The world’s HOTTEST Exit Games blog Exit Games UK has an interesting interview with the people behind the Cyberdrome Crystal Maze attractions which is worth a look. I had no idea they spread to Dubai and Japan, and sadly never got the chance to play in a UK one when it was open.

Some other quick reminders: Fort Boyard is on on Friday night at 7:55ish UK this week and next because of rugby (I believe there’s a new riddle-based game featured tomorrow so look out for that) and on Saturday night we’re having a Smash Bros tournament, details on the right sidebar there and more details here).

Edit: The Edge filming its surprise second series 1-3rd September at Elstree, tickets BBC. There only appear to be nine recording sessions, which means they’re recording very fast or there might be more dates coming later. Or there are just going to be nine episodes.

Ner ner-nerr-ner-ner ner-na-ner-ner-nerr-errr-er-errr-er-er OI! OI! OI!

That’s right, Sky are finally jumping on the darts gameshow revolution with One Hundred and Eighty, hosted by the dream pairing of Davina McCall and Freddie Flintoff, promising both the drama of a sporting event and the excitement of a gameshow (although apparently not the drama of a gameshow and the excitement of a sporting event) where amateur players will play with professionals to win a cash prize. Airs September, Applause Store were doing tickets but there’s no mention on the site now.

Meanwhile if you want to become a contestant on bird-of-paradise simulator Pick Me! then now’s your chance!

This of course very much of interest as it’s the first commission of most-interesting-man-in-daytime Glenn Hugill’s new production label Possessed (which is also where FOTB Paul B works). I sort of get the show, although from the press release I haven’t quite worked out what’s in for the players picked from the audience – the selected panellist wins a grand and that’s all I’ve worked out. I’m sure it won’t be massively disappointing anyway. It had better not.

In other news you’ve probably heard by now that Dermot O’ Leary’s hosting The Getaway Car where you can race against The Stig for a cash prize (I suspect this wasn’t a feature before the old Top Gear crew left). This feels like it’s been knocking about for bloody ages, you can still apply to be a contestant if you want. The last motoring gameshow that promised hi-octane thrills was probably Crash Course in the States, 2009, which was surprisingly a bit boring and got cancelled after three episodes, so…

Finally, you can go and see the pilot of Home Win with Vernon Kay on 1st September at Wembley. Tickets Lost in TV. I can’t go, but feel free to tell us what you think if you do. It’s a 12 Yard show so it probably won’t be that exciting but basically workmanlike etc.

So we got a rather excitable e-mail this morning from one of our French chums, Cosser, and they’ve found an advert for a contestant call for Les Cles de Fort Boyard. Interesting so far, but who is that bald guy in the mustard shirt watching the team? Did they use footage from the English pilot? We know the Fort wasn’t fully converted for a full series when they went to film, but they’d have certainly have had something as a proof of concept.

It is literally blink and you’ll miss it but you can watch it all here, skip forward to 9:10.

Evidently this is the show in the very early stages, the tigers are there but those aren’t the cages they’ve been using for television, and whilst the first series of the show had a different treasure room (involving 18 treasure chests) that looks to just be a large rock, and evidently people can run in and out as they please (not possible in the original).

Very interesting.

Edit:

@BothersBar This took some precision pausing: pic.twitter.com/V0f2J9X2DH

— CJJC (@cjjc) August 11, 2015

Last night I discovered that Rebound (in the Summer 5pm Chase replacement death slot from next Monday) is a quiz “inspired by the bleep test.”

If you don’t know what the bleep test is, here’s a primer.

I absolutely love the idea. A while ago I made a gag on Twitter that Million Dollar Bleep Test was the next big format in the making – it won’t be of course, because most of the episode will be people coping just fine, even the much missed yet forgotten Body Heat cut to something else and came back for the bit when people started to struggle. But the central idea, that effectively it’s trying to keep up pace running up a mountain that got steeper and steeper is a sound one and ripe for tension and excitement.

We still don’t know much about Rebound as a format, only that it involves six people answering questions whilst a bar travels across the studio increasingly fast and it has to fill an hour.

The question is: what other fitness tests could you do a quiz version of?

So. While we were watching Schlag den Star tonight, we came across an advert for a show called Crash Games – jeder Sturz zählt (Crash Games – Every Fall Counts) which followed immediately afterwards and pretty instantly we twigged that this is ITV2’s upcoming Almost Impossible Game Show, although we suspect there have been a few changes between the German version and ours.

In the German show three teams of two (usually dressed up to provide an angle) attempt five largely wacky physical tasks, usually with a mild pain/pratfall/mess element and they must complete each one in as few attempts as possible. Four of these will be skill based, the fifth will be largely down to luck. They have a maximum of 25 fails at each one before they give up and move on. At the end, the two teams that have incurred the fewest fails take part in the finale, a race around the park and up Mount Crash to win €5,000.

It looks and feels ultra-cheap but features an enjoyably sarcastic commentator and quite a fun absurdist streak – the episode tonight declared itself to be a “Star Wars Special”, which was exactly the same as normal except there are a few people in Star Wars costumes about the place. The production crew make regular appearances, and when things go wrong (like a machine to dispense marbles which drop on a contestant’s head, which they’re meant to count not dispensing marbles) they keep it in. The tone is like an Aldi Total Wipeout.

Here’s the first bit of an episode on Youtube, you will probably have worked out quite quickly if it’s the sort of thing you’re going to like or not. We can definitely see why it’s going on ITV2 and not ITV1:

The Almost Impossible Game Show does not sound like a like for like match – as we recall individuals were encouraged to apply, and the idea went round that they’d get 50 chances to complete five games, but this is similarly an Endemol format and we’re 95% confident an adaptation.