Tomorrow’s a big day as three of the Chasers (Anne Hegerty, Paul Sinha and Mark Labbett) go on Tipping Point: Lucky Stars (point of note, the logo behind Ben in these celeb specials features a colon but the titles do not) in what must surely be the ultimate quiz challenge. That’s at 6pm on ITV.
Tipping Point is not known for its tough uncompromising questions, I saw a celeb special a few weeks ago which had lots of questions where the answer was a word in the question, although now I can’t think of one off the top of my head.
“If something is described as tomato-y, what salad vegetable does it taste like?”
That was one.
Incredible.
(Apparently the Chasers got tougher questions than usual.)
It might actually have been funnier if it was played at the same level.
There was also one along the lines of “What food product is generally served at a Pizzeria?” on one I saw
I’m still surprised about TP’s success- 500+ eps (regular and celeb) for on paper looked to be a one series-and-done show..
I reckon the simplicity of the format contributes to its success. People can watch it and think themselves clever.
Let’s also not forget Ben Shepard’s uncanny ability to inject excitement into rather mundane happenings.
One of my colleagues measures the quality of a format by ‘the mute test’; since we watch all of our programmes in the office with the sound off.
If you can follow a programme completely on mute, then it passes the mute test and will be a success. It sounds a bit nonsensical, until you start to think of all those successful game show formats that could indeed be watched on mute without missing much at all.
Tipping point explains almost every facet of gameplay with text and graphics, and a giant machine. Mute Test Passed.
This absolutely holds for shows in a foreign language as well.
Also see:- in another language you can’t speak/understand.
I first saw Deal Or No Deal in Switzerland in 2002 (on SF1 then the next day on Sat1), and despite having no working experience of speaking German, followed every twist and turn of the format.
Same went with La Carte Aux Tresors. Took a bit longer, and once I got “Ahh good to see Treasure Hunt is still going” out of my head, and saw it was a series of mini challenges/puzzles against the clock and someone in another helicopter – it was fairly easy to pick up.
Funnily enough I’ve just been e-mailed a link for CAT with English subs but I’m standing at a bus stop so I’ll post it tomorrow.
http://tv.bt.com/tv/tv-news/tipping-point-15-of-the-stupidest-ever-quiz-answers-11364039532430
Question: In science, which electrical unit is named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta
Question: The Churchill Factor is a novel about which former Prime Minister?
I suppose in a way they have to be set up at such a simplistic level as you want the finalist to have a decent chunk of money built up by the end to make the gamble option at the end a bit more of a risk than ‘Yeah might as well gamble I’ve only got £1k’
I can only assume this was some form of punishment for the Chasers.
Do not understand the success of Tipping Point at all – still one of the worst of the various Chase summer fillers IMO.