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.
I had watched the American version and thought it to be too over the top for my tastes. However I think this hits the balance nicely. Rob is a very good choice of host. If as rumours have suggested Clarkson leaves Millionaire he would be my pick for that job too.
I also like there is an incentive of gaining the extra 5 seconds for winning 3 in a row which I don’t remember being in the US version.
Will definitely be back for episode 2. Interesting that episode 1 has been posted by ITV to YouTube so soon after I wonder if that means it rated below expectations
1.9m according to Broadcast.
It’s not an amazing number I’m not too worried, I’d be inclined to wait a few weeks given it has a an earlier slot from next week and that the overall sentiment seems to be pretty positive – it’s about what Bullseye was doing before it started leading into I’m a Celeb.
I do wonder if a player will only do three duels in a row later on, it’s too risky to do it in the first couple of episodes because there’s little chance you’ll be able to know all your neighbour’s category better than them.
Friends of mine who have done international versions tell me there was a lot of boning up of neighbouring categories overnight and and in between recordings, although I understand everyone gets the initial grid before recording.
But as I also said – there was very little in the way of deep cuts asked in episode one – very little challenging in board and card games (very MB/trad), family films (ditto) – I’d have blown romcoms and fashion, but it not like any of those answers were obscure they’re just personal blind spots. The other categories I’d have had a good go in.
It does put a lot of the early players at a disadvantage if they are picked and they have tough categories to choose from but I think players with broad general knowledge could do well even without the swotting up between shows.
Some categories do have crossovers. Detective shows and Action films don’t sound like natural crossovers on paper but if you watch a lot of movies and TV then you’ll do well. Likewise with Reality TV and IAC.
It’s fine. It’s a solid, but not great, format but there’s something hypnotically watchable about the whole thing, a bit like Tipping Point. Didn’t really feel like a British game show in its presentation. Casting felt a bit heady handed for a British game show too.
Not sure Bryson is the best fit as host despite liking him elsewhere.
Zi (who appeared in episode 2) won the 1st series of The Mole UK, back in 2001.
(Found out via YouTube comments)
Yes! This came up in the Discord earlier and I’ve just watched it. Fingers crossed he can do the Double!
Great to see that what feels like the occasional dodgy judging decision seems to be an international format point at this juncture.
Not sure how much I love splitting the money, on a version that’s asking for a bit more aggression really I’m not sure encouraging players to sit back Is It. Is this a common feature or does Most Earliest travel outside of Bonus Duel territories?
Also question for those who know: are players more aggressive when Category Swap is an option? My gut says yes, but I don’t have any evidence to back it up.
Also also: having hyped up the different types of questions that could come up… they haven’t, it’s been pretty standard Floor so far, so I wonder if they had a change of heart.
Zi winning two duels was great because a lot of the players who did second duels so far have ended up losing them. To me, doing a second duel seems risky unless you’re confident like Zi was.
I wonder if we’ll see Category Swap in the first UK series? I know the time boost is an addition that now part of the format which wasn’t originally.
I think South Shore played it safe for the UK version which is understandable but if this get another series, we might see different types of questions come up.
I find Rob a bit annoying on this, I don’t think his comedy has lent itself to such a formatted quiz the way Lee’s has on 1%. I preferred 99 to beat to be honest.
On a separate note, i think last night’s episode of Limitless Win last night was the best i’ve seen – risking half a million to play on is bold, risky and highly unusual. Proper gambler contestant.
We’ll have some BARB numbers in due course, but Thinkbox have the first two episodes around 2.3. However its A16-34 numbers for episode two are extremely strong, third in commercial for the week, over 300k. Better than anything except Masked Singer and an episode of Coronation Street.
The flag and superheroes duels were the highlights of this week’s episode but I do wonder if they might improve the contestant selection if they do another series because some of the contestants who have crashed out of duels have been painful.
First episode consolidates to 3.08m. Does it get an ITV2 repeat? Because it’s added over a million from its overnight.
Edit: on Saturday apparently.