It’s Foreigners That Go On A Bit Weekend! (feat. Schlag den Raab 5/5/12)

By | May 4, 2012

I’m busy over the next few nights but there are some entertaining foreign shows on, and happily because they’re on for ages there’s a chance I might get to see some of them.

Tonight at 9-11pm UK time is the Spanish version of popular Italian fun king of the hill quiz Avanti! You can watch an official live feed of the channel here.

Saturday at 7:15 UK time Stefan Raab defends a whopping €2m on Schlag den Raab. Hopefully a naughty live feed will turn up.

Gefragt – Gejagt

By | May 2, 2012

It’s not just the US that’s bought into The Chase, according to Nico there’s a celebrity German version coming on NDR.

Also according to Broadcast The Bank Job might be heading for daytime. I think it’s a good idea, it’s a decent format suffocated by production idiots who would be less bothered about impressing the kids this time round. But where would it go on the schedule? (Thanks to Tom H for the tip)

What time is it?

By | May 1, 2012

It is “three weeks until they start filming Fort Boyard 2012 o’ clock”.

Sounds like the three nightitme specials are going ahead as well, and they’re the first shows to be recorded. Can’t wait to see what’s new this year, as it’ll only be six/seven weeks until they start going out.

Edit: Dan Peake also points out it’s “five days until injured Raab o’ clock”.

Escape Routes

By | April 30, 2012

So. One thing that came up in yesterday’s exciting “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” experiment was a show currently airing in the US called Escape Routes. It’s a reality show currently being shown on NBC on Saturday nights and not many people are watching it.

Well I watched episode one last night (I think it might have just finished, it’s a six week “thing” and episode six was last Saturday) and actually it’s alright. Six pairs travel to six different cities and do tasks set by Rossi Morreale and “social media sensation” (it says here) iJustine. One of which is an urban challenge, one is an interactive challenge, one is an escape challenge (Which doesn’t mean escaping from anything, it basically means ‘not in the city’). Points are awarded from 0-100 in 20 point increments depending on where the teams place in each challenge. Highest score at the end of the series wins $100,000 and a Ford Escape (do you see what they’ve done here?).

It’s basically an excuse for lots of product placement in the guise of a reality gameshow, but whilst this could be awful the challenges in episode one are quite good fun – the first one was a real life version of Zynga’s Hanging With Friends (it’s hangman for iPhone) with losers being ziplined 100ft down a building. The escape challenge involved real life dogfighting in actual real planes, albeit with lasers rather than missiles.

The interactive challenge forms a central focus of the show and well, it’s a bit gimmicky. That week there was a streamed talent show and viewers who had watched it online could vote for their favourite. But the contestants are encouraged to use social media to get as many people on their “team” as possible during the week, so it’s not a talent contest as much as a popularity contest. I get the feeling this might be a recurring idea, and as you can win a Ford Escape by backing the winning team I get the feeling there’s going to be a bit of a spiral element here. It is a pity that one of the central tenets seems the least interesting bit.

The show is mainly about the challenges although they added a little bit of interpersonal drama towards the end, although it felt very edited and manufactured to make it look like more of a sleight than I suspect it was. Overall it’s not a bad show, but there’s little here that makes it must see and no killer hook the whole thing is based around.

Here’s the site, all the episodes so far are up but you’ll probably need some sort of proxy or VPN to watch them if you’re outside the US.

And the winner is…

By | April 28, 2012

OK, it is time for the result of the exciting Brig Bother’s School of Hard Cash compo.

Basically there was £42.12 in change there, and most people underguessed it by loads. That means you can buy 7 entries into tomorrow night’s Bother Series of Poker event (8pm, don’t miss it).

Or at least I thought that was the case, I was a bit surprised that many entries started going into decimal figures in the bizarre idea that you could buy a part-entry into the tournament. Unfortunately, none of you smartarses have won as you all underguessed fairly significantly. And happily nobody guessed at eight. But THREE people picked seven as their answer and of those, Art Begotti was selected as the winner. Well done Art! £5.50 is on its way to you.

The point of the exercise is that the forms work, so.