Board of Excitement 16th-22nd September 2012

By | September 16, 2012

First of all, here is a tribute thing to the work of Jacques Antoine I’ve written. I hope you find it interesting and entertaining, there is nothing else like it in the English language just yet. It is not exhaustive, but I hope you learn things from it, I certainly have researching it. Here’s how France 2 covered the story:

OK, here’s what’s on this week:

  • One Man and His Dog – Live as well. Wow, how did I miss this? Apparently the adverts were quite difficult to ‘come by’. (Sunday, 5pm, BBC2)
  • Big Fat Quiz of the 80s – Channel Four have some time to fill after the Paralympics, so they’re doing decades versions of the Big Fat Quiz. (Sunday, 9pm, Channel 4)
  • Only Connect: Wordsmiths vs Educators (Monday, 8:30pm, BBC4)
  • Baggage: Breakout Game Show Network hit in the USA comes to the UK, with Gok Wan filling Jerry Springer’s shoes. It’s a dating show about people and their foibles. Might be quite funny, I think Gok might be a good choice for this. (Friday, 8pm, C4)

Also The Reunion, bringing back contestants and producers from the first season of Big Brother, might be worth a listen to on iPlayer.

36 thoughts on “Board of Excitement 16th-22nd September 2012

    1. James

      Definitely not put off this time! It was probably put back a week because of ‘Das Supertalent’ (German version of ‘Got Talent’).

      Reply
  1. Aaron

    Wait…I knew The Crystal Maze was originally conceived of as a Fort Boyard knockoff, but so was Oca? I’ve never heard that one…but then again, I’d always thought of Oca as being Spanish rather then Italian, so I guess I know nothing.

    A great tribute to a huge loss. As an American, this just adds to my disappointment that season three of Fort Boyard: Ultimate Challenge, with a new hour-long format and new host Andy Akinwholere replacing the awful Geno Segers, looks like it’s not going to be shown in the US.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Not so much a knockoff, simply something that had similar sensibilities but more Italian TV friendly i.e. went on for hours and had lots of opportunity for music and comedy.

      Reply
      1. Aaron

        OK – makes a little more sense.

        Since I don’t think you’ve found this yet – a search of the official website of Zodiak Rights reveals that they are shopping around a kids Treasure Hunt as a companion to FB:UC -http://www.zodiakrights.com/Programme.aspx?id=6829

        Reply
    2. CeleTheRef

      Jocelyn Hattab (the creator of Oca) once said that his plan was to bring Fort Boyard to Italy, but RAI wanted something that looked more like a traditional gameshow and it had be done entirely inside a studio. Jocelyn quickly changed the format, and that’s how Oca came to be.

      Reply
    1. Chris M. Dickson

      These last two episodes appear to have been over-represented with people from This Neck Of The Woods. I’m sure this is just the luck of the draw and will work itself out over time, but nevertheless I fully approve.

      Reply
  2. Daniel Peake

    Additionally, Survivor season 25 (count ’em!) starts on Wednesday. This time, the Philippines, and featuring people previously medically evacuated from the game. I’m looking forward to it.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Interesting, thanks.

      This was going round as Trust and they filmed an episode with George Lamb.

      I don’t know. It functionally works I just don’t think it’s all that much fun. I guess it’s sort of a reworking of the ideas behind Divided but in a way to come across a bit more palatable, but also a bit more slow and boring.

      Nice chairs though.

      Reply
    2. The Banker's Nephew

      Not the best show I’ve ever watched, but I’ll definitely keep watching if just for the awesome chairs and the fantastic music. Reminds me a bit of Duel, the music does. That’s an excellent thing.

      Reply
    3. VierkanteO

      Would someone be able to help out with the ratings and whether the numbers were any good? Or is there a decent site where I can look them up myself?

      Did enjoy the show, set looked very cool.

      Reply
      1. Setsunael

        Ratings were mediocre – 1.8 million , 11.5% share. (slighty better than N’oubliez pas les Paroles at the end of the current run)

        It could be due to the “new” timeslot used by France 2 for its access gameshow (18:50 – 19:35 , making it starting right during Big Money in Family Feud on TF1 … and ending right before showcase round in le Juste Prix, again on TF1)

        Reply
        1. Delano

          Viewership is heading down south with 1.47 million viewers (share of 9.4%) on Wednesday.

          This will inevitably be a hat-trick of prime-time canceled gameshows.

          Reply
    4. David

      When I saw the twittering about it I looked at the show site and translated it- it looks like if they get to question 12 it’s like a normal showdown, only one of them has to hit the button. It makes sense, because the intro says they can win up to 100,000 Euro, and based on the values shown in the ep, I’m thinking that the hard question values go 1K-2K-3K-4K-5K-6K-8K-11K-15K-20K-25K.

      Reply
      1. Brig Bother Post author

        That’s quite interesting, it’s suggested in the pitch film that they share the money. Obviously they’ve changed it.

        Reply
        1. David

          Here’s the translated part from the show site:

          THE QUESTION 12th

          If applicants arrive at the 12th question-that is to say, none of the two has buzzed during face-to-face earlier and they gave less than 3 wrong answers they have an obligation buzzer if the money is lost. It heralds the beginning of the question, then the alarm face-to-face occurs, and each will join his family. They must decide how much they wish buzzer, and think about the answer to providing imagining the possible end of the matter. The first one turned around blocks and answers a sum only the final question. If he gives the correct answer, he won gains. If he gives the wrong answer, his opponent tries his luck and may attempt to turn the win sum blocked.

          Reply
    5. Delano

      I expected more from Volte-Face, to be honest.

      Parsing around 10 questions per show (lasting 45 minutes) and seeing contestants prevaricating questions down the line ‘5 times 6’ is excruciatingly painful to watch. If the production company could accelerate this process…

      Reply
    6. Mart with a Y not an I

      Hey, that theme sounds like Winning Lines long lost French cousin! If it didn’t have the composers name in the you tube page, i’d have put money on it being another soundalike-the-last-one Matt Strachen one man and his keyboard production.

      Reply
  3. dr

    I would like to see a weekend feature about “Volte face” here on Bothers Bar. What I have allready seen from this show looks amazing…

    Reply
  4. Gizensha

    The pacing might work better if I spoke French, but… That looked painfully slow, to me. Thinking/discussion time per question is one thing, but there seemed to be a good couple of minutes of chat in between every question, plus a couple of minutes of the contestants chatting with their F&F as to what to do on the showdowns which I’m pretty sure would have bugged me in a language I spoke as well.

    Otherwise it seems like a fairly straight quiz with a trust aspect to it that I’m not entirely sure fits the format, but too slow for me to actually enjoy.

    Reply
  5. Brig Bother Post author

    The problem I’ve got with it is not that it’s bad, it isn’t bad as such, it’s just that I’ve seen everything it’s had to offer before and it doesn’t even hide it very well. As such it goes down for the crime of being *boring*. It’s a very basic distillation of every modern mechanic with some neat moving chairs, but that’s not enough to cover a very basic quiz. The bits that sound as though they’re quite clever were already quite clever when other shows used them and as such I can’t see what this show has to offer.

    Sorry Nagui, but in their current forms I’d take Tipping Point over this a hundred times over.

    Reply
    1. Chris M. Dickson

      Yeah, what Brig said.

      Or, to at least make this dull response look pretty:
      YEAH
      WHAT
      BRIG
      SAID

      Reply
  6. The Banker's Nephew

    I don’t think you’ve gone mental, but then again I’m not the best judge of sanity. Basically the game is unoriginal and slow, but I’m totally enamored with the music and those chairs. I’m American, we’re easily impressed.

    Reply
    1. Daniel Peake

      Interestingly, I dislike the set and music (graphics are ok), but don’t mind the format. It is TREMENDOUSLY slow though, which I can’t stand, has to be at least three* times faster for me to like it.

      *not scientifically tested

      Reply
  7. Alex

    OK, did anyone watch Baggage?

    I’m catching it on 4 now. It’s got a new weird “endgame”. In the US version, they show the central player’s big baggage and the “winner” has to decide whether or not to accept the baggage and date them.

    Not so here. They decided to add in a bit where the chosen date has to decide which of two potential baggages is her actual baggage. If they’re right, they get a holiday, if not, they get nothing.

    I can’t say it fits, sadly.

    Reply

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