Right, moderate Saturday night hit The Cube with Philip Schofield starts recording its second, extended series today with 10 episodes and two celebrity specials planned, apparently.
If you’re going (or if you’ve been if you read this later), please feel free to tell us about it – what’s different and what is good and bad. New games are planned, although if they were serious about there being about 60 games worked out last time then there must have been about 20-25 unused from series one so how “new” is new we won’t know.
Yeah, the celeb specials of The Cube. One of which is being recorded at the rather nice time of 2.30 this Friday afternoon, which makes a trek down from the West Midlands, and get back without worrying the trains after 10.30pm (unlike the proper series) very attractive indeed….
..however – I’m being dragged to the land of the yellow balls and overpriced beer in SW19 that day. (new) BALLS.
I wonder, by the way if one of these celebs will be Schof himself, with Vernon Kay hosting. Reversing the last of each series of ‘Schalg Den D-lister’ rather nicely!
Yes, it would be interesting to see Schofield enter the Cube and try some of the games it has to offer.
By the way, does anybody know why the show’s second episode from last year (29 August 2009) has never been uploaded on YT? That appears to be the only use of “Drift”, and also the one in which a contestant in “Barrier” stripped down to his scanties. It’s the one UK episode I’ve not seen, nor have I been able to show it to Chuckles (who likes the show as much as I do.)
By the way, in not gameshow related news, well… ish
Chris Sievey has passed away, also known as Frank Sidebottom (Remote Control UK)
He will be missed
He also starred as a gimpy subordinate in Endurance UK 2 with Paul Ross, of course.
ITV just don’t learn do they – yet another show they look set to ruin by this belief we need to see so called “celebs” play it.
“Celebrity Specials” may have been special 15 years ago when they only happened at Christmas and for Children in Need/Comic Relief, but now they’re more of a turn off than a turn on (no doubt a huge factor in the downfall of Millionaire!).
Gameshows are about real people winning real money to aid their real life. Like Deal or No Deal, The Cube is as much about the pressure of making decisions and taking chances which can really affect your life as it is the gameplay – and hand it over to celebs and that element is just lost.
It wouldn’t be so bad if the “celebs” were genuinely playing for charity, but we all know that notion went out of the window when they became more concerned with how much they were being paid rather than how much they could raise for a good cause.
In fairness, there’s a decent case for ‘celebrities playing deceptively tricky and potentially mildly embarrassing games’ in its own right – but that’s been covered before, and covered better, and celebs in risk-reward game shows really, really doesn’t work.
Celebrity editions of game shows are all right if it is made clear that these are to be the exception, rather than the rule. In these parts, going over to an all-celeb format is usually seen as a sign of desperation, when ratings have gone underwater.
You’ll remember a few months ago, when there was speculation of a revival of “The Crystal Maze”, with one Amanda Holden hosting. (As it turned out, ITV had Holden hosting “The Door”, and neither episode was uploaded onto YouTube, more’s the pity.) The talk was that it was to be an all-celeb show. Now, it might be interesting to see celebrities trying their hand(s) at the “fiendish and devious games” of the Crystal Maze. It might be curious to see Ant (or Dec) get locked into one of the cells, and see Dec (or Ant) agonize over whether to use one of their hard-earned crystals to ransom him out! And it might be curious to see Carol Vorderman flummoxed by a mental game!
Of course, ITV isn’t going to risk seeing anything untoward happen to either of the team that appears (from what I’m led to understand on the various ‘blogs) to be that network’s bread-and-butter.
There are to be ten episodes of “The Cube” with regular folks, and two with celebs. That strikes me as just about right.
Granted, I don’t recognize any of the names Brig mentions–but then, I am a Yank, and probably wouldn’t know them at all anyway!
I can’t say I agree with this. Yes, ITV is stuffing its schedules with mediocre contestants playing games that would be more fun with members of the public (Family Fortunes in particular), but that doesn’t mean a well-chosen celebrity edition is necessarily a bad thing. Variety being the spice of life, and all that.
The folk up for this are young, sporty, and there’s the opportunity for some personalised games. Will Ricky Hatton get a game nicked from Fort Boyard and deliver a knockout punch… in the cube? Can Kelly Osbourne do her hair in another remarkable style… in the cube? Would anyone remember who Joe Swash is or what he’s famous for… in the cube?
For my money, the majority of the attraction of The Cube is the games, the challenges, the chance to see people go to pieces in a giant perspex box; a secondary attraction is the special effects. The money is a device to add jeopardy.
“@Schofe Oh and it looks like our celebs will be Ricky Hatton Dame Kelly Holmes Kelly Osbourne and Joe Swash”
‘our celebs’
Mr Schofield pushing the term celebrities to very limits of description with that probable cast list.. (Dame Kelly excepted)
Hatton’s very well-known amongst the traditional ITV viewer base, to be fair. And the Osbourne name still carries recognition. Joe Swash, though, I totally agree.
But he even won I’m a Celebrity!!!!
Sounds like they’re a bit deseperate for audience actually, free beer or wine if you get there at 5pm!