Board of Excitement 5th – 11th June 2011

By | June 5, 2011

Exciting indeed:

  • The Bother Series of Poker Game 11 – Just two games left (+ HORSE Hilarity) then I’ll shut up about poker for the year, and I’m STILL WINNING. Join us. (8pm, Sunday, Full Tilt) – Results Page
  • Scream if You Know the Answer! – Tonight features the unlikely match-ups of Janice Dickinson vs Joe Calzaghe, followed by Michelle Collins vs Gavin Henson. (7pm, Sunday, Watch)
  • The Amazing Race Australia – (Seven Network, Monday)
  • Fort Boyard 2010 – Mmm, it’s the series loads want to forget about, which is a shame because trying to eliminate the fantasy element notwithstanding, I think it tried to do something clever with the duel format but nobody liked it. On the plus side it’s led to huge and exciting looking restyling of the show when it hits French screens again on July 2nd. In the meantime, TV5 have this down as a 110 minute show in a 93 minute slot. They also have it down as eight episodes when it is only seven, so. (8:03pm, Monday, TV5)
  • Four Rooms – Those Banksy idiots! If you haven’t watched this yet then do so, it’s better than you probably think it’s going to be, and it does get properly tense. (8pm, Tuesday, C4)
  • The Apprentice – (9pm, BBC1, Wednesday)
  • So You Think You Can Dance: The Final – several friends of mine have really enjoyed this, so the low ratings may not be indicative of quality. (7:15pm, Saturday, BBC1)
  • The Cube – It’s the McFly Celebrity Special, and it’s on quite late! (8:40pm, Saturday, ITV1)

Show discussion: Schlag den Raab June ’11

By | June 4, 2011

It’s that time again, the time where German television star and Eurovision host Stefan Raab attempts to deny another member of the public his money. Tonight, one million Euro is likely to depend on a game that involves shoving a pencil as far along a desk as possible but without going off the end. Shove Ha’pencil, we used to call it.

The fun starts at 7:15 UK time (that’s 8:15 German time). It is broadcast live on ProSieben, but hopefully there will be some naughty live streaming somewhere.

I’m going to be out for a lot of this evening, but it’s likely to still be running at 10-11pm so.

Bother’s Bar’s HORSE Hilarity

By | June 3, 2011

As doubtless you are aware, it’s Game 11 of the Bother Series of Poker this Sunday night, and the Superstack Grand Final in a fortnight’s time – feel free to come join us for either of these events regardless of if you stand a chance to win the league or not, there’s money to be won at both events.

However, for added excitement keep the evening of Sunday July 3rd free because I’m going to be running a one-off HORSE tournament. HORSE is a mixed game where you play ten hands of hold ’em, then ten hands of Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Seven card Stud and Seven card Stud Hi/Lo (‘E’ights or better). It is likely that most participants in the BB game are likely to be quite poor at non hold-em games (having attempted Omaha, I include myself in this), hence the hilarity, and you can learn the rules of the games here.

All games are played to limit (bets are standardised so it’s quite difficult to donk off your chips quickly) and the intention is to make this a double-stacked $20+2 tournament. And to make it more exciting as I’m rapidly approaching my 30th birthday, I’m intending on adding a ton of value.

Look out for more details soon!

Hmm…

By | June 2, 2011

An anonymous source at Sony doesn’t like what’s happening behind the scenes of Britain’s Got Talent Edit: it’s been taken down, and Holy Moly bloke on Twitter says it’s untrue.

Might be rubbish, might be genuine, I am sure you will draw your own conclusions. I do, however, largely suspect your own conclusions will correlate with whatever you thought of Simon Cowell in the first place.

There are good reasons why SYCO shows tend to get twice as many viewers as the same sort of thing on the BBC (for example), but you do get the feeling that this year there have been too many balls to juggle and Cowell has taken his eye off one of them and it looks like they’re all going to fall.

Maybe not Impossible after all

By | May 31, 2011

According to a story on Broadcast, Impossible? will be returning to run alongside Big Brother. Good.

Meanwhile The Amazing Race Australia continues to do things much more interestingly than the US one has done for a while – I love the fact there’s a task at each location and not just a series of point to point races in taxis, and particularly liked the idea of having a tough logic puzzle as a roadblock just before the Pit Stop in the same location (although I think they’re missing a trick by not putting such things online for the viewers to have a go at in their own time). I also think they may have missed a trick in not making this the resolving leg of a non-elimination leg, with a team Marked for Elimination and having to endure a 30 minute time penalty if they don’t win, how much more exciting could it have been to watch them sweat it out as they watch the other teams complete the task and pass them?

Meanwhile Meanwhile, it looks like John Archer and Ben Earl are finally off to Vegas tomorrow. Who are they? They’re the guys who managed to fool Penn and Teller. Fool Us finished recording its series recently, looking forward to it!

BANK HOLIDAY Question Too Esoteric For Only Connect

By | May 30, 2011

Well it’s been a while since I’ve done this, but as we’re here let’s do it again. The times in the square brackets are roughly the time you can expect the clue to go up (although it might be a bit earlier/later depending on circumstance), you should ignore them when it comes to making your guesses.

Here are four things, what connects them?

  • Sharpe
  • Spellbound
  • Button Moon
  • Watchdog

Bonus clues for half a point or something:

  • Fame Academy
  • Crackerjack
  • Bruce Forsyth and the Generation Game
  • This Morning
  • The Paul Daniels Magic Show

And the answer is… hidden behind a cut.

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