Sunday 4th January 8pm then Sundays at 7pm,
ITV
Let me just take you back to three years ago, a few days after The Floor started in the Netherlands where I said words along the lines of “hey! This isn’t rubbish!”
Fast forward three years to today and the show has pretty much conquered the planet. ITV had a go at the “recognising things” genre with In With A Shout, Alan Carr’s Picture Slam is a 7/10 version of the idea that gets a boost from Strictly, but now with some slight tweaks that have been tried out internationally (i.e. some rounds are a bit different to “recognising things”, but don’t worry “recognising things” fans! Most of it is still “recognising things”) and now In With A Shout isn’t a thing any more there is room for the world conquering “recognising things” champion on ITV1 and they’ve even got Rob Brydon, and everyone loves a bit of Rob Brydon don’t they?
81 people (this series) each have a square on a 9×9 grid on the titular Floor and each person has their own specialist subject, and by specialist subject the categories aren’t so specialist you’d have no chance at them – and that’s important because one person selected by The Floor will have to challenge someone next to them on the grid on their specialist subject. A 45-second chess clock duel will happen – recognize the thing or whatever as fast as you can, a ‘pass’ means taking a painful three-second penalty, whoever runs out of time first loses and leaves the show. The winner takes the square to add to their territory, and inherits the loser’s category if they were challenged. Keep going across ten weeks until one person has conquered the entire floor and they win £50,000.
Which is a bit crap for a primetime show across ten weeks frankly – rumours suggest this was originally intentioned for a 6pm slot in the Spring but really it was always going to be more premium than that – it’s not a great look frankly (especially if it’s going to be leading into Limitless Win next week.) There are a few other question marks too – we don’t know what the incentives for staying on after winning a Duel are – the main ones internationally is that having the most territory at the end of an episode is worth a guaranteed cash prize (or sometimes the top two get to battle it out risk free for the bonus) – anything less than £5,000 would be a bit of a piss-take considering, and other versions give you an extra 5 seconds you can use if you win three duels in a row (fortifying your position), or even let you swap your category with anyone else on the board.
Nonetheless we’ve found the international versions we’ve watched decent fun, and it’s quite a difficult show to mess up at this point really – they filmed it on the Dutch set so they’ll have plenty of Dutch experience to go with it. We’re keeping our fingers crossed. Watched it? Let us know what you thought in the comments.
A little slower than it needs to be, and perhaps a bit too repetitive, but generally a good format. It’s a bit concerning that only one challenger beat their opponent at the latter’s category though. It’ll take a brave player to stay on for a second duel.
Yes, challengers always have the disadvantage of going first as well. But there were few if any real deep cuts in the question stacks I thought, so anyone with a decent general knowledge should have a decent shout in most things.
To me, The Floor is less about knowledge although that does help and more about speed and pacing.
Way better than I expected it to be, within the first 5 minutes of it starting I’m thinking this is gonna be a solid format. Found it addictive and fun to play along with.
Seems like a Saturday 8pm show rather than a Sunday 8pm (Next week 7pm) show due to the higher production. Yes the questions felt easy and there wasn’t a great amount of difficulty but I appreciate the entertainment value of the format, I picked up the game more or less immediately and that always helps to get me hooked onto a program. I can’t say I like Rob Brydon or dislike him he’s kind of like marmite I don’t mind him but then again I can’t think of a host who could do a better job than him so take that as a compliment. I think as the series progresses there will be more jeopardy and more pressure at stake. The specialist subject areas are kind of a rip off of Michael Mcintyre’s The Wheel and the pictures on screen “Picture Slam” but the element of The Floor adds a new level of excitement to the proceedings, I’m interested to see how the game will progress next week. 7.5/10
I thought that was good – it’s such a tried show that it’s difficult to mess up really. Probably a bit too much Brydon gurning – you expect it a couple of times a show, once a duel felt a bit much, and “mythology” was probably a bit misleading as a category name really.
I note they didn’t go with ‘randomizer’, look out for people getting selected next to people with large territories for final duels!
In all honesty for low jackpot gameshows with the same contestants over multiple weeks I preferred the variety of 99 to Beat but no doubt despite being repetitive it has the playalong element. Actually wonder if it could have worked for ITV stripped at 7.30pm for 4 weeks now that slot has opened up but that’s probably too big a risk.
I’ve always liked the format so the UK version was very enjoyable. I think as the series progresses, you will see the contestants being more strategic about who they take on.
I do wonder if it’s better to pass and take the 3 second hit rather than guess aimlessly and end losing more seconds. The best contestants tend to be the ones who don’t crack under pressure.