

Simon Cowell’s new musical competition/gameshow thing which seems to suggest someone will be walking away with £500,000 at the end of the week.

To be honest, we’re not quite clear on how the format works other than an apparent exciting bit at the end of each episode where the winner has to decide whether to cash-out or walk down an ACTUAL line and gamble their winnings on the next show. Somehow this ends in a Grand Final on Friday which despite being a pre-record had a vote from a virtual online-watching audience and someone wins half-a-mill.

The judging panel consists of Gary Barlow, Craig David, Alesha Dixon and (surely the only possible contender for Bradley Walsh in the competition of The Nation’s Sweetheart) Dawn French, they’ve all had top three-or-better hits in their careers so you can’t say they lack credibility. Whether you would want to risk prize money on the whims of Craig David remains to be seen. The show’s hosted by previous Next Big Thing Maya Jama, hopefully this will be a bit more successful for her than Cannonball.

It’s certainly got a great opening night slot going into the final of I’m A Celeb, whether it’ll keep up momentum remains to be seen. Let us know what you think in the comments.

18 thoughts on “Show Discussion: Walk the Line

  1. Cliff

    The whole “walking the line” thing is such a non-gimmick, but the worst thing about these sorts of talent shows is that the blandest acts win the vote. One Adele is more than enough, thanks.

    Asking the four judges for their opinion after each song is extremely time-consuming, because there’s none of the rivalry of X Factor or the detective work of The Masked Singer.

    Man, I can’t wait for The Masked Singer….

    Reply
  2. Brig Bother Post author

    If I said it was rubbish it’d be unfair – it’s precisely as slick a production as you’d expect from the team. Although the T-Minus countdown was an amusing “get over yourself” moment, and the actual walking of the line a complete anti-climax.

    The premise behind it however is basically bunkum. Five acts sing, the audience chooses a winner, they win £10,000 today and have to decide to stay in the competition to earn more or cash out (in which case whoever came second tonight would progress to tomorrow). And then whoever is in the final on Friday, comprising of Thursday’s champion and four new acts, get to play for half a million without having to put any effort in or make decisions at all. I’m really not sure that’s going to go down well, although doubtless Friday’s ep will see an uplift.

    There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a winner-stays-on format and no reason this couldn’t/shouldn’t apply to a singing/talent show. There’s also nothing wrong with a ladder system, but shows that use it usually have some sort of qualification to determine their spot on the ladder. This has random draw. It literally has almost all-new people coming in in the final. In TV circles, this is NOT “as good an idea as any” and I don’t think the audience, when they’ve caught on to what’s happening, are going to be especially supportive.

    *Maybe* it would be better if each night offered a winner £50,000 (say) to cash-out or go straight to the final, with the second place going through if the winner chooses to cash out? At the very least, wouldn’t it make more sense to let the winner see who tomorrow’s acts are going to be before making the decision? And has been pointed out variously, shouldn’t they have to make the decision to Walk the Line actually whilst the clock is going?

    There’s probably a decent format in this somewhere, but it shows when someone’s come up with a title before doing anything else.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      This from Maya Jama on Twitter (https://twitter.com/MayaJama/status/1470140408399286280):

      “It will make a lot more sense ep 2 Smiling face with open mouth and cold sweat tomoro Ella has a 20k offer..if she thinks she performed better than the 4 new challengers she can decide to leave with 20k or walk the line into the next ep.. but if a new challenger beats her & she walks the line she’ll leave with nothing”

      Sooooo if you’re going to be given a buyout offer, why *wouldn’t* you Walk the Line ever?

      Reply
  3. MrCT2U

    For anyone who likes their foreign gameshows, Walk the Line certainly has elements of the shopping format of Aussie/US Sale of the Century where you either take the prize or come back the night after to win a bigger prize and subsequently well with this format anyway, win 6 nights straight and you win the lot which is £500,000!!

    Reply
  4. Nico W.

    I think if you want a sort of ‘winner stays on’-format it would have to work a bit like De Slimste Mens. That seems much fairer and the buyout is not really tempting with 10k in mylopinion. Also they try to make it look really slick, but a few details seem off (lots of Shutterstock stuff and a few seams in the LED screens and other bits. Also does it need the huge LED across the judges?) wnd those snoops when the contestants walk off stage are entirely unneccessary. You could probably squeeze in another act without them and with shorter VTs. I think all in all it suffers from the same flaws The Four had, but The Four seemed fairer and more logical in that regard.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Yeah Slimste Mens was my thought when considering a ladder format, although it’s only really a ladder for finals week.

      Actually I quite like the idea of transferring The Slimste Mens into a singing competition. The Singster Mens, if you will.

      Reply
      1. Weaver

        “Beat Me: The Five Knockouts” says “hi!”

        The Dutch show pitted two singers against each other, head-to-head. After performing, and after hearing one of three professional judges, the defending champion could take their prize money or risk it to stay on. Top prize of €50 000 for six consecutive wins.

        It’s a modest show, pleasant but hardly unmissable viewing. The Week had a review recently.

        Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Actually a bit concerned with how badly Walk the Plank is doing. I don’t want it to do well, it’s a shit format, but if big budget light entertainment bollocks can barely get 2m on a primetime weeknight on a mainstream channel in Dec, I’m not sure that’s saying anything good.

      Reply
  5. Brekkie

    Although 2-3mnow is probably the equivalent of the 6-7m X Factor and Strictly were getting in 2004.

    This does just like feels it needs a bit of work to get the central premise to actually work. Certainly feel like the best of the new contestants needs an active role at the end too.

    What happens in the final too if the defending champ chooses to Walk the Line but hasn’t won? Does the other person get the £500k?

    Reply
  6. Henry R

    Let’s be honest, the talent on screen doesn’t scream exciting. Maya Jama, Gary Barlow etc. just doesn’t say fresh. It all feels quite retro, even if the set is quite nice.

    It doesn’t help that even after episode 2 it still really hasn’t got across the actual format of the show.

    Be interesting to see how Weakest Link and Limitless Win do

    Reply
  7. Brandon

    I think I might have worked out why: what if most people are expecting it to be weekly and have somehow missed that it’s on every night? You’d think all the mentions of “tomorrow night” would be a bit hard to miss but still.

    Reply
  8. Brekkie

    Some shows just work better weekly too. Strange to strip it this week rather than between the soaps and I’m a Celeb last week where it would probably add a few hundred thousand just for people tuning in early for Ant and Dec.

    Reply
    1. Crimsonshade

      I think we all assumed it had been already, tbh. Certainly I did.

      Reply

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