Whatever.
Incidentally! Join us for ALMOST CERTAINLY THE PENULTIMATE Schlag den Raab on Saturday where there’s a million on the line and the music will be provided by Justin Bieber, Lena and Louane! I know, the Louane! Incredible. Join us for new low latency fun from 7:15.
This actually came up last night, all the X Factor groups have had to change their names for copyright purposes, and they’re all rubbish:
Why a group is named after my router I’ll never know.
Weekdays, 3pm,
ITV1
Contestants often in wacky costumes vie for the attention of Stephen Mulhern so they can take part in a game of knowledge and bluff to win cash prizes and/or some nice prizes. One of the three panellists will have the correct answer on their podium, the others must make something up on the spot with possible hilarious consequences. Who’s got the prize and who’s telling lies? Not quite sure what’s in it for the panellists yet. I think the pitch is somewhere between Would I Lie to You and Family Feud with Steve Harvey, we’ll see.
It’s quite unusual to see Mulhern mid-afternoon these days (but then it was just as weird Vernon Kay doing 1000 Heartbeats), will ITV’s insistence that Mulhern is A Thing help it or hurt it?
This show’s of interest because it’s What The Banker Did Next and Friend of the Bar Paul B is involved, and it would be nice for this to have a positive outcome for once etc.
Tonight, here, 9:30pm UK
Hurrah! Join us live on Youtube tonight from 9:30pm to 11pm as we explore the best of what the Jackbox Party Pack 2 (and some of JPP1) can offer. There will be a group of us broadcasting live from a Google Hangout but because of the nature of the games YOU will be able to have some input as well!
Affect our games! All you need to do is keep our livestream up and then on your second screen of choice go to www.jackbox.tv, put in the room code on the screen, add a name et voila. Please be aware that because of the lag you will need to follow prompts on your phone and watch the results on the screen. As a member of the audience you will get the chance to vote on answers, awarding points to the person who came up with the answer. Play along, you might make the difference!
What will we be playing? On the menu tonight in no particular order: Lie Swatter (true/false quiz, audience participation), Drawful (trying to draw unusual things), Fibbage 2 (fill-in-the-blank lying, audience participation), Quiplash XL (being witty to order, audience participation), Bidiot (strategy and perception) and Bomb Corp (speed logic and shouting). We won’t be able to play Earwax because we can’t stream sound in the Hangout regrettably (*).
I’ve got a decent amount joining me in the Hangout this evening but there may yet be room for more, especially if you’re female (as the panel is looking 100% male so far) – if you’ve got a microphone and a Google account hit me up on here or on Twitter and we’ll see what we can do to make it happen.
If you’re watching along you should also tweet us on #bbgn. Please be prepared for adult themes and language. If this goes well we will probably do it again in the future.
(*) Playing this with me screen-sharing on Google Hangouts is probably the most lo-tech way of doing this. For future reference is there a better way? I want lots of people on board live but watchable by anyone who wants to watch.
[Shout out to Deal or No Deal‘s Box 23 being interesting for the very second time in two years today, I don’t know the outcome at time of writing but the advert makes it sound VERY DRAMATIC.]
The other night I was informed of a Circus Halligalli special, Das Duell um Die Geld (it’s kind of a pun on another show they do, Joko and Klass’ Das Duell um De Weld) and I tuned in live, it was another attempt at the game show holy grail the quiz poker variant. As a poker player I realised a while ago that it’s really hard to make a convincing poker quiz show so I thought I’d try and articulate (badly) why.
Basing a quiz around the structure of a poker tournament initially looks like a great idea – there’s constant jeopardy and a clear beginning, middle and end game. Rising stakes.
However everybody makes the same mistake of trying to base it on Texas Hold ’em. Hold ’em is a variant that works great on telly because it’s fast, there’s action and there isn’t much the viewer needs to keep track of – just two cards for each player and whatever is in the middle. It’s pretty easy to work out what the best hand is at any given point. There is potential for shock results.
Unfortunately it is very not the case that you can just stick a nearest-to question to the formula of Hold ’em and hope for the best. If you’re watching coverage of poker on telly it’s pretty easy to hide or edit the admin – the blind posting and minor rules, this is much more difficult to do on a televised quiz, and people hate watching admin.
Pretty routinely you get your question, a round of betting, a hint (your flop, if you like), a round of betting, another hint, another round, the answer, another round then reveal. The issue here is that this is not actually very exciting to watch – extra cards mean extra possibilities and extra ways to take a hand down, all hints do is narrow down the possible range, there’s no real chance of an exciting twist river and no real opportunity to bluff – because of the nature of the questions if you’re pretty close you’re likely to stick around no matter what, the chance of an amazing bluff, an amazing read, an amazing put down or an amazing outdraw are zero and none. If quiz hold ’em worked like real hold ’em, you’d write an answer down before you even knew what the question was.
Because quiz poker is necessarily quite a slow game (because good telly demands build ups and big gestures when betting, for example) by necessity you’re probably only likely to get 10-15 questions in. If you played an actual poker tournament that was designed to finish in 10-15 hands you’d think it was a waste of money. By design everyone would be all-in every hand three-quarters into the show. That might make for some exciting television, but it’s not really poker and if you’ve come this far why bother with the poker at all?
The one poker quiz that’s had some success is Met het Mes op Tafel which pretty much breaks the rules – it’s not based on hold ’em (it’s probably closer to five card draw, as an equivalent) the betting is quick (its rules are unusual but they work for television) and there’s lots of questions in its half hour slot. It’s open to question how well it works as poker after the first few hands (when the antes get quite large if you stay in after the first round of betting you’re probably staying to the end no matter what) but it does work quite well as television. And that’s the important thing.
Got nothing to do on Saturday night from about half nine? Then why not join us for Bother’s Game Night! It’s a party and you’re all invited! The Jackbox Party Pack 2 is out today and I want to explore its internet-ability. I think watching a stream of it is perfectly fine, but for the best experience you want to recreate the lots of people in a room vibe, so that’s what we’re hoping to do.
I’m looking for a handful of people to play along in the Google Hangout (4-6 about ideal) chatting and reacting live, and for those games where there are extra spaces then anyone watching can just fill in by playing along with their phones. Want to be a part of it without playing properly? Fine! Log in as an audience member and vote on the answers, you can affect the outcome. All you need to play along is a mobile phone or second screen.
Interested in playing in the Hangout? Then hit me up here or on Twitter for consideration. Please be aware that it is likely we will be dealing with adult themes and language.