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!

Boardgame Remix Kit

By | December 7, 2010
13 Comments

Right, not strictly gameshow related but being mentioned because it might be of interest to the sorts of denizens who hang around Bother’s Bar during a slow news/can’t be bothered week: The Boardgame Remix Kit, which I will buy this evening (although won’t have the chance to explore fully because I’m playing poker) for the bargainous £2.99 and seems like a fine idea in principle, and more than one person has tweeted me about it and geek comedian Tom Scott is involved in playtesting so I trust it IMPLICITLY.

Meanwhile, Buzzerblog have videos of the US Million Dollar The Money Drop, I don’t think the set looks too awful all told – more like the European set but with more screens than I was expecting.

Also, intrigued by Simon Cowell’s response to the The X Factor fix allegations:

“There has always been a sing-off when there are five people left in the competition. This is a lot of nonsense about nothing.”

Er, no there hasn’t. In fact correct me if I’m wrong, but the public tend to be the final arbiters from the final six downwards usually. I don’t believe The X Factor is a fix (although insinuating it was only going to be viewer votes is a bit off) and I understand that controversy is usually good for the show, but I think they’re beginning to  get to the point where the public might actually switch off – they’re already happy enough to not buy the record. Although they probably won’t switch off this week being the final, obviously.

Edit: Alex says: “I’ve checked, and it was final 4 in series 1 and 3 (2004/2006), and 5 each other series.” So there we are.

Edit Edit: Right, quick review of The Boardgame Remix Kit – if it was all as wildly inventive as their Cluedo meets Dawn of the Dead idea then I would have no hesitation in recommending it, regrettably a lot of it doesn’t have the same sort of mad inventiveness and is really a book of new house rules for popular games. I think I was expecting more re-purposing so I’m not sure I could recommend buying a physical copy at the price therefore, but the iPhone app also comes with working built in timer and dice which is harder to get right then you’d think if other ‘boardgame replacement’ apps are anything to go by. There are worse things you could spend £2.99 on, especially if you think This Sort Of Thing is worth supporting.

Wetten Dass? accident

By | December 6, 2010
1 Comment

Just a quick note (in case you’re the sort who just reads the front page) – the story has not gone unnoticed, it’s being discussed in the thread beneath. Our thoughts are with Samuel Koch and family. A decent report can be found here.

Hopefully it is something the legendary show can recover from, and we congratulate Thomas Gottschalk and the production team on their dignified handling of the situation, although personally speaking I think there’s too much danger in jumping over moving cars scenarios – it’s not like there’s a safety rope if something goes wrong after all.

Board of Excitement 5th December – 11th December 2010

By | December 4, 2010
37 Comments

First of all, I have reviewed some more iPad apps:

Both of these are currently £1.79, and both have equivilent cheaper iPhone versions which are untested, but are probably exactly the same but in a bigger font.

Right, now that’s done let’s see what there is to look forward to this coming week:

  • Drop Zone – after coming dangerously close to prime time viewing last week, this week it’s back another five minutes. This week six teams get sunburnt whilst gallopping around Milos in Greece. (3:45pm, Sunday, BBC1)
  • The X Factor – only one week of this to go. The cast of Glee, Alexandra Burke and the Black Eyed Peas guest in this evening’s results show. (8pm, Sunday, ITV1)
  • Only Connect – First semi-final sees the Epicurians vs the Wrights. (8:30pm, Monday, BBC4)
  • Premier League Poker – Game three part 1 (1am, Monday night/Tuesday Morning, C4)
  • The Apprentice – the candidates become tour guides. I took a tour of Oxford once, the guide was either a good liar or quite ill-informed so this should also be a lot of fun. Especially as it looks like the candidates might be about to come to blows. (9pm, Wednesday, BBC1)
  • The Challenge: Cutthroat – I keep promising to put the theme up because it’s this year’s best reality theme. Fingers crossed I’ll do it this week. If I remember. (Wednesday, MTV US)

Anything else?

What does Alan Sugar say to his eggs at breakfast every morning? You’re fried.

By | December 2, 2010
8 Comments

So.

As you may or may not have gathered, this is the first time I’m watching The Apprentice properly – I’ve always enjoyed the odd episodes I’ve watched, but I’ve never bothered watching it as a series before. I’m enjoying it very much.

But I feel I should make up for lost time – happily most of it appears to be on Youtube, and so I thought I’d start at the very beginning (warning, contains swearing):

Blimey, Alan Sugar used to be a lot more terrifying didn’t he? He’s just Dr Fun these days. His autobiography is a decent read, especially the bits about The Apprentice (two other people were considered for the job, one didn’t want it, the other suggested Alan do it, and he wasn’t best pleased with how the first Celebrity Apprentice turned out).

I love seeing how shows develop over a period.