Bundesvision Song Contest 2011

By | September 29, 2011

Well I was hoping to watch this live on a Justin TV stream, unfortunately one doesn’t exist. (Edit: although see comments)

A chum sent me a link to a very dodgy live feed that kept cutting out every five minutes and now doesn’t work at all, but it was nice whilst it lasted.

Happily it looks like it’s being cut into chunks and uploaded on the TV Total site, albeit with adverts. It is not, at time of writing, geoblocked.

Stefan Raab is hosting and Lena is doing all the Green Room interviews. Maybe we’ll stick up YouTube footage of the winning entry later on.

Things that could be brilliant

By | September 28, 2011

I’m expecting one of these in the post soon:

No Darren McMullen, but you can click on that for a slightly bigger view if you like. Anyway, fair is fair:

Minute To Win It is an eight-part series on ITV2, presented by Cadbury Spots v Stripes, which sees contestants compete in hilarious and bonkers 60-second challenges using everyday household objects. To find out more and play Minute To Win It games, visit the Spots v Stripes website here www.spotsvstripes.com

And obviously Minute to Win It is currently being shown on ITV2 on Tuesdays at 8pm.

Mais oui!

By | September 27, 2011

I’ve been watching some French things all morning. Here is a quick precis:

  • Code Delta – Family adventure show sort of a bit like La Carte Aux Tresors but with geocaching. Two families of three (mum, dad and child) are given a location to find on a GPS normally betewrrn 3-5km away. First team there gets two minutes to search the area for cannisters with end game clues in them. If they aren’t all found, the other team gets two minutes to find the rest. Then there’s a challenge, the winning team gets a two minute headstart in the next race. Repeat for a third time. The end game relates to a landmark in the area given in rebus form, the first family to work out what it is wins a holiday. And that’s it, quite jolly but that’s as far as it goes. It’s all done and dusted in 30 minutes. (France 3)
  • Les 12 Coups de Midi – This has been mentioned on the Bar before, it’s basically Bother’s Bar favourite Cresus but hosted by Jean-Luc Reichmann in a more purple set with one fewer contestant, one fewer round and more slowly paced. (TF1)
  • Le Juste Prix – Hurrah! We do of course LOVE LaGaf’s Le Juste Prix and it’s new season began last night. This is the first full episode I’ve seen for ages, so nice touches to point out: if you hit the one bid on the nose you get a trophy and a comedy oversize cheque for €100. Their version of Cliffhanger, Tyrolienne, is played with the mountain climber going up the back of a shark. They’ve got a game called Mini-bar which is basically Hole in One except they have to slide a drink down a saloon bar into a hole. I love this show! (TF1)
  • Money Drop – Just finished its nightly run and apparently has done alright. It’s got an interesting take on the US set (lots of safe doors, the money drop is essentially a giant funnel), the theme tune is alright, the clock music is mainly lots of beeping, the waiting for the answer reveals more interminable then I think I can remember them being over here. The idea that you can skip a question if you bet everything in play (couples begin with €250k in bundles of €5k) on an answer and if it’s correct means you can skip the next question is quite interesting, in theory it means the less you have the easier it gets to get to the end because you might as well just go for it anyway. Qs 1-7 are all four choice, Q8 (which can’t be skipped) is the fifty-fifty as usual. (TF1)

Do any of the Bar’s French friends have any recommendations?

Show discussion: The Amazing Race US Season 19

By | September 26, 2011

It’s the tenth Anniversary race! The very first episode went out on September 5th 2001, and here we are ten years later having fallen in and out of love with it several times. We’ve been spoiled by the Australian version of the show which was a lot of fun indeed, but will we bother sticking around for the US one? I’m going to write some stuff about episode one, but I will stick it under a spoiler.

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