Show Discussion: The Edge

By | March 16, 2015
66 Comments

bentonWeekdays, 2:15pm,
BBC1

Jolly actor Mark Benton invites four people to put their knowledge and bowling skill to the test in a show of brains and balls. The better they are at answering questions, the more favourable the conditions for bowling. The aim is to bowl as close to the edge of the lane as possible without going off the end.

Quite a fun idea, but I found it quite frustrating to watch in the audience – a game of accumulation which thwarts accumulating is a difficult watch for a viewer, it might have been better to eliminate the “danger zone” element completely. Still, your mileage may vary.

Show Discussion: Wild Things

By | March 15, 2015
40 Comments

Wild-ThingsSundays, 7pm,
Sky One

New offering from wayward genius Gary Monaghan sees comedian Jason Byrne and wildlife host Kate Humble oversee couples battling it out to win a fortune in gold coins from the middle of the Wild Wood.

To win the money one of them will need to traverse obstacle courses, unfortunately they will have to do it in the suit of a giant woodland creature which offers no visibility and must rely on instructions from their teammate, with hilarious slapstick consequences.

Show Discussion: You’re Back In The Room

By | March 14, 2015
24 Comments

ybitrlogoSaturdays, 8:20pm,
ITV1

Phillip Schofield and Irish magician and hypnotist (and ex host of Deal or No Deal) Keith Barry invite five people to try and complete simple challenges for money, the twist being is that they’ve been hypnotised to make everything that much harder… and funnier! There are four episodes in this run if I recall correctly.

We went and saw an episode being filmed (by the sounds of it, this episode is going out as the show’s premiere tonight) and did find it very funny to watch. I think the show has a decent chance of being a hit but there are two quite important caveats – the first is the usual one about the editing, and second and most importantly the audience has got to buy into it and believe what’s happening is actually happening and this one might be a little bit more difficult to overcome.

It’s not really a game-y game so don’t go into it expecting high drama and jeopardy but you should hopefully be able to expect lots of laughs.

ITV buys Talpa for £350m

By | March 12, 2015
23 Comments

So that’s exciting isn’t it? I believe expert salesman John de Mol is obliged to stay on for three years (although I might be wrong). Look out for many one-series wonders coming to ITV soon, inevitably.

It also means that yes, ITV will effectively be making The Voice for BBC1. ITV Studios making shows for other channels isn’t very new, however.

In other news, the Deal or No Deal Noel’s Quiz app is finally out on Android and iOS. We’ll have a play around with it when we’ve got a spare minute, it’s free to download with in-app purchases.

Helicopter tragedy

By | March 10, 2015
0 Comment

You might have read in the news this morning about the tragedy in Argentina, ten people (seven crew including the two pilots, three sporting celebrities) died in a helicopter crash whilst filming reality show Dropped (pretty standard survival fare, originally Norwegian IIRC – drop people off in inhospitable places and see how they cope finding food and shelter) in the La Rioja province.

This looks spectacularly unfortunate for Adventure Line, who lost a contestant (and crew doctor) filming Koh-Lanta a few years ago. If that looked like there might have been an error of judgement, this looks like pure accident, although the incident is still being investigated. Our thoughts with everyone involved.