The answer is, of course, when the host right at the beginning says “this is not a gameshow.” Anyway, here’s some Silent Library (based, of course, on a segment of popular Japanese show Dauntaun no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!!) It’s a celebrity edition with punk (presumably) band All Time Low playing. The idea, of course, is that one or more people are picked at random to take a punishment, they and their friends laughing at them must try to remain as quiet as possible to win the money.
It’s mildly entertaining, I could see it being a minor hit on Channel 5 if done the right way.
Very quick as I’m in a rush, Broadcast reporting that Channel 5 have bought the rights to Silent Library, the show where people gather in a library and must perform painful and hilarious tasks whilst not shouting, and whilst their friends try very hard not to piss themselves laughing too loudly, for a cash prize of up to £2,000 (wooooh!)
This has already been done in the UK as Fist of Zen on MTV UK, of course.
Is it just going to be Dickinson’s Real Deal but with added game theory, trendy camera angles, “tense” music and a cast of eccentric characters, or will it be so much more than that?
Here’s quite a good thing from our very good friends at TV Cream, it’s their top ten Rules of the Gameshow, featuring extended versions of clips you’ve already seen and interesting clips of things you probably haven’t, like Brucie going into the audience. Plus lots of Surely-Should-Be-Sir Fred Dinenage!
Apparently Tuesday’s Deal or No Deal “will blow your mind”. So there we are.
Scream if You Know the Answer! – Rest assured I don’t believe this to be the greatest show in the universe but it’s fun and Summery and I think better than you’d expect from a digital channel, and therefore worth supporting. And I would totally want to be a contestant. Tonight’s match ups see Denise Van Outen vs Jason Gardner then an unlikely battle between Neil Morrisey and Edwina Currie. (7pm, Sunday, Watch)
The Amazing Race Australia – This surprised me last week by basically being the show you wish they’d make in the US these days. Worth a punt. (Monday, Australia)
Four Rooms – Well I say “excitement”, it’s a new show where people with things to sell take or refuse offers from four different dealers, knowing they can’t go back if they refuse an offer. (8pm, Tuesday, C4)
I was also going to list Impossible? here but it rated so badly it has been pulled from the schedules. Whilst I don’t think the show was by any means perfect, I thought it was well produced and deserving of more that it got. I think Escoffey might be a problem – he’s not initially as charming as Derren Brown (and charm is so important in this kind of thing), and indeed there is/was something of an irritating nerd being cool about him, a sort of Simon Amstell pre-good Popworld. But somewhere during episode two something clicked and I was quite enjoying his performance, the more of a devious bastard he became the more I enjoyed it. Therefore I hope the other four episodes get broadcast somewhere.
Edit: It’s also the BAFTAs tonight at 8pm on BBC1. Of interest: Come Dine With Me in the Features category and The Cube, have I Got News For You and The X Factor in Best Entertainment Programme.
Alright, nothing much seems to be doing, although beind the scenes it’s quite exciting as we’re hopefully doing an interview with some Wild Rover peeps soon (if you have any questions, let me know. No guarantees they’ll be used).
And look! No more than 18 months after me suggesting there should be an iThing Only Connect app lo and behold there’s one coming in August. It sounds like it’s going to be very similar to the Connecting Wall game on the website, except it will cost about £2 for 20 walls. I can’t help but think they might be undercutting themselves somewhere, especially when PuzzGrid works and is free and unlikely to run into copyright problems.
Anyway as it’s quiet I’ve been meaning to put this up for a while. It’s time to watch the master at work, Robert Kilroy-Silk hosting four-episodes-and-done Shafted.
There’s a part two as well with the actual prisoner’s dilemma element. It’s interesting to think this show bombed in 2004 2001, and just five eight years later was basically successful with extra shouting as Goldenballs. The half question thing actually turned up as one of the special possible conditions imposed on the evidentally not picked up Control recently.
