Board of Excitement 24th-30th April 2011

By | April 24, 2011

Not much happening:

  • It’s Easter! Yum. (Sunday)
  • The Cube – last week’s episode was very very good indeed. Series 3 discussion here. Note the earlier time, there’s a special episode of Coronation Street on after. (6:30pm, ITV1, Sunday)
  • Celebrity Total Wipeout – The last episode of series four. (5:30pm, BBC1, Holiday Monday)
  • The Voice – it’s big in Holland so that means it’s also going to be big in the US, don’t forget this is going to be NBC’s biggest reality hit in years (not my words you understand). Needless to say we’re ready with fair and impartial graph making equipment. You can’t say NBC aren’t trying, they’ve been airing extended clips before Jay Leno and Saturday Night Live this week and given what they’ve apparently paid for it they need it to be a hit really. It’s a pity then they’ve decided to launch it towards the mid-late stages of American Idol which hasn’t really collapsed, then. (Tuesday and a repeat on Wednesday after the highly-rated Minute to Win It, NBC)
  • The Royal Wedding – because when you think about it, marriage is like the ULTIMATE gameshow isn’t it? (Basically all week on all channels)
  • The Million Pound Drop – Actually it’s on at 9pm on both Fridays and Saturdays now, which seeing as it seems to do better at 10pm is another winning move from Channel 4. In case you’re wondering, the following shows on the next two Fridays are a repeat of My Big Fat Royal Gypsy Wedding from the night previous and Jimmy Carr: Telling Jokes. (9pm, Channel 4, Friday and Saturday)

32 thoughts on “Board of Excitement 24th-30th April 2011

  1. Joe

    I am really excited by The Voice launching in America this week. I’ve been a fan of the format since day one and always knew it would make its way to a major network in the US. The talent involved in terms of on screen and off screen production of the US version is of a very high calibre. The chair twist to the format is something which sets it apart from Idol and X Factor. I agree with Brig that it isn’t the best time of the year to launch The Voice, nor do I expect numbers to be anywhere near Idol levels, but it will be a hit for NBC’s levels. The production quality is right up there with the best of what Idol has to offer.

    Reply
  2. Joe

    Can people on here please give feedback on an idea for a TV show which is currently being developed. It is a cross between a gameshow and talent show, currently without a name:

    – It is shown each week on a Wednesday for 60 minutes, Saturdays for 90 minutes for the main show and 30 minutes for results. Lasts for 6 weeks.
    – There are 10 well-known celebrities who are put inside a house to live in for 6 weeks. They have to make friends, get on with each other and actually experience life with little contact with the outside world (Big Brother-esque). This live coverage would be streamed onto the Internet and digital channels of the broadcaster where viewers have the opportunity to watch the contestants 24/7.
    – A normal week runs from Sunday to Saturday. On the Sunday, the presenter of the show visits the house to inform the celebrities about their “Weekly Challenge”: each week, contestants are required to learn a specific ‘art’ or ‘talent’ for which they will be given training for the 6 days prior to a live performance on a Saturday night in the studio in front of 3 judges. These 3 judges will be the same judges every week (a comedian, a sweet-heart lady and a nasty judge). The challenges would change week by week, for example: performing a routine with a professional dancer, ice skating, singing, dangerous circus acts, extreme sports and there’s others I could mention too.
    – The celebrities are given training every day prior to their live performance, such as how celebs on talent shows like Dancing with the Stars are given training. The training will feature in the VTs directly prior to their Saturday night performances and also in the Wednesday midweek show.
    – There’s more of course: the contestants are in the show to raise money for their dedicated charities. Every week further they get in the competition, the more money they raise for charity (for e.g. if they are eliminated in week 1, they get £5k, week 2 = £15k and so on). Now here’s an important bit: every Monday, the celebrities will have to take part in a ‘Nominations’ process whereby they must nominate 3 people who they believe deserve to stay in the competition the least. This is where the whole “living in a house” aspect comes into it – mates will not nominate their friends, enemies will nominate their enemies.
    – The 3 people with the most nominations will then have to take part in a “Survival” challenge on the Tuesday. Now remember, in addition to all this, these celebs will still have to train for their “Weekly Challenges” in the mean time. The “Survival” challenge is where the gameshow element comes into it. The 3 nominated celebs will have to take part in a gameshow task: answering questions on their specialist subject or maybe competiting over dangerous obstacles, or trying to complete a challenge within a minute, or eating bugs and insects. The “Survival” challenge varies week by week and will incorporate parts of gameshows which are very popular, but different enough not to breach copyright.
    – The loser of this “Survival” challenge will automatically face elimination. They will be put “up on the chopping block”. All of this nominations process and Survival challenge would be shown on the midweek show, as well as training which celebs do.
    – Now on the Saturday in the 90 minute show, all of the celebs will perform their “Weekly Challenge” live, like a normal talent show. Even the celebrity who is on the “chopping block”. The judges will comment on their performances, give their critiques, it’ll all be done in a nice flashy studio.
    – The results show is where it’ll be very tense: live in front of the nation, the celebrities (apart from the one who is already up for eviction) will have to vote who they believe performed the worst. It’s a matter of tactics: do they vote the people they don’t like living with, who they genuinely thought was the worst or who they think is a threat to them progressing further in the competition? So now we have two celebs up for the “chopping block”. Then, the judges will vote who they believe should also be up on the chopping block. This will be based on the performances they’ve seen and they’ll choose the person who least deserves to stay (who hasn’t already been nominated) based on that performance.
    – All of that happens in the first 10 mins. The phonelines will then open for the public to vote to save who they think deserves to stay in the competition. The lines will be open for about 10 minutes.
    – In the meantime, there’s an ad break and a guest performance by a famous singer/dancing act etc. The phonelines then close and the public vote is revealed. The celeb with the least number of votes is eliminated from the competition and takes the money they’ve already accumulated with them to give to charity.
    – That whole process will then happen the following week with different challenges and survival tasks until the final, in which we’ll find out the winner.

    Please give your thoughts about this project. I have very high hopes about it. Of course I couldn’t put every detail into the above post so there’s stuff missing out but I hope you’ve understood the general format of the show, and I’d like to know how improvements could be made to it. Thanks.

    Reply
    1. Alex

      Sounds like every game show ever made in one. I’ll comment after The Cube when I’ve got a load of free time.

      Reply
    2. Simon

      So a cross between Big Brother / Strictly and X Factor. Can’t say it fills me with excitement – I’d rather watch the 3 individual programmes than a mix of the 3.

      Reply
    3. Sheila

      So Big Brother meets every other gameshow you can think of? Um, it’s okay. The BBC would never pick it up due to the Big Brother element because it would give ammunition to the Daily Mail and License Fee complainers. But actually, could be a nice fit for Channel 4.

      Reply
    4. Sheila

      PS. You shouldn’t have posted that on an Internet forum. Someone might now steal that idea, or at the very least use parts of it.

      Reply
      1. Paul B

        Since every part of it is stolen from some other show in the first place who’d notice?

        Joe – it’s rubbish. Tell whoever is “developing” it not to waste their time. Unless it’s Endemol developing it, in which case: a) since when did Endemol care what anyone thinks of their ideas?and b) it’s irrelevant what anyone thinks, since it’ll get commissioned anyway, like everything else Endemol come up with.

        Reply
        1. Joe

          With respect, part “b)” of your post is unnecessary and sounds like sour grapes. Why do you think it’s “rubbish”? I wouldn’t say it’s “stolen” but more “influenced”, which would become clear once it makes on screen. 😉

          Reply
          1. Paul B

            No sour grapes, I’ve been lucky enough to get several shows on television over the past few years, which I’m quite happy with. I was just playing on the perception everyone in telly has about how easy Endemol find it to get commissions.

            I think the idea “being developed” is “rubbish” for many reasons, too many to go into in detail. This, of course, is just my opinion, other opinions may well exist.

    5. Chris M. Dickson

      Nothing necessarily wrong with it, if you can get celebs who the world might want to watch day-on-day who are prepared to give up ten weeks for that sort of charity money (why are Celeb BB, IACGMOOH etc. generally three weeks long rather than ten weeks long?) but it doesn’t feel very 2011. It feels potentially rather 2002. Not necessarily a bad thing, but don’t try to pitch it in the UK for another 15-20 years, or try to pitch it only to countries which haven’t had the same formats as the UK over the last decade or so.

      Reply
  3. Chris

    Joe, With respect (I.e I’m trying to be view this impartially) – Its too derivative of other shows on TV – You stand a better chance of commission and a larger audience with an original format or failing that a twist on a show that we haven’t seen before

    (By twist we’re talking a new way of seeing an idea bit like the cube vs beat the clock or Unanimous vs big brother)

    Maybe I’m missing something but I don’t see any..well original vision

    Reply
    1. Joe

      X Factor wasn’t original exactly though, was it? And look how that’s turned out to be in terms of success! There are very few new shows these days which you can say 100% that it’s “original”. But I take your opinion into account, and as I’ve said it’s still in its early stages 🙂

      Reply
      1. Chris

        X factor falls into the latter part of my statement – its a new take on Pop idol et al

        Originality is harder but interests an audience a lot more.

        Reply
        1. Joe

          Thanks for your advice, I understand what you mean now 🙂 . I’ll try my best to make it less derivative.

          Reply
          1. Chris

            One last point

            If it looks like a clone and the original still exists – it will usually fall at the first series

            See x factor doing well with no pop idol and every single DOND and WWTBAM clone dying for more details. 🙂

    2. Gizensha

      More specifically, it’s too derivitive of too many other shows. X meets Y is a valid way of implementing the twist you refer to… A meets B meets C meets D meets E will almost never have enough developement on the interactions between the elements for it to not look like a lazy knock off of, as previous people have put it ‘everything going’

      In short – Figure out what you’re trying to do, and stick to it.

      Reply
      1. Gizensha

        (FTR, IMO the obvious ones to go for of that idea conglomoration are Big Brother meets The Moment Of Truth (which… I can’t see that getting commissioned in the UK at the moment. Bad timing for it. And The Moment Of Truth meets Slow Elimination Talent Show [And I normally [b]hate[/b] the slow elimination tournament structure])

        Reply
  4. Brig Bother Post author

    I think what you appear to have done there Joe is invent the Italian version of The Mole, except without the Mole element.

    Reply
    1. NJ

      If its not a Telly Addicts revival then that’s doomed from the start.

      Reply
    2. Jennifer Turner

      No, it’s not for Challenge – it’s for Sky Atlantic.

      Reply
  5. Tom H

    Apparently Challenge are planning on doing a one-off run of Takeshi’s Castle here next year to mark 10 years since it first aired in the UK – with filming either happening at Alton Towers or at the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent.

    Just a rumour, mind.

    Reply
    1. Chris

      I’ve always said some network should of done this years ago!

      Reply
    2. Daniel

      Where did you hear about this Tom? I’m highly sceptical (not of you, of whoever reported it in the first place), but we have been pointing out the tenth anniversary to them for months now. We’re trying to get them to make a new series out of the games they cut from their original TC series’, but if this is true then it’s nice to know they’ve at least taken note. Would still like to see ‘Series 5’ though!

      Reply
  6. David

    3.22m for The Cube last night when the +1 is factored in…starting early plus the holiday didn’t do it any favors (but it didn’t go down as much as some of the other programs last night- the whole night was a washout)….

    Reply
      1. Travis P

        Yawn! You’re boring me with your spinning.

        As we know Bother’s Bar is a fair and impartial site so here are some figures to compare both shows from last week to this week.

        Last week
        19:20- Sing If You Can: 5.33m (26.0%) , +1: 140k = 5.47m
        19:00- The Cube: 3.53m (17.6%), +1: 113k = 3.64m

        This week
        19:00- Sing if You Can: 3.4m (18.2%) , +1: 144k = 3.54m
        18:30- The Cube: 3.09m (18.9%) , +1: 137k = 3.22m

        Difference from last week to this week.
        Sing if You Can – 1.93m down, 7.8% down on ITV1
        The Cube – 0.42 down, 1.3% up on ITV

        Reply
        1. Joe

          That’s a big drop for Sing if You Can when you put it like that. Hopefully SIYC, Deal or No Deal ratings increase next few weeks

          Reply
  7. Coolcat

    Sorry Joe, but I can only speak personally – it just doesn’t seem like the sort of thing I’d want to watch.
    Problems over and above those previously mentioned, in no particular order:
    1. No doubt there are examples to the contrary, but extended sequences about ‘people training to do things’ are rarely seen, probably because in fact the nitty-gritty of training is quite dull. They’re normally dispensed with quickly, Strictly-style, in half a minute or so.
    2. The Wednesday show looks dull, not much going on except clips of what’s already happened. Why isn’t your Tuesday action taking place in the live show on Wednesday?

    Reply
  8. John R

    Is it just me or did nobody mention that ‘Who Dares Wins’ is back (Started on Saturday)?

    It was a rather nice surprise finding it on iPlayer earlier today after a long weekend away.

    Reply
    1. Des Elmes

      I mentioned it in the first comment on the Don’t Scare the Hare thread – and talked about some of the contestants from the previous series, too. 😉

      Reply

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