All the news that’s fit to print

By | April 7, 2014
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#imbackingBrig

It’s format sales conference thing MIP!

Schlag den Brig 2: This time we’re properly bloody serious and have a trailer to prove it

By | April 6, 2014
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Schlag_endcapTonight at 8pm it’s Bother’s Bar Poker, do come and join us.

However more important is next Saturday at 8pm. Forget Britain’s Got Talent. Forget Amazing Greys. Forget The Guess List. They’ll all be on catch-up. The question people will be stopping and asking you in the street is “where were you during Schlag den Brig 2?” Because you should be RIGHT HERE or on Youtube watching it go out live.

That’s right, in lieu of a very small response to a contestant call out and because it would mean otherwise we would have to commission a new logo, once again Dan Peake will be taking me on in fifteen mystery mental, physical and skill-based events from the brain and wallet of Only Connect and Crystal Maze alumni David J Bodycombe LIVE. And once again we will be joined by commentator and famed adjudicator Lewis Murphy of Fifty 50 Show.

And this time it’s serious. REALLY serious. There is no way Dan is going to win for a second time.

But not only are the stakes bigger, the games are set to be more fun and exciting and bigger than before as the boundaries of what we can do are pushed TO THE MAX. At least that’s what I’ve heard, neither Dan or myself know what the games are going to be and won’t until we have to play them. All we know is that one has been suggested to be interactive with the viewing audience (so it’ll be better if you watch live!).

Also actually we’ve filmed two of them already.

 

That’s right, proper PROPER outside broadcast challenges of the sort that wouldn’t feel out of place on You Bet. Neither me or Dan know how many points they’re worth so it’ll be a surprise to us on the night. If the filmed stuff looks good then we have the brilliant Michelle Martin to thank for her video editing work, especially as it was filmed pretty unprofessionally on a single camcorder, if you’re a TV type looking for a video editor, look her up!

If you can’t wait until next week and want to revisit the first one again, you can watch all four hours of it here.

Show Discussion: Fifteen to One 2014

By | April 4, 2014
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15to1Saturday 5:15pm then weekdays 4:30pm,
Channel 4

And so prosaic quiz week on Bother’s Bar ends with the revival of the show die-hard quizzers love but which I always found a bit dull really – Fifteen to One.

And I think they’re in a tough spot. The reason the original was so beloved is that it was quite dry, question after question after question. This version is going to be less dry, but at an hour long it’s not going to be so quickfire – player chat is promised by Toksvig (everyone gets three goes to reach the Pointless Final, the grand prize is a legitimately large £40k which is easier to have a chat about than an old piece of pot). Diehards are going to rail against it because it feels like they’ve missed the point of the original (which everyone stopped watching), casuals are probably not going to switch over from shows that are already on that look like more fun (and Deal or No Deal feels like a very strange lead-in). Damned if they do and damned if they don’t really.

Still University Challenge managed a successful comeback under similar circumstances (albeit not as a programme double the length with added chat) so you never know. Quoting myself for the record though:

I predict 900k-1m for the first civvy episode and everyone will get excited and go “ooh it’s a hit!” and it’ll be below 700k by the end of week two. I don’t know how much it needs to be seen as a success, but it’s not like Come Dine On A Trip In A Bed is expensive to make.

We’ll see if I look like a genius or an idiot in a few weeks. At the time of writing that prediction we were expecting the first civvy episode to be on the Monday and not the Saturday after the Grand National (which we initially thought was going to be a celeb special), so I expect the first episode to be a bit more of an outlier.

I quite like the soviet-esque theme they’ve gone for in the background, there.

Oklahoma!

By | April 3, 2014
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Prosaic quiz week continues with that bastion of prosaic quizzes – local television, in this instance local television in Oklahoma. It’s KSBI 52’s very own Wild Card, and you can actually watch it ungeoblocked online if you want.

Fronted by Ed Murray, three contestants compete in a buzzer quiz in order to win a $250 voucher from Bob Mills Furniture (I thought he hasn’t been on Fighting Talk much recently). Contestants pick cards to determine a category of question (although there’s no rhyme or reason behind the cards), some turn out to be wild cards which doubles the points for the next question, some are jokers which will add or take away points, some are instant win prizes. The values of the questions increase as the show progresses (100, 200, 300 points), the final round is the 400 point everyone-answer-on-a-telestrator question, and finally everyone picks one of the letters of WILDCARD (only one D) which may add up to a whopping 2,500 to your score or bust it completely, although you don’t have to play – it is very much the golden snitch.

It’s fast moving and rather cheap and cheerful, the crew in the background are clearly being paid by the decibel. Not much more to say about it really.

DON’T FORGET that this Sunday it’s another exciting round of Bother’s Bar Poker – make sure you’re a member of the club to play. And next Saturday night it’s four plus hours of LIVE ENTERTAINMENT with Schlag den Baar. Pens and paper at the ready!

The Lie

By | April 2, 2014
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Prosaic quiz week continues! TV3’s 3 Studios have prepped The Lie and Crossfire for international sales and whilst Crossfire is basically really boring, I reckon The Lie might have the chance of being a minor success. It’s already had one series in Ireland fronted by Jonathan McCrea, and a Scottish version fronted by comedian Susan Calman began on Monday and if you’re in the UK should be viewable on the STV site.

It’s a simple game – couples are shown a group of statements and must decide within a minute which one is false. The prizes start at £100 at level one (which is the demonstration level as it only has one statement which has to be a lie), £250 at level two (two statements), £500, £750, £1000, £1500, £2500, £5000 and finally £10,000 at level nine which has nine statements. Players get eight categories to play levels 2-9 with. Contestants get one chance during a game to bank money after a level to guarantee a prize – the longer they leave it the more they guarantee but if they haven’t banked and give a wrong answer they leave with nothing, and of course they can bail after each round. After level four they get a “lucky three” lifeline which reduces the number of options to three, but then they only get ten seconds to lock in a decision, for some reason. The well-worked upside down pyramid motif suggests that someone has thought the whole thing through.

It’s a simple game and it avoids a lot of production pitfalls in only being half an hour – reveals are not especially tedious (although obviously there will be one during a throw to break) going straight for the “is that the lie?” when they could have easily gone round the houses and generally the show doesn’t outstay its welcome. It also has quite swish minimalist graphics (although streaming online the writing is a bit small on the 21 inch widescreen monitor), quite a nice simple set and quite a neat ZX 48k Spectrum-esque soundtrack.

It’s not a must-watch and it doesn’t bring anything very new to the table, but what’s there is competent and reasonably engaging. It also feels quite winnable. I think if I was to make one small suggestion, maybe an optional way for contestants to “green out” the statements they believe to be true on the screen might aid viewer (and contestant) understanding when there’s a lot of statements on screen, Picross style, as long as everyone’s aware they only HAVE to lock in a lie.

Bother’s Bar Poker – Sunday at 8pm

By | April 1, 2014
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We interrupt prosaic quiz week to remind you (and indeed me) that it’s Bother’s Bar Poker this Sunday from 8pm, if the daylight savings automatically work (ahem). Join us for cards and fun for $5.50, with additional chips available for a further $5 (in fact you have an optional rebuy and an optional add-on). Winner takes all unless ten or more turn up, so likely to be a decent pot for the winner. Come and join us!