Board of Excitement 14th Feb – 20th Feb ’10

By | February 13, 2010
39 Comments

What have we got to look forward to this week?

  • The Amazing Race (Sunday, CBS): I’ve avoided all details about this so far, except I gather that two ex-Big Brother contestants are on it and Miss Teen South Carolina who said something stupid about Geography once. The first episode will probably be quite similar to the first episode of the other 15 seasons, I confidently predict.
  • Valentine’s Day (Sunday, The Western World): Awwww.
  • A new feature (Sunday, Bother’s Bar): Try not to get too excited now.
  • Only Connect (Monday, BBC 4, 8:30pm): Middle-class but not posh is how it’s going down on Twitter where all the cool working class kids like myself hang out. This week it’s the Insurers vs Gamblers. There’s only one more heat left! But I’ll have to watch this on Catch-up because I’m probably off to see…
  • Treasure Tag (Down in That London):… with Cat Deeley on Monday evening. Normally I have an idea as to whether I think I’m going to like a show or not based on the premise before I go to see it, this one has me feeling very mildly positive. I fully expect them to mess that good feeling up by taking six hours to record. Anyway, look out for a write-up if I go.
  • The Krypton Factor (Tuesday, ITV1, 7:30pm): I might have to stop billing this if I actually keep forgetting to actually watch it (I mean, I was at the final so I know who wins for goodness sake). This is the penultimate heat, by my reckoning.
  • Survivor (Thursday, CBS): Trying to avoid spoilers here (for another day at least, you’ve had plenty of time by then), but quite enjoyed episode one. The villains are brilliant, it feels like some sort of pirate camp over there. Challenges are repeats of old challenges with occasional twists, and I can’t believe how much the survivors really go for it in the brawling-based challenges to the point that I’m beginning to find them mildly uncomfortable to watch. Also Boston Rob is awesome, you Survivor-fan idiots! 
  • Solitary v4.0 (Saturday, Fox Reality): Episode two was, in a word, epic, with the completely brilliant Solitary Roulette task (should be made into its own format, until David B pointed out at the poker last week that it was basically round two of 15-1) and a treatment where contestants whack themselves with various objects of varying degrees of kink to make enough noise to register on a clap-o-meter until they can take no more. Just when you begin to think Solitary has run out of interesting avenues to go down it’s still able to surprise and amuse. This is episode four, which I confidently predict will be a bit like episode three but with one less person in it.
  • The Bother Series of Poker Game 2 (Next Sunday 8pm, Bother’s Bar, Full Tilt): you missed out on a fun game last week, don’t be scared to join in this one especially as I fully intend on taking David B down. Requests > Search by Tournament ID > #138380498.

Who Wants to be a US Version of Millionaire?

By | February 13, 2010
10 Comments

Thanks to Travis for finding this information (although I should just stress I can’t find a printed source for it, although I’ve got no reason to believe he’s making it up), it looks like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is making some changes.

Quote:

It looks like Millionaire is ringing in the changes for the new series. Twelve shows are being recorded this week and next and will feature the following changes.

-Fastest Finger First is gone, contestants now follow one after the other. Like the US daytime and Aussie Multi-Millionaire variants.

-The clock is being brought in, no word on what the time limits are.

–Switch the Question is being brought back and will be used as a fourth lifeline for anybody who reaches £50,000.

Interestingly, I’m sure there are still some carry over episodes from last year that have yet to be aired. ITV have given the show a 17 week run for the spring and summer.

Tom H wonders if we’ll get the lovely US graphics package, I’m more interested in what they’re going to do with the music – the Strachans’ clock-based revamps of the old standards are pretty superb, all told, and something suggests that reversionings of what we’ve currently got won’t work quite so well.

It’s Noel’s Price Is Right!

By | February 11, 2010
8 Comments

Sort of.

It’s times like this I wish I subscribed to Broadcast 🙁

Meanwhile the Deal or No Deal website apparently crashed after having 4.5m people visit in an attempt to apply to go on the show, which is interesting as it gets about 2.5m viewers these days. Who could have predicted that people would quite like basically free money during a recession? Almost 113,000 have managed to register – good luck with that.

And thanks to Alex for pointing this out – Tim Shaw’s Trapped In A Box Treasure Hunt (our title). I would be fascinated to find out a) what words of wisdom Trojan from Gladiators imparted regarding the experience of being trapped in a box for 30 days, b) if anyone will actually watch, or whether people will just find it funnier to leave him in there and c) if he’s geting 12 hours of daylight, will it be mysteriously very very dark on the webcam to the point where he’s probably not actually going to be there for the remaining twelve?

Dates for The Whole 19 Yards now up, I’m going to try and go along to one of them.

It is Survivor this evening.

Special K

By | February 10, 2010
0 Comment

I’ve gone done put up a load of old specials, namely:

Whatsmore there’s a very good chance a BRAND NEW feature will go up at the weekend, as it’s Valentine’s Day on Sunday. What could it be?

In other news, it looks like Only Connect are after your Connecting Walls, if this message on Facebook is anything to go by:

Trying to answer Only Connect questions may seem enough of a challenge for most people, but there are those who get just as big a kick from coming up with their own Only Connect questions. Perhaps you’d like to try your hand at Only Connect question-setting. If you think you can come up with a Connecting Wall – or even more than one – to rival those you’ve seen on TV, then we’d love to hear from you. Remember, not all walls have to be prohibitively difficult, though please feel free to challenge us. Send your Connecting Wall suggestions (together with the answers) to ClaireJ@presentable.co.uk.

Best Wishes
The Production Team

Doubtless to do with the website.

I will have a seperate post up tomorrow for anyone who goes and sees Bank It or Bin It tomorrow night and wants to report about it.

Product Placement

By | February 9, 2010
22 Comments

So it looks like commercial television in the UK is going to be allowed to start ‘doing’ product placement, except for anything that advertisers would probably want to advertise in shows:

As revealed by the Guardian last week, the legislation will prohibit the placement of alcoholic drinks, foods and drinks high in fat, salt or sugar, gambling, smoking accessories, over-the-counter medicines, and infant formula and follow-on formula.

Now this isn’t something I care about particularly, and in our little genre it’s probably a good thing and would make prizes easier to come by (what price can I get on a new series of The Price is Right within the next 12 months?) . And possibly at last we might finally be able to work out what Simon Cowell and co are drinking on those blurred out shots on American Idol (*).

However there is good product placement and bad product placement.

  • GOOD: Deal or No Deal sponsored by Marmite. “There MARMITE be £250,000 in your box, but there MARMITE be a penny! It’s a real MARMITE situation!” (Noel has a bite of some toast with some Marmite on it).
  • BAD: Any situation where a contestant may have to go on about how “completely super” something is. We’re not bloody America, and we don’t do deference very well. Examples are: any task involving a product on The Amazing Race other than carrying a Travelocity Gnome around.

(*) Don’t bother.