Poll of the Year: POTY Mouth

By | January 26, 2025

The Traitors has Uncloaked. Bake Off has Extra Slice. The Apprentice has You’re Fired. This Year, The UKgameshows.com/Bother’s Bar Poll of the Year has POTY Mouth.

Monday around 9pm the polling report and results will be found on UKGameshows.com. You should definitely read that first! Here, under a cut, will be the percentages and a longer tail for you to peruse and discuss.

The results are out! Go and read them first and discover the rest under the cut.

OK, welcome, we will begin with the long tail, here is everything in each category that polled more than one vote and the percentage of ballot sheets that they appeared on.

Hall of FAME
Gladiators 73.1
The Answer Run 52.6
Jeopardy 38.5
Junior Taskmaster 32.1
Bullseye 29.5
Double the Money 23.1
The Fortune Hotel 21.8
Parents’ Evening 20.5
Wheel of Fortune 19.2
Josh Must Win 16.7
Battle in the Box 14.1
Password 12.8
Wing It 10.3
Smart TV 7.7
Unspeakable 6.4
Bring the Drama 5.1
You Bet 5.1
Pictionary 3.8
Dubhlain DIY 2.6
Style It Out 2.6

Hall of SHAME
Wheel of Fortune 43.6
You Bet 43.6
Password 34.6
Pictionary 24.4
Jeopardy 20.5
Battle in the Box 15.4
Bullseye 15.4
The Fortune Hotel 12.8
Bad Boyfriends 9.0
Dating Naked UK 9.0
Josh Must Win 9.0
Parents Evening 9.0
Double the Money 6.4
One Person Found This Helpful 5.1
Out of Order 5.1
Smart TV 5.1
The Answer Run 5.1
Gladiators 3.8
Junior Taskmaster 3.8
Love Triangle 2.6
Our Dream Farm 2.6

Golden Five
Only Connect 52.6
The Traitors 52.6
The 1% Club 37.2
Taskmaster 29.5
Gladiators 25.6
House of Games 24.4
The Chase 17.9
Deal or No Deal 15.4
Popmaster TV 15.4
Limitless Win 14.1
Bridge of Lies 11.5
Countdown 11.5
Pointless 11.5
The Finish Line 10.3
The Wheel 10.3
The Hit List 7.7
Mastermind 6.4
University Challenge 6.4
Race Across the World 5.1
The Masked Singer 5.1
Who Wants Millionaire 5.1
Bullseye 3.8
Tipping Point 3.8
Am Dro 2.6
Big Brother 2.6
Big Fat Quiz 2.6
Catchphrase 2.6
Dragons Den 2.6
I Literally Just Told You 2.6
Josh Must Win 2.6
Junior Taskmaster 2.6
Picture Slam 2.6
Saturday Night Takeaway 2.6
Strictly Come Dancing 2.6
The Answer Run 2.6
The Piano 2.6

Streaming Five
Jet Lag 14.1
Lateral 12.8
Game Changer 6.4
Pop Culture Jeopardy 6.4
The Mole 5.1
Agents of Mystery 3.8
Beast Games 3.8
Is It Cake 3.8
Reverse Trivia 3.8
The Circle 3.8
The Getaway 3.8
The Influencer 3.8
Make Some Noise 2.6
No More Jockeys 2.6
Physical 100 2.6
Tens10n 2.6
The Trust 2.6

Now for something a bit new and different, normally we only put up comments for the top 5 best and worst shows which means quite a lot don’t get used, so this time I thought I’d add some comments for the nearly rans:

Josh Must Win:
* All these reality shows are all about picking a favorite and it’s just a popularity contest, but I love formats that try and invert the concept in fun, unique ways. One of the most interesting concepts was that of Josh Must Win in which a group of reality all stars must manipulate the game to give Josh an advantage in winning the contest. It’s a show that did make us look into the positives in all of us.
* It had no right to be that good but it felt like a classic E4 reality series of 20 years ago, and was all the better for it.

Wheel of Fortune:
* Had a lot of issues and maybe needs a shorter timeslot, but was perfectly watchable. Graham badly needs a co-host, but will watch the next series.
* Awkward mid-show bonus round aside, I found this to be much more enjoyable than the American show especially in the later Sajak years. The hour-long runtime helps to not make some game elements as much of a Golden Snitch.
* The most American version of the hangman classic. Norton is an interesting choice, but the Toss Ups and the mere concept of the wheel values being for cash instead of prizes is great. America should take a cue from this version in terms of the categories and the wheel design.
* It’s Wheel of Fortune! I love watching Wheel of Fortune reruns on Challenge! But, I feel really torn on this Wheel of Fortune. It’s mostly based off of the US version, and I love the American version, but this is a Wheel for the British audience, and there’s not much from the OG UK show carried over here. It’s pretty elongated as well, an hour compared to the US’ and the OG UK’s show 30 min runtime. Plus the lack of a letter turner removes a bit of character to the show. Graham is a fine host, but he needs someone to bounce off of. Despite these issues, I am putting it in Hall of Fame, as while it has so many problems, to me, at the end of the day, it’s still an enjoyable time.

Parents’ Evening:
* Neat little nightcap for the weekend, the “generations” dynamic’s not been seen quite so much on telly these days (since Big Star’s Little Star?) and here married to a sturdy Pointless-like format – indeed with Pointless going off the boil a bit, episodes sat moulding on the shelf while reruns keep the logs burning, this felt fresher. Romesh is a busy lad – and Marmite to some – but I hope he and ITV find time for more than three of this.
* Wasn’t expecting this to be as quizzy as it was and enjoyed it all the more because of that. Nice concept of rounds, if a little repetitive. Good twist whereby sometimes the celeb is the parent and sometimes they’re the child.
* Who Dares Wins, plus a dash of Wipeout, with a nice twist, an interesting dynamic, and plenty of humour, enjoyed it.

The Fortune Hotel:
* This is more Deal or No Deal Island than Deal or No Deal Island, while originally it sounded like big money carrot in a box, it’s “who has the money and can keep the secret” became more hider in the house than I was expecting, and it was such a fun novel reality format and I expect fun twists and more prizes in the next series.
*  It was a fun fortnight in May seeing this show’s public opinion run the gamut from “oh, it’s just The Traitors in a hotel” to “actually, hold on, this is quite good” when people actually started doing things in it. Really glad to see it’s got a second season.
* Far and away the best new format for me this year. I even prefer it to The Traitors. It’s been a very long time since we’ve had a good social strategy game that didn’t involve a vote off mechanic, and this had a unique idea. I hope the second series will showcase the format better.
* Enjoyed the storyline enough to stick with this the whole way through. They need to stop getting too Traitors-y with certain production decisions, though (eg slowed down covers of pop songs) – let it be its own show!
* I like the idea, but thought the execution was a miss. Stephen Mangan fell into the uncanny valley of hosts – too much personality and not enough of a role to make it his own. I found it difficult to follow who had what amount, and I was disappointed by the challenges. “Big” challenge shows (not just Fortune Hotel) these days don’t appear to be making exciting challenges any more. Has health and safety had a word, or have challenge producers lost a bit of imagination at the moment? Actually – it’s probably budget constraints, isn’t it…

Double the Money:
* Far from perfect but a refreshing contrast to the set up to fail tasks on the Apprentice.
* A fluff idea that turned out some engaging and unpredictable TV, a highlight in an otherwise barren year

Battle in the Box:
* There’s 75% of a good show here, and credit for some originality, rather than making “taskmaster but” once again.
* OK, it’s no Taskmaster, but it is the most I’ve enjoyed a Dave… sorry, U&Dave Original in some time. The win/reward system was more gamey than I was expecting and I thought it benefitted from that. Great look and sound – would like to see more.
* One of the year’s more interesting imports, like a stripped-back Big Brother in miniature with more focus on the tasks, the players not just rubbing off on each other in their confinement, but adding fun rivalry with those the other side of the divider. Could run and run with the right people inside. You could argue there was slightly too much Carr, but the show does benefit from having a “taskmaster” figure overseeing their guinea pigs…
* Jimmy Carr is the new “comedian they get to do the funny hosting” but just having him in Voice Over is definitely as the kids say “a choice”. I get they wanted something that’s a head to head taskmaster thing, but when you have formats like “Last One Laughing” just sitting around. It’s kind of a shame this is what gets picked up on Dave or UK Plus Dave or whatever it’s called now.
* Feel this would be more fun with civilians than celebrities. Matt Le Blanc was a better host of this when filming ‘Episodes’.
* On paper it’s a great idea but it just didn’t work at all.

Bullseye:
* Freddie Flintoff was a great host, but the show was too long and strayed too far away from the original. The charm of the original was that it was never polished, this ‘shiny floor’ version was the total opposite, and Luke Littler looked like he wanted to be anywhere else.
* It’s an hour long, and I feel like Bullseye only really works as a 30 minute show. The Epic Gameshow version did have more going for it to make the hour length kinda work, but this doesn’t. A solid attempt but I don’t think it’ll work as a full series.

And that, as they say, is that. Not the biggest poll we’ve ever ran but decent numbers nonetheless. A big thank you to all of you who voted, and possibly we will see you next year.

One thought on “Poll of the Year: POTY Mouth

  1. TB

    Perhaps not too difficult but I was correct with my predictions for Top 5 HoF and an all-ITV Top 5 HoS!

    No surprises about the HoF given the lack of good shows last year. There are things to like about each on the list but they all have issues not to like. Even Gladiators. It was a great effort to try and match the original but I don’t feel the events are varied enough. Hang Touch was underused. No spectacular but silly stuff like Danger Zone. Series 2 has Atlaspheres which is good but this series feels like a much later one with a couple of new events added as “that’ll do” and where the novelty has worn off, compared to S2 of the original which opened up with four new events and still had two more to come, all of them impressive looking. The downward trend in the ratings seems to suggest viewers are getting tired.

    Bullseye kept its bells and whistles, which helped. I think it’ll work as a series as the production team will realise they can’t have Luke Littler to fill time every episode.

    I agree that WoF as joint worst new show is harsh as it at least has more playalong value compared to some other shows, but it’s missing so much of what made the original great. If this had been a reboot of All Clued Up which was a similar format, OK but not great and also had a crap theme tune then it’d be looked on more favourably, but it wasn’t.

    You Bet deserves everything it gets. I may be going against the grain here in that I don’t think it was that sacred a show in that changes couldn’t be made, especially as the original changed throughout its run, but this was generic ITV shiny floor talent show production. It was personality focused which may be OK if all the challenges were of a comparable effort and it was all meant as a laugh, but they weren’t and it wasn’t and someone being given £10k because they cried is absolute nonsense. That they still could have won the money even if they had failed their challenge… what?!!

    A terrible year, worse than 2023 which was pretty barren and there were various reboots and adaptions, but Survivor aside, they were done right. It also felt that shows were made for UK viewers as opposed to formats being brought in because they are supposedly hits elsewhere but with nothing changed. Licensing may be to blame but viewers have high expectations and broadcasters have to meet them.

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