It turns out you CAN in fact get the Stauf these days.

By | November 2, 2010
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Not strictly gameshow related, but something that may prove of interest, legendary sort-of-Crystal-Maze-in-a-haunted-house 90s PC game The 7th Guest is getting a release on iDevices next month. It was one of the first games to use full motion video, and is effectively Professor Layton fifteen-years ahead of Professor Layton, with added blood and horror.

What with You Don’t Know Jack making a resurgence (they’d better bring it out for the UK, is all I’m saying), we’re truly entering a golden age of videogames that are a little bit like gameshows sort of.

Remember, Remember the First of November

By | November 1, 2010
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Well here’s something to do, in honour of Bar Best Friend Joe From Endemol (I’d love to find out who he really is, if anyone), two old features on the sorts of successful formats that really only Endemol can produce:

And you can also read my EXCLUSIVE write-ups of the British pilots of both of these formats I went to in August 2006, three-quarters of the way down, including, of course, the hilarious Dale Winton having a strop story.

What putting these up here reminds me to do is to ask the question: where’s Dick de Rijk these days? I’m aware he left Endemol to make shows on his own, although I can’t think of anything he’s been involved with since. Although Deal or No Deal probably means he never has to work again, but anyway.

Board of Excitement: 31st October – 6th November 2010

By | October 31, 2010
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  • Deal or No Deal – it’s actually the show’s fifth birthday today, although they’re not celebrating it until towards the end of November because of Halloween. (4:40pm, Sunday, C4)
  • The Cube (7pm, Sunday, ITV1)
  • The X Factor (8pm, Sunday, ITV1)
  • Only Connect – first quarter-final, Epicurieans vs Bridge Players (8pm, Monday, BBC4)
  • The Apprentice (9pm, Wednesday, BBC1)
  • The Challenge: Cutthroat (Wednesday, MTV US)
  • The Million Pound Drop – Live – eighty minutes each (10pm Friday and Saturday, C4)
  • Schlag den Star – hopefully someone will pop up with a link to watch a live stream nearer the time. (7:15pm, Friday, Pro Sieben/the internet)

Fun Thing Found Found on Youtube Friday

By | October 29, 2010
23 Comments

As we come to the end of Bother’s Bar’s Million Pound Drop Week Sponsored by Joe Who May Or May Not Be From Endemol, here’s a clip from the Russian show.

Basically they’ve got to the final question with 8m of the 10m Rouble (just over £160,000) left in play. WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN?

George and Larry Lamb play for charity this evening, and there are four more episodes on the following two Fridays and Saturdays.

Unbelievably poor questions of our time

By | October 28, 2010
41 Comments

Well done, last night’s The Million Pound Drop:

“In which of these places did the sun set first today: Rekjavijk, Dubai or Rome?”

If the contestant ever has to guess the setter’s intentions than the question is really poor, and on live primetime TV this is just incredibly embarrassing. There is nothing to suggest whether this meant local time of the places or from the point of the UK. As David B has pointed out, “today” is a dangerous word to use when your show is on towards midnight and a question spans many different timezones.

Those contestants would be right to feel a bit aggreved, I think.