Weekdaily, 7pm, Sky Atlantic
They’re doing a big push for what is a pretty highbrow show on a premium channel, aren’t they? Perhaps they are hoping this will become the new Only Connect. Maybe it will be, because David Stainer features in the adverts.
As previously mentioned, someone did a recording report for us last November. It will be interesting to see what makes the edit.
Edit: Online game is quite good and gives quite a good taste of the sorts of questions used, I think.
And I can’t get Sky Atlantic, so I will be watching this quite a bit later than anyone else.
Flavio Insinna is preparing a new show for Canale5 temporarily titled “the brawn and the brain”. Should go on the air in mid-April. apparently the game will be played by a team of two: one of them will take physical challenges while the other answers questions.
wow I am so excited -_-‘
Secretly wishing for Italian version of Die 100,000 DM Show.
Interesting, I presume this is a version of 2wayTraffic’s Power and Brain Battle:
http://www.c21media.net/screenings/2waytraffic/power-brain-battle
But it’s hosted by Anne Widdicombe, which will be an instant turn-off for many potential viewers, including me, except I don’t have Sky Atlantic, so not really including me after all.
But who’d win in a fight between Victoria Coren and Anne Widdicombe?
Don’t answer that here, but do think about it for a second.
Cleverdicks has done what I think The Bank Job should have, and kept the classy two-tone style used in the title sequence, and in early Bank Job advertisements.
I had been thinking last night about The Bank Job’s biggest fault, and I think it’s primarily the gimmick that it’s set in a “real” (if disused) bank. Using a grade-2 (I think) listed building rather than a studio means you’re not in control of the acoustics, the décor, or much at all outside of the little vault area.
If it was made in studio, we could have a classier set design, a seated audience, FAR better acoustics, somewhere for George to actually STAND rather than wander around, better wired equipment removing all of the hassle of George’s tablet… and I doubt that anyone actually CARES that it’s set in some cold unheated building except those who have to si- I mean stand through it.
The acoustics is way down on the list of problems with The Bank Job. And it might be a gimmick but I think the non-traditional gameshow environment is actually one of the few things the show has going for it.
Luckily, I have got Sky Atlantic. It’s a good show but there are some issues.
– The first round takes forever. It actually takes up half the show. We get Anne speaking to the first contestant then we get their two minute solo round this happens in this order four times.
– Questions are too high brow. This is where Only Connect succeeds as their connections can be answered by virtually anybody.
– The third round is good but the bar which eliminates one of the contestant slides down too slowly.
– Jackpot round is designed like Pointless/Perfection. It’s not going to be won every day. Nice touch they actually went though the questions the winner missed out on.
– It’s on the wrong channel. It should be on Sky Arts.
Overall the show is good but I was getting bored as the first round dragged it’s heels. It reminded me how The Fuse dragged on for the first half but picked up towards the end. The questions shows they are after a niche audience. Still better than The Bank Job.
I disagree about the bar sliding down too slowly. It has to be a certain slowness otherwise there’s not enough time for your opponent to get their question and answer before you get another chance to clear a triangle.
It probably would’ve been neater to have had a chess clock principle with two white bars, but never mind.
I quite liked the show myself, although the questions are rather too high-brow for my knowledge level. I did get the odd question right here and there, and there were plenty of moments me and my mum went “Awwwhhh, I was going to SAY that as well!”. Also, it just goes to show that a brilliant performance in the first round doesn’t guarantee going all the way through to the final round.
The set looked rather nice with the black and red motif. I wasn’t too enamoured with Anne Widdicombe as host, they should really have got someone more experienced in being a quizmaster. Also, what is it with these shows and others (i.e. A Question of Genius) offering a pittance as a prize? Sure, it rolls over, but going through 4 rounds of questions at around 7 to 9 on the difficulty scale for a measly £1,000? Come on, at least make it worth winning! I’d also apply that to Eggheads, after a team has won money in the £10,000s, going back to £1,000 for the next team is rather poor, start it off at £5,000 or something. If they go on to beat the Eggheads, that’s only £200 each. You can just imagine them saying “Yay, we beat possibly the best quiz team in Britain, but boo, we only got £200 each”
At least here, the single winner gets the whole thousand to themselves.
I think this is partly an overreaction to the cries of game shows being more about the spectacle of the prizes, and how a lot of people like the nostalgia of shows like Blockbusters which were worth £5 a question, or Bullseye where you could win a children’s ride-on robot and £300 for your efforts. But that doesn’t mean we should go back to those pre-inflation (and regulation-enforced) prize levels, we just don’t need every show to be about the MILLIONS or the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS. Your proposal of a 5-10k starting pot and an accrual of 1k per show seems sound enough.
The other consideration is budgeting; with the prize amount set at exactly 1k per show, whether it’s won or lost, it’s a lot easier to hand the numbers into accounts. If the prize pot were reset to a larger starting amount, the funds would depend on how often it’s won. Admittedly, this is a number which can be estimated (like I imagine they have to with Pointless and its £250 per pointless answer) but it’s still not nearly as simple.
I think it is mainly due to the idea that hard quiz = fewer valuable viewers, so why bother having a big prize?
This being said, I think seeding the jackpot is a fairly good idea really.
Yes, on the face of it. You would have to make fairly certain that the jackpot isn’t won too often, though. A show like Eggheads will be on a tariff in the region of £35k per episode, so adding an extra £4k in prize money once every ten episodes or more probably wouldn’t break the bank. But if the jackpot was to be won (e.g.) every four episodes that would all of a sudden mean you’re giving away £60k-ish per series (thirty eps) as opposed to £30k.
I wonder if there would be any not-confusing way to guarantee a minimum, for example if Eggheads or Pointless kept it at £1k a day, but if anyone won on the first or second day it’d get bumped up to £3k?
My gut says £3k would be the cheapest you can have and not feel too cheap. That wouldn’t blow the bank too much I wouldn’t have thought, especially as back to back wins are quite rare.
Yeah, you both bring sound arguments to the table. My reasoning is that shows like The Exit List, The Chase and The Bank Job offer large amounts of money for questions that (to be fair) most people will be able to answer. And yes, many more people will be inclined to watch as it’s something they can play along with in their living rooms. Shows like Cleverdicks, Eggheads, my previously mentioned A Question Of Genius, etc. are more for the quizzing elite, those people that are FAR more smarter than you or I could ever hope to be, and they get offered far less in prizes for their accomplishments which is a little unfair in my eyes.
Maybe there is something in the fact that it’s more the spectacle of it rather than the monetary reward, the formats requiring more specialist knowledge and the kinds of players they attract are in it more for the recognition rather than doing what they do for monetary gain. Mastermind and 15-to-1 only offered a glass bowl or something similar to its winners, and that’s what I would think of as the ‘creme de la creme’ of quizzes.
Those shows on the BBC would most likely be able to get their prize funds from the licence fee, so I wouldn’t think of Eggheads starting their jackpot off at a base £5k (£1k per member of the team) being much of a problem. Cleverdicks, on the other hand, is on one of those niche channels that not many will be able to receive (as I noted from the above comments), so viewership will only be in the 5 or 6-figure range, and it won’t have much in the way of revenue to put into the prize fund. That I can understand.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I would like to see the idea of ‘easier questions = more money for its winners’ while ‘harder questions = little or no money for its winners’ turned on its head for once. Shows like The Bank Job just take the dumbest players they can find, most of their questions are either answered incorrectly or not answered at all while the rest of us are screaming the right answers at our tellies, and the ‘winner’ gets between £40k-£50k for their trouble AND get to go back on the next show for possibly more, while poor Rob on Cleverdicks didn’t manage to complete the final round for £1k even though he answered a lot of questions that even *I* didn’t know, but gets to go back on tomorrow for another go, but will most likely not manage the final round should he get there again.
Right, I’ll get off my soapbox, I think! 😀 I’ve had a try of the online Cleverdicks game and haven’t done bad! I’ve had 3 goes so far and my highest score is 108,750 and I’m ranked 28th. I see Jonathan Cairns has had a go and is 16th and our old friend Mark Labbett is 23rd. Top of the table is Egghead Barry Simmons, so some famous names have tried!
Well I was getting repeat questions on my second attempt, which is a pity.
Yeah, I was noticing that as well. Guess they only have a limited bank of questions at the moment, so that may be why Barry’s done so well…
Well, I didn’t watch every minute but having watched a downloaded version and skipped a few bits, here’s my verdict:
1) Actually thought the presentation and graphics package was nicely done. Was twice as good as I was expecting, and running with the V-shape motif was great.
2) Even the music and sfx were pretty good, but -1 for no “right answer” noise.
3) Only Connect’s scoring system says “Hello!”
4) Ann’s pieces to camera are excruciating, but she handled the quiz part (and even the chatty bits) extremely well.
5) Hate HATE *HATE* the reset of scores after each round. So, so unfair. Why not halve the scores or something, to give at least some kind of carry-forward incentive? It didn’t look good that the clearly best player got eliminated because of this.
6) Not keen on allowing multiple speculative buzzes on round 2.
7) The teeny tiny writing on the end game is a bit of an error.
8) As noted by others above, the end game feels too harsh. It should’ve been more like round 3 – maybe with the chance to pass but leaving a permanent triangle at the bottom of the stack.
9) Actually thought the questions were well-pitched to the contestant level, but not particularly to the contestants.
10) Totally baffled why it’s on Sky Atlantic.
11) Felt like Rounds 3 and 4 could’ve done with maybe a running theme or some other gimmick to get away from it feeling like a rag-bag of GK questions.
It felt like an 8/10 watching through at speed, but can imagine it must feel like a 7/10 watching live.
I wouldn’t watch it every day but a very good stab by Sky, must say.
“…but not particularly to the audience”, that should say.
It’s definitely missing the tongue-in-cheek intellectual humor (that either exists on purpose or that I just invented in my head) that your show has. Not a bad show, but I kept waiting for a few winks at its attempt at presenting itself as this unbelievably intellectual, borderline snobbish, quiz show.
However, given the tone and nature, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, I thought Anne did well for what was needed.
I think there is more tongue in cheek-ness than I think you give it credit for, mainly for its rather sneering tone towards pop culture questions, whilst still having pop culture questions.
The premiere was entertaining enough, but not so much so that I’m going to feel any need to downl– er, watch — regularly. And yes, Round 1 goes on and on and on and on. Also: How many perfectly good questions did the writers waste in creating all of those examples?
I get queasy imagining Victoria Coren circa 2042 as Anne Widdicombe.
Victoria Coren has far too much interest in sex and drugs and
rock’n’rollCole Porter to ever be Anne Widdicombe.Weakly relatedly, I’ve thought of a relevant “Got to have a system” Harry Hill gag but I’m actually too chicken to post it.
A fair review David although on point 3 it has to be said that this 54321 scoring format has long been used in quizzes, and many years before OC adopted. Without getting into numberwang or quizzlestick territory there can’t be too many scoring formats yet to be discovered.
Do a Thing and Win Some Points is still waiting in the wings, ITV.
Also I’m not the only one who’s instantly drawn to the bright word “DICKS” in the logo up there, right?
Something about that just bugs me.
Yeah, it’s not exactly the most flattering name in quizdom is it? Knowitalls had already been used in on that Gyles Brandreth vehicle on BBC2 and they also had Brainbox Challenge, so the only word I can think of would be something like SmartAlecs.
I really like the show, but it makes no sense to not buzz in in the second round since there’s no penalty. Wouldn’t it be better to freeze them out for the rest of the question or something?
The only thing stopping everyone from guessing wildly is the fear of looking like an idiot.
I don’t think enough people have the correct philosophy: “no shame, only points”.
I know it might be a bit off topic but does anyone know if the new Keith Lemon vehicle ‘Lemonaid’ (bit like Jim’ll Fix It) is live, as the tickets suggest it might.
http://www.applausestore.com/applausestore-book-show.php?id=1535&bid=3
I’ve got to get this off my chest. Does the opening animation of Cleverdicks bother anyone else? In the opening scene with the man throwing the white blocks off to either side, it looks like perhaps a bit of the animation in between each block was cut out, because there’s a bit of a jump from one position in the man’s stance to the next between each block falling. Later, when he’s running up the block stairs at the end of the titles, his gait when he reaches the top of the steps looks really unnatural, almost as if he were trying to climb a couple more steps (again, probably removed). The music is fantastic, but the animation just drives me batty.
After seeing the intro sequence on tonight’s episode, I see what you mean. There are some ‘jumps’ to the animation.
Cleverdicks, then..
A potentially snappy 45 minute quiz finding it’s self trapped in a full hour.
I guess the reason that it’s on Sky Atlantic, is it’s really the only place in the Sky portfolio to put it.
It’s way too ‘highbrow’ for Sky 1 or 2, and Challenge. Sky Arts only do panel shows, and it would look totally out of place on Sky Sports News.
So, here it is on the supposed home for US imports, and it’s fair to say this will never do the reverse and be shown on HBO.
Set – Nice. Good use of the LED screen for displaying the questions. Less nice is the monitors behind the contestant desk, which seem to be put there for something, but never used – and the occasional ghostly camera lens behind La Widdiecombes left shoulder.
Questions – Good to see a show that doesn’t resort to bog standard pub trivia questions or multiple choice options.
Host – Yes. See, I do wonder if in the production meeting after the commission, The now not Right Honourable Anne Widdicome has become to Cleverdicks what Michael Palin was to Around the World in 80 days.
In other words, way down the list, but mostly acceptable once the cameras started rolling.
Surely there was someone at Sky News kicking around who would have been better? Actually he is, but I guess he still feels loyal to the celeb version of Eggheads.
In the end, Anne is not too bad. Her tone is unduly menacing sometimes (as if she is trying to do an impression of the other mean Anne) but never stumbled over any of the questions although the format does allow gaps in the clues rather than requiring her to fire them off at over 140wpm.
Format. It’s OK and the only niggles I have, is the length and pace of the first round – which is not helped by taking a break with a contestant still to go.
I hate the constant buzzing in Round Two, with wrong answers not being penalized.
The only sand shift of format is round three, where instead of alternate questions, I would time the round and retain the white bar of doom, ask quick fire q’s with the fastest to hit the white bar with the triangles eliminated. Nice,tense and challenging end round for (what money) there is though.
It’s not that bad – but could be better. 6/10.
Case in point regarding the Round 2 buzzing, a question was asking for which country had the political parties stated, and it was a buzzing frenzy! In the end up, nobody even got it right.
Ooh, wow! That last comment was the 30,000th! Yay me! 😀
Sort of. About 12,000 of those are deleted spam.
Mr. With a Y Not an I wrote,
On a point of pedantry, membership of the Privy Council is generally described as for life. Only in the worst cases of criminal excess, such as expenses cheat Elliot Morley, may a member be removed.
Miss Widdecombe may still be addressed as the Right Honourable, and it would be a solecism to address her as “The right-winger formerly known as the Right Honourable”.