I’m just going to quote Iain Weaver verbatim:

The Fifteen-to-One revival of 2014 is happening. It starts on Saturday 5 April at 5.15, with what appears to be an hour-long edition featuring “celebrities”.

Then it pops up on Monday 7 at 4.30, still running for a full hour, I think those are “civilian” episodes.

Other channels are pulling out their big guns: provisional schedules feature new Tipping Point, new Chase, new Pointless, and repeats of The Great British Bake Off.

I expect a reasonable amount of excitement for the first few episodes – very intrigued to see what happens after that. I couldn’t see it doing well when the idea was mooted, I still can’t, especially at 60 minutes in length. And 5:15 feels early for a celeb special of something they hope will breakout, I don’t think Pointless Celebs will have much to worry about.

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.

Needless to say, it would be quite embarrassing if it turns out Deal Or No Deal is STILL more popular almost ten years on, and with barely 15% of its peak audience.

OK, likely to be of interest. A teacher chum of mine recently did an A-Level class using a new “thing” called Kahoot, and said it went down a storm. I’ve just had a look and I can definitely see it has possibilities and potential and someone with a bit more creative nous than me could make something great out of it. It’s free to use, and you can use it “socially” so feel free to experiment.

The idea is you set multiple choice quizzes, with pictures and audio and video if you want, and the teacher or host plays it out on a big screen. Questions are up to four multiple choice and you can choose how much thinking time your players get. Pupils or players go to Kahoot.it on their computers or mobile devices and input the PIN on the big screen, put a name in, then you’re ready to go – the questions and answers pop up on the large screen and the players pick the shape that represents their chosen answer on their device. When time is up, everyone has locked in, or the teacher wants to move on the correct answer is revealed and the teacher and pupils can discuss the question. Then it shows the Top Five leaderboard after each question. At the end the teacher can download a file with everyone’s scores and answers.

This evening I made a quiz and advertised it on Twitter. Making the quiz was quite easy, unfortunately we discovered quite quickly that the questions and answers don’t show up on the players devices which is basically a massive shame. However it does strike me that it’d be possible to do something over Google Hangouts – people watching on Youtube wouldn’t work I don’t think because of the thirty second delay, but with people in a party I think you might be able to put something together.

HERE IS AN AMAZING THROWN TOGETHER EXPERIMENT:

brigsbigquizresult – Here’s a link to the Excel file the teacher can download after the game with all the responses and timings as an example.

Rewatching the video it’s a shame you don’t seem to be able to find out who answered what on the big screen and can only infer it from the scores – I presume that’s not to embarrass kids which is fair enough although in a more social setting that’s where a lot of comedy lies, as Everybody’s Equal has taught us. The option would be nice at least.

The lovely Mo from Monkey Kingdom has got in contact asking for contestants for a new quiz pilot. If you’re outgoing, in the London area, over 18, and as it’s Monkey happy to deal with a bit likely wackiness then why not give them a shout? Please click on the ad to see a bigger jpeg.

The direct email is MoR@monkeykingdom.com, the recording will be Sunday 13th April. Good luck.

It’s Thursday!

• Lisa Thiel the new Egghead in waiting will be a contestant on Revenge of The Egghead tonight on BBC2 at 6pm. Apparently this is what led to being offered a full-time role, so likely worth a watch.
• If you’ve been playing Dan Peake’s Wie is De Mol Suspect List game, be aware that the final week’s entry (the double points one with only two people to choose from) closes this afternoon, as the finale goes out in the Netherlands this evening. Fingers crossed for fast subbing!
• Finally do you remember three weeks ago when the Pointless app was still exciting? Well prepare to rekindle your gameshow app excitement, there’s an OFFICIAL Reflex app for iOS and Android. Yes. Cursory play suggests it’s fun enough (although you only seem to get seven games for your £1.49) although the quiz showdown seems a bit impossible on the iPad where you’ve got a much longer distance to travel with your finger to hit your buzzer. Still, if you wanted to live out your “buzz in when you see a dog wearing sunglasses” fantasies, your dreams have come true.

That’s copyright me now, thanks.

• The Catchphrase app has been completely rebuilt. It now features a new one-player structure (which is fine) and unlockable theme packs, and doesn’t let you see the possible words to pick from unless you buzz in, which is fine, except there’s no actual penalty for just leaving it. More irritatingly, if you paid the 69p for it last year you now get ads, and I’m not sure if you actually get any new catchphrases thrown in for free. Poor form. Blimey it’s £1.49 now. (here’s the Android link) I would still suggest that it’s a fun game though, so if you didn’t buy it last year…
• Timeline is now out on Android, and I thought the iOS version was rather good fun, and great value at free.

In other news it sounds like GSN in the US have picked up The Chase for a third series (surely it’s time for The Beast to guest on Letterman) and intriguingly and slightly bafflingly The Line, the pilot of which was floating round a few years ago and we discussed here back in the good old Endemol Joe days (although the video no longer works I’m afraid). There are some other shows currently being looked at, of which The Tunnel is probably the most appealing to the BB audience.

BBC 4 at 8:30. Claire Balding, Alice Arnold, Charlie Brooker (who’s kept it quiet), Ed Smith, Val McDermid and Joshua Levine.

It’s also David J Bodycombe’s last episode as question editor proper.

But don’t worry DJB fans! He’s setting the tasks for Schlag den Baar on April 12th.

There’s a Sport Relief Pointless special on Friday.