How to write about The X Factor Final without revealing spoilers

By | December 12, 2010
8 Comments

Well done to the winner. However, will the loser’s live perfomance winner’s song get released on downloads as I thought that was much better?

Also, we normally get the phone vote breakdown, but will we also get a download breakdown this time round? Even if it’s only in percentages because they probably didn’t sell all that well, or something.

Board of Excitement 12th – 18th December 2010

By | December 12, 2010
16 Comments

It was the week before Christmas, and all through the Bar, everything was silent, even the, er, oh.

  • Drop Zone  – Today in Istanbul and not as TV listings guides would possibly suggest, Constantinople. (3:15, Sunday, BBC1 except for viewers in Scotland where it’s going out at 1pm on BBC2).
  • The X Factor – it’s the grand final final! (7:30 pm. Sunday, ITV1)
  • Pinpoint – New series of the 5Hole Podcast gameshow with Bob Hagh and Alex Davis off of Buzzerblog. Still can’t get excited about GSN Oodles especially when it’s hard to win anything meaningful (Although apprarently easier this time round), but Tim Halbert’s music is fairly wicked. (Monday, iTunes)
  • Only Connect – Second semi-final: the Alesmen vs Radio Addicts. (8:30pm, Monday, BBC4)
  • Premier League Poker – Game three part two. (0:40am, Monday Night/Tuesday Morning, C4)
  • The Million Pound Drop – Live! A third run for the show. Don’t forget our brilliant competition! It might be facetious but the prizes are very real. (8pm Wedesday-Friday, 10:05pm Saturday, Channel 4)
  • The Apprentice – It’s the interviews! (9pm, Wednesday, BBC1)
  • The Challenge: Cutthroat – I believe it’s the final this week. People shown being carted off on ambulance trolleys in the trailer so it’s likely to be quite tough. The surviving players have made the cash winning $180k between them, but which team will get to divvy up the final $120k? (*) (Wednesday, MTV)
  • The Cube – Joe Swash and Kelly Osbourne play for charity. Will be interesting to see how it does without the X Factor to lead into. (7pm, Saturday, ITV1)
  • Schlag den Raab – After last episode’s whitewash, there’s €1m up for grabs tonight. (7:15 UK/8:15 CET, Prosieben and hopefully naughty internet streaming, Saturday)

Look out for an iDevice review of the 2011 Millionaire game probably on Monday also.

(*) I think there is a lot of scope for shows with poker tournament-esque payout structures. I think something like Cutthroat‘s format but turned into a daily stripped quiz with everyone basically fighting to make it into Friday’s episode, and hence the money, might be a go-er.

Wooh!

By | December 11, 2010
7 Comments

It’s The X Factor finals weekend! Undoubtably the most important weekend on the ITV calender. Not sure I’ll bother with tonight’s show (i.e. Saturday), will probably watch the main show tomorrow.

However, I’ve been promising for some weeks to upload this year’s greatest reality TV theme tune, it’s the theme to The Challenge: Cutthroat by Clay Duncan. Prepare to wave your hands in the air like you just don’t care! Before MTV politely ask for me to take it down, obviously.

Things we’ve learned in the last 24 hours

By | December 10, 2010
9 Comments

I predicted a riot:

  • Remember that 12 Yard creative trainee job we highlighted the other week? Well some of our readers got interviews! And the comment that sticks out is that “it didn’t pay enough to live on,” although no numbers were mentioned (this is THE REALITY OF REALITY). So I think we should play a game, I’ll start counting up in thousands, and helpfully someone from 12 Yard can shout STOP! when we get to about the right amount. Or not.
  • Fans of EXTREME MASCULINITY should be very excited, this appears to be Stuart Baggs The Brand’ s Twitter. May or may not include The Apprentice spoilers.
  • For some reason I was involved in some sort of Twitter run-in this morning with @MipcomTV which I largely suspect isn’t much to do with the Mipcom TV convention held every year and does appear to be the mouthpiece of TTT Entertainment run by Tony Dortie, off of Top of the Pops. What mainly caught my eye was the blurb 7$teps  ‘Celebs can make you rich!’ which appears to be being worked on for Channel 5. It is also apparently 2011’s hottest new show. Here is the pitch film, judge for yourself. They were also very keen to advertise TXTC which appears to be a text based quiz apparently popular in Greece and produced by 2waytraffic that claims to be unlike old-fashioned shows despite apparently looking the same as much produced in the last 10 years. Anyway, here’s the info page, I will let you draw your own conclusions and wish the venture the best of luck.

Wheel of Question

By | December 8, 2010
11 Comments

Steven Fisher asks:

I was wondering if you could possibly ask on Bother’s Bar if anyone knew the exact rules regarding the ‘500 GAMBLE’ wedge on the Wheel of Fortune wheel circa 2000? Just intrigued by it and looking to implement the mechanics into a project I’m working on at the moment.

Anyone? I’d presume it would be some sort of take the 500 for the letter or risk a bankrupt or something good space, although I don’t know for sure.

Happy Hour: Fantasy How Many Duff Questions Will There Be On Next Week’s Million Pound Drop League Competition

By | December 8, 2010
10 Comments

As we all know, with reasonable international sales and two million UK viewers, The Million Pound Drop is this year’s hottest show. A new run starts next Wednesday at 8pm on Channel 4.

Last series had an interesting indication of what Endemol thought of the viewing public with regards to its question writing and verification standards with not one but TWO frankly dodgy questions, in a show that only has to get through less then ten on a nightly basis. There might have been more, but my interest dropped a few episodes before the end.

Well competitions are fun, so let’s make a competition out of the next series! What is at stake is some things I need to give away, and in this instance it is Band of Brothers on DVD and Civilization IV on PC DVD-Rom. They are both new and unopened, you may already have or not want these things but you can flog them on eBay if you want. If you win. I’m afraid I’m not going to send these things overseas so whilst the rest of the world may participate only UK people are eligible for the prizes, sorry. 

The question, simply, is this:

  • How many dodgy questions will be used in the four new episodes of The Million Pound Drop being broadcast 15th-18th December 2010 on Channel 4?

A dodgy question in this regard is a question that does not have one single definitively correct answer of the answers available, or are factually inaccurate (be aware that in chronology based questions I’m taking “of the options given” to be implied), or both. Or misspelt. You may flag up questions, but the final judge in each case is me. One entry per person please. I also reserve the right to disqualify, change the rules and drop the competition at any time yadda yadda. This competition is not run by Endemol, it is merely taking the piss out of them, etc.

Here is the “clever” twist, when you enter you have 1,000,000 units. You have to decide if you’re going to put it all on a single answer, or if you’re not sure you can spread your units as you like amongst multiple answers (for example, you might put 500,000 units on six dodgy questions, and another 500,000 units on seven). The winner will be the person who put the most units on the correct answer, with a random draw if there is a tie.

Send your entries by e-mail to the usual address. If you can put something like “Happy Hour” in the subject line that would be grand. Closing date the entries is Wednesday at 8pm.

Good luck!