At least Bradley has some experience of the original having competed in the Celebs vs Jockeys special, and I was completely unaware that he’s married to the head choreographer of G-Force, the cheerleaders, Donna.
Prepare for a new US Realiglut
The Writers are going on strike again in the US, so expect lots of quick-to-make reality and gameshows in the US over the next months. And less scripted stuff on Netflix.
In other news look what’s been unearthed! The first half of an episode of Remote Control from 1992. This week featuring Phil Cornwell doing an incredible Jim Bowen. Thanks Neil Miles!
The most aggravating six minutes of TV in ages
Balance the cars on the seesaw for 20 seconds. Win and Joko and Klaas get 15 minutes of primetime TV to do whatever they want with. Lose and be contractually obliged to commentate on Charles’ coronation on Sat 1 for an hour. Last night’s finale of Joko & Klaas Gegen Pro 7, currently the gold standard of studio-based challenge shows.
It’s I’m A Celeb South Africa tonight!
What happened to it being called I’m A Celeb All Stars? Anyway I’m not convinced by the prospect of people you’ve already seen doing things they’ve already basically done… but in South Africa! It’ll probably be good for around 4-5m (the lower end I suspect) which is more than ITV will usually be getting in the slot for three weeks, so fine, but I fear this might have a knock-on effect for this November, especially if it doesn’t really take-off which as pre-record and without the reactive element that the live shows do so well may well be a possibility.
No viewers this time on Takeshi’s Castle
The new Takeshi’s Castle launched on Japanese Amazon Prime Video today, and although we know it will be coming at some point, we fear it might not join Prime Video in the Rest of the World for a while.
Which is a shame. Here is the Japanese store page, perhaps you can VPN in if you can’t wait.
Destination X Marks The Spot
Fun fun fun, the BBC are co-prodding with NBC Universal on a new Belgian format Destination X.
In it, groups of people are driven around Europe on a blacked out bus. The bus stops, and given what they can work out from what they see, real clues and fake ones, and doing challenges to earn further clues, they have to mark where they think they are on a map. The person who is furthest away gets eliminated. Presumably it’s a different place each episode and you’ll get to play along at home.
Might actually be good fun – great ratings on VTM in the Flemish region of Belgium, and we love a Flemish format here at The Bar which tend towards more imaginative than most. And there’s De Mol, which is the best show on television.
It does strike me that popular Youtuber GeoWizard, amongst his travelogues and straight-line challenges and his playing of GeoGuessr, basically did this a few years ago, although I’m surprised he only seems to have done it once.