Right, not strictly gameshow related but being mentioned because it might be of interest to the sorts of denizens who hang around Bother’s Bar during a slow news/can’t be bothered week: The Boardgame Remix Kit, which I will buy this evening (although won’t have the chance to explore fully because I’m playing poker) for the bargainous £2.99 and seems like a fine idea in principle, and more than one person has tweeted me about it and geek comedian Tom Scott is involved in playtesting so I trust it IMPLICITLY.
Meanwhile, Buzzerblog have videos of the US Million Dollar The Money Drop, I don’t think the set looks too awful all told – more like the European set but with more screens than I was expecting.
Also, intrigued by Simon Cowell’s response to the The X Factor fix allegations:
“There has always been a sing-off when there are five people left in the competition. This is a lot of nonsense about nothing.”
Er, no there hasn’t. In fact correct me if I’m wrong, but the public tend to be the final arbiters from the final six downwards usually. I don’t believe The X Factor is a fix (although insinuating it was only going to be viewer votes is a bit off) and I understand that controversy is usually good for the show, but I think they’re beginning to get to the point where the public might actually switch off – they’re already happy enough to not buy the record. Although they probably won’t switch off this week being the final, obviously.
Edit: Alex says: “I’ve checked, and it was final 4 in series 1 and 3 (2004/2006), and 5 each other series.” So there we are.
Edit Edit: Right, quick review of The Boardgame Remix Kit – if it was all as wildly inventive as their Cluedo meets Dawn of the Dead idea then I would have no hesitation in recommending it, regrettably a lot of it doesn’t have the same sort of mad inventiveness and is really a book of new house rules for popular games. I think I was expecting more re-purposing so I’m not sure I could recommend buying a physical copy at the price therefore, but the iPhone app also comes with working built in timer and dice which is harder to get right then you’d think if other ‘boardgame replacement’ apps are anything to go by. There are worse things you could spend £2.99 on, especially if you think This Sort Of Thing is worth supporting.
Nice one Simon. Assume that the public are too dumb to remember things more than a year ago. Nice one.
I’ve checked, and it was final 4 in series 1 and 3 (2004/2006), and 5 each other series.
All the XFactor stuff can be condensed into 4 words:
Cowell’s Controversies Create Cash.
I suspect we’ll have a lot of stuff like this over here next year when USXF starts up (though the timing makes me wonder- is Cowell going to be doing both versions, since they’ll be running at about the same time?)
I think they’ve been saying that Cowell will step down from ours to do the US one. No idea if they’d keep ours as a 4-judge format or put it back to the 3-judge format.
I think the plan is to delay the UK series and broadcast the live shows when the first Pop Idol was airing in 2001/2002. So having the live shows throughout December, January and early February. By doing that would have Simon travelling between LA and London but for a few times. As for Mr. Cowell’s plan for the Christmas Number 1, they’ll release the charity single as the Christmas single.
I’m not really giving it a look over since I doubt I have any of the games it uses. (Though – What games does it use, anyway? I’ve seen Cluedo, Monopoly, Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit linked to it…
It’s those four, basically.
Looking at the early New Year listings for Channel 4. Deal or No Deal has been given a 60 minute slot, airing between 4pm-5pm. So it looks like Countdown will be moved back by 10 minutes to 3.15pm.
If that is indeed true, then Countdown returns to the way it was, time-wise, from September 2003 until Richard’s death… 🙁
Cube News
The Saudi Arabian version has been recomissioned for second series for 2011. Recording will take place at Fountain Studios in early January.
http://www.lostintv.com/tv_show.cfm?f=1291830929937&content_type_id=227
Also our version will be recording nine shows in mid/late January
http://www.lostintv.com/tv_show.cfm?f=1291830929937&content_type_id=228
This is probably a massive hint ITV wants The Cube to be paired with Britain’s Got Talent in the spring. Given the fact The Whole 19 Yards has been axed.
Yep, pondered that on Twitter earlier.
SRO are also doing The Cube tickets, by the way.
Hey kids, £15 off the travel costs if you attend the Saudi Arabian recording of The Cube…
And there’s a couple of afternoon recordings as well. 220 seats, first come, first served!
Got to give it to Lost In Tv. At first glance, it’s the most impossible of impossible tasks… The Saudi ex-pat community can’t be that huge over here – can it?
Compare with the venerable book New Rules for Classic Games, which… er… I can’t remember whether or not I own it. (I think I do, but…?)