Netflix,
From 1st March
We’re getting to test out a lot of my hypotheses this year, firstly that Jeopardy‘s not going to work from cold in 2023 on ITV, secondly that quiz shows hold an extremely low value on streaming services where people can choose what they want (as opposed to on broadcast TV where they can fill a slot inexpensively and occasionally make a load of money).
Ch£at is that quiz show testing that second hypothesis this time after Netflix tried Bullshit last year (second series not currently forthcoming), we went and saw an episode being filmed last May and it was, basically, fine. People give answers to questions, if they don’t know an answer they can push a button and read it off a screen, the other contestants have to work out if they cheated or not. Be the best at it and win up to £50,000. Ellie Taylor is the richardosman, Danny Dyer mugs to camera whilst calling people mugs. We will at least get to see how it all edits down and how big they’ve gone on Dyer.
Intrigued to see what you think! Let us know in the comments.
Extremely disappointing if they’ve just used subs and haven’t dubbed Dyer into many languages.
Of course popular quizzes tend to thrive on local culture, what a Brazilian is going to make to references to Coronation Street is anyone’s guess.
Enjoyed that more than I thought I would! American-style spoiler package at the start and over-the-top editing on the final question annoyed a little, but aside from that it stayed pretty sane and plugged along at a decent pace. Likeable contestants, though fairly incredible they found a gay man who’s unaware of Jason Momoa. Actually on the subject of questions: way too easy, found it kinda hard to play along as I couldn’t imagine anyone not knowing most of them.
Presentation-wise, set’s gawgeous, music’s crap but not unbearable, Ellie is solid and Danny looks like he’s having the time of his life. Does feel like an odd fit for Netflix but will probably watch the rest at some point
Agreed, this is actually pretty watchable.
Well paced, quite funny, tense endgame. Edits down way better than I anticipated.
Shame nobody’s going to watch.
Edit: And also I don’t think it’s “bingeable” especially. I might watch one a day or every few days, I’m not chainwatching it. The four-a-week release schedule is quite smart in this regard.
Completely unrelated but without any recent general chat thread to add this to, Variety are reporting that ITV’s getting rid of Clarkson after the next series of WWTBAM following the Meghan Markle/Sun column fallout:
https://variety.com/2023/tv/global/jeremy-clarkson-millionaire-canceled-itv-1235538599/
Well it was far better than the Cheat with Steve Jones I went to see 9 years ago for sure…
Netflix is an interesting platform as they can give it the whole ‘Saturday night primetime’ feel and chuck out some decent prize money which actually becomes rather important come the final round, it makes the contestants think twice before accusing when there is 000’s resting on that decision, I’m not sure it would work in quite the same way had it been stuck on in BBC/ITV daytime with 00’s
At the same time are people going to go searching on Netflix for a pretty standard game show? Perhaps that is the biggest issue at play
Also if I didn’t know there was a physical studio audience present they could have fooled me into thinking it was all just straight out of a can, a shame they didn’t involve them in some way (let them vote on if they think a question has been cheated or not even if it would just provide some extra stats for the viewer at home or something)
I really like the end game, a proper test of wits and pokerface ability, and what’s more whoever wins it *feels* like they deserve it, someone successfully blagging it feels just as good to watch as someone with great quizzing ability.
I am finally getting round to watching some of this (I’m down to the final 20 or so on Physical 100 too – that’s the problem with On Demand exclusives, I forget they exist!) and tbh, its sort of like Bullshit was the pilot and this is the more polished “real” first series? The games are very similar, but most of these games come down to the Play-a-long-ability at Home, the Fairness, and Who is Hosting it, and while Cheat doesn’t feel like a multiple series run on a main UK TV channel type show, it’s seems to be score reasonably on those.
So this is below average for me, if you removed Danny it would creep up to average.
The Cheat idea is fine, but the show would benefit from being 7 or 8 mins shorter with less recap/Danny chat.
The questions seem to be aimed quite low and aren’t particularly exciting, which they should be given that the show doesn’t have that many questions in it.
The choice to go first or second in the endgame makes no sense – there is absolutely no benefit to going first.
So why offer it.
The endgame in Ep4 proves the endgame is slightly flawed.
But that’s not true, you answer first, you give them the opportunity to make a false call first.
I can’t work out how Ep 4 shows the endgame as flawed, she took a chance and blew it.