Iain Weaver asks in his latest TV Guide: “where is Ratings Bear”?
It is a good question. I’ve got an inkling he might wake up out of hibernation to bust out some sort of graph on May 15th for whatever reason, although I can’t be certain, obviously.
Incidentally you missed off illusory gameshow Impossible? on your listings for next Thursday on Channel 5 at 10pm. I’ve been told it’s been filmed underneath railway arches, so make of that what you will.
And Cheryl Cole is off to do US X Factor! I think they’re going to have to work harder than expected to make it work over in the States (I can’t imagine LA Reid in the “Simon’s bitch” role that Louis Walsh has done so well over here), and now they’re going to have to work much harder over here to create a panel people can give a damn about. The X Factor has always been more about the judges than the contestants, despite what they’d like you to believe.
And probably the first show to be recorded under railway arches, since BBC Two’s ‘Cooking For The Enemy’ about three years back.
A rather odd little show, as the entire format was lifted directly from the ‘cooking for the food critics’ round used normally in the final week of (daily, low budget) Masterchef…
..so much that they even had the same three judges on this from Masterchef.
Eating With The Enemy, rather.
Incidentally, a while ago, weren’t we talking about the French show ‘Slam’?
Because the host of that is probably a contestant on Fort Boyard this year.
That sorta-half-not-really reminds me…
I’ve been watching the 2003 Challenge version of Fort Boyard, and I was wondering, do they really have the 40 minute time limit? They indicated at the start of the last adventure that there was about 3 minutes remaining, and after ages of deliberation and much screaming from the team, she backed down. There was no way that was 2 minutes, but when they reached the treasure room there was 0:55 remaining.
Er… Looking at it now, I probably should have just asked the question on it’s own.
No, the clock’s mainly been there to add narrative really, they’ll edit it to fit.
I’d be perfectly happy if they got rid, I think – the system they used on Challenge was as good as at any rate as it was always eight (or nine or ten, I’ve not watched it for a while) and two adventures.
I’d assume it was 10 because there were 5 keys to get. THe Five series did 8 chances to get 4 keys, then 3 adventures+riddle.
It’s 9.
Yes that sounds right, Canada was also similarly >50% (5 from 8 I think it is/was).
It’s quite sad that I’d have been able to tell you this off the top of my head with confidence in the past but not at the moment. I can’t believe it’s almost ten years since the Challenge series – let’s think about that for a second.
“Cheryl Cole is off to do US X Factor!”
Yawn… Cowell decided that a long, long time ago but just wanted to keep everyone guessing, the bastard that he is. 🙄
First round of this is worth a watch!:
http://www.youtube.com/user/rashad1428#p/u/2/qL57U26a308
Right. Here’s a thing with the contestants on Wheel Of Fortune. Why, when they obviously know the letters to fill in the spare spaces on the phrase board, do they answer?
If I was on there and I knew the answer, I would keep spinning and filling all the gaps in and blatantly sandbag the cash.
The odds of hitting a bankrupt ‘wedge’ is actually quite low (unless of course, perish the thought, the wheel has some sort of safety catch to maually slow the wheel down incase of someone good turning up)
There’s always the risk of losing it all. Especially when your consistent spins land you so close to death, It’s worth it to stop rather than risk it one more time, overthink the strength of your spin, and push it a couple clicks too far.
But if you have $30,000 and you’re likely expected total for the entire puzzle completed is $36,000, say, wouldn’t you solve it?
There are definitely some players that solve on $1,100 when they could certainly win quite a bit more, and I am puzzled by that. The Prize Puzzles are worth $7,000 or so, so they are often worth solving even if you have bupkis.
It seems to me that certain portions of the wheel are packed full of events, while there is a section of about 6 or 7 plain dollar amounts next to each other. If you can keep landing in there, I think you could spin on.
But with the risks of: hitting Bankrupt, hitting Lose a Turn, and guessing a letter that’s not there, sometimes it’s worth taking the bird in the hand.
Wheel of Fortune epitomises everything British game show makers should try to avoid at all costs in my opinion…
After that clip I watched a few more shows on that channel. Jeopardy was, of course, thoroughly entertaining and great value, but I couldn’t watch more than about one episode of Wheel – the incessant clapping is bad enough, but the product placement, Vanna White’s completely superfluous role since all of the letters are electronically automated (not like the UK version where the tiles at least had to be turned around) and the excessively OTT contestants just begin to grate after a while.
It’s a shame for me that what is otherwise a perfectly acceptable game is so unwatchable for an average Brit! Maybe that’s just me…
the same way, in Italy every show must absolutely have at least one dancing woman. WWTBAM is quite the exception.
I’m pretty sure WoF UK did avoid product placement and OTT contestants…
Yes, sorry – reading that back perhaps I was a little unclear. I meant the US version had all of those problems where the UK one didn’t, and for me those things made the US one really unpleasant to watch. I’m glad ours wasn’t like that, because if it was, I don’t think it would have lasted half a series!
Ratings Bear has returned. Grr! After months of being asleep (or you humans call it hibernation), Ratings Bear has also been to Australia to hunt down Eddie McGuire. Turns out Ratings Kangeroo. Boing! was a bit slow to catch him so I had to get down there to hunt McGuire down myself. Grr! Unfortuntately, I had to let him slip away as his other show does quite well. Otherwise Ratings Bear would be having lunch. Grr!
Ratings Bear, Grr! will return on Sunday. Provided Ratings Bear doesn’t fall asleep from Bearjet lag. Grr!
Bearjet? Surely it should be RyanBear.
Ratings Bear did not use RyanBear. As that air firm has got a huge air-tax for large bears flying with them. As you know, Ratings Bear is not a cub. Grr!
Yeah, that, and a RyanBear flight to Australia actually goes to Austria instead.
Re: your recent Tweets, I long to see someone who has got to a Final Two of £250k and another really big sum make a counter-offer to the banker of “nah, I’m here to gamble – how about £300k/£50k instead of £250k/£100k?” (Or £260k/£40k instead of £250k/£50k, or similar.)
I know that that’s not the way that the game usually works – but once, just once, they might admire the spirit of the comment and let it get through. (Or, at worst, it would get a great reaction from the audience before the banker says “Nice try…”)