That’s right, leave “totally wiped out” to other places. The one untransmitted series will go out later in the year, Endemol are working on another show for Saturday nights. Saying that we are yet to see the cheaper show that was meant to replace The Whole 19 Yards.
Quite surprised, I assumed it was fairly cheap to make and pulled in decent if unspectacular numbers. I’ve been saying for ages that making obstacles impossible to cross gets a bit dull though, one or two people getting across something does not negate the comedy value of the 18 people who do not, and adds impressive texture.
What could replace it? 101 Ways To Leave a Game Slow is probably out of the question, but Endemol do have a format called XXS (video here), basically the alphabet soup game from Incredible Games writ large by the looks of things. Outside bet: what if they remade The National Lottery Big Ticket, but did it properly?
Quite surprised by that – it rated decently except when they did stupid things like put episodes at 5pm or hold back celeb specials for the hotter day of the year. Considering though in the episode which aired on Saturday they were advertising for contestants I assumed it’s return was confirmed.
Then again though thinking about it for a minute and Doctor Who will probably take the Winter slot last year, while it’s taken them at least a year to air the series they filmed to air last Spring/Summer.
I wonder if the announcement was more towards the BBC’s DFQ than the slight drop in ratings? 3-4 Million on an early Saturday evening slot is still better than previous shows BBC aired in the last few years.
I suspect it’s cheap to film it on the Argentina set but I suspect it’s not cheap to fly 180 people there and back and put them up in an hotel.
I’ve always said Endemol should have built a course in Europe as well as over the time the money saved in airfares would pay for the course.
That said though I suspect it is getting more expensive to film now with every passing year as fewer and fewer countries are filming on the course – and although they did a fairly good job building and dressing the Winter course, on the course beforehand they didn’t even build a new Wipeout Zone and everything looks so cheap compared to the US originals.
P.S. I suspect Endemol’s replacement is more and more Pointless Celebrities.
True to form the cancellation was probably five times slower than it should have been, and was replayed far too many times in far too many angles, with Richard Hammond providing unfunny commentary.
Funny, as I read your post Alex, I imagined Richard Hammond saying that!
Apparently, Gavin (Endemol Joe) has tweeted saying “Endemol decided to call it a day, leave on a high note. It was NOT axed, Endemol decided to say: “lets stop on a big high””
Try telling that to the news articles. It seems, including BBC news are using the word “axed”.
Good old heavily indebted Endemol, with their picking and choosing of whether they make telly shows or not.
If that is the case (which I don’t believe) maybe they think the Argentina course isn’t viable anymore – and maybe they know something about the US version the rest of the world doesn’t too.
And that would answer the question of whether they’ll try and flog it to another channel. It is a rare show where breaking the action with commercials actually helps it, and had it been on ITV from the start I’m sure it would have been an Ant and Dec project.
I would put it on ITV with Ant and Dec presenting (like the two John’s in America), and Cat Deeley course-side.
Is Hammond still tied exclusively to the BBC? Do the BBC still do that type of deal?
I think ITV would just use Hammond, if they could.
Don’t think Ant and Dec would do it, and I don’t think ITV would want them to do it.
Slightly off topic, but Broadcast is reporting that the mega-flop of 2011 ‘Red or Black’ has been sold to the Ukraine, China and Brazil, with more countries waiting to see the second series.
Surely the reason for the axe is to give series 2 of Don’t Scare The Hare a better timeslot?
I am kind of glad Total Wipeout is being given the axe, 2 series too late imo.
That XXS screams Fun House to me.
XXS actually appears to be more Fee Fi Fo Yum than anything else. here’s a format trailer http://www.ozap.com/actu/xxs-endemol-extra-small-gameshow-format-jeu/305448