As ever, we can’t vouch for truth or accuracy but we try and weedle out the clearly untrue ones, the unfunny ones, the crap ones, and hopefully we’re left with some stuff that has a grain of truth in it or is at least quite interesting. Alright, eyes down look in.

Reports of Squid Game carnage have been vastly exaggerated. It’s four *minor* injuries from a cast of over 450, statistically it’s safer than Bake Off.

To be honest, we’re hoping for a Quiz style drama based on The Making Of Squid Game: The Challenge – can someone get us footage of Michael Sheen acting as Stephen Lambert saying “I’M GOING TO REDEFINE THE GAMESHOW GENRE!” Thanks.

Whether or not four injuries is an acceptable amount, I’m not sure choosing to illustrate the point comparing it with a show that’s at least guaranteed to feed its contestants properly was the cleverest choice, but there we are.

Nothing confirmed yet, but they are attempting a new pilot of “I Literally Just Told You” in the USA with Jimmy Carr for Comedy Central aka Paramount Plus.

I don’t know if this is true but it certainly sounds plausable.

One Question has been renewed for a second season, but season 2 will be more aligned with the ‘original concept of the show’ (no clue what that means though)

Hmm. Given we were a bit worried when we first heard about the original concept I’m not sure how good an idea that is, but I also don’t know how good an idea that is.

A few months ago, a runthrough was stopped abruptly when a contestant stopped an enormous, unfixable flaw in a format that somehow nobody had noticed up that that point. All that work gone down the drain, we all felt so stupid.

This is obviously like moth to a flame for me, but really it is also only half a story. Do send us more tales of formats that completely broke in the runthrough, I can’t get enough of them.

Sitting On A Fortune coming in the Spring. Moneyball in Summer.

It’s almost been so long since the first series of Moneyball they could almost get away with calling it a reboot.

Moneybags was cancelled for a very specific reason, as will become evident soonish.

Expect a Chaser refresh after the next 100 episode record.

Oooh. Are Channel 4 going to start doing a magazine show at 5pm? Primetime version of Moneybags? None of the above? Chaser refresh – some moving on, some new blood? It’s not *normally* a good sign but I don’t know. I really think ITV might be overplaying their hand re: Deal or No Deal, but we’ll see.

Virgin Media Television in Ireland are currently casting for what sounds like a hybrid of Love Island and the already-forgotten Davina McCall vehicle The Language of Love. Hopefuls will aim to find love on an Irish beach whilst also trying to improve their grasp of the Irish language. Will be filmed in a Gaeltacht (Irish language speaking areas) region. Working title is Grá ar an Trá (Love on the Beach).

Something like this might be quite a good way for the regions to fill some quota time, or at least it would be if anyone watched The Language of Love.

get ready to see a pilot in the works for the new daytime quizzer, “Switch”. Yes, the one on Game Show Network in the States. Yes, we just had a game show called switch.

Where would it go, though?

The Masked Dancer is doomed. Not returning this year some people think.

I’m just printing this because it suits my confirmation bias.

Well there we are.

Here’s some Monday fun, a video with the very first edition of Card Sharks in the US, which is pretty slick, and the very first edition of Play Your Cards Right from 1980, which feels like it could topple over at any time. Brucie hasn’t quite got his patter down yet, nor his card turning technique (not helped by having a broken right wrist) but despite everything just about keeps everything under control, if not error free. That desk looks pretty awful.

A Vice report that’s floating around on the ongoing nightmare of Studio Lambert’s take on Mr Beast’s Squid Game video: Squid Game: The Challenge.

Of course the main difference between Mr Beast and this is that by all accounts there haven’t been many high profile complaints about how contestants have been treated on Mr Beast’s one. I mean, it’s not a great look is it? God knows what’s gone wrong here. Did they only discover they were going to be looking after 400 people the night before? And, frankly, when contestants have nothing to lose, why not tell all? I have little doubt there’s an element of sour grapes to some of it – if there’s incompetence in catering, chances are there’s going to be incompetence in the mic pack arrangements as well. But if that turns to incompetence in the referee-ing then yes that probably does need to be looked at.

Still, looking forward to seeing how they’re going to get 90 minutes out of Red Light Green Light. Or the Glass Bridge, a game where *basically nothing happens*.

Edit: Sorry I realised too late this post should have been titled ‘Studio Lambert redefines the contestant welfare genre’, this is just something I will have to live with going forward.

Join us on Saturday night in the Discord from 19:15 (UK) for the first Schlag den Star of the year where journalist and chatshow host Johannes B Kerner will take on actor Moritz Bleibtreu in up to fifteen mystery events to win Elton’s €100,000 briefcase.

I’ve been watching a fair amount of old Catchphrase on Youtube lately. The original started in January 1986, meaning that the show is *almost* 40 years old, yet the original set design in all its space pink and blue neon glory still looks great, Ed Welch’s music package is still great and particularly those titles – imagine how hard (and probably expensive) it would have been to render that 3D world so smoothly in the mid-1980s, especially when you consider the graphics of the actual puzzles – I still think those titles were more impressive than the ones that followed when Carlton took over. Then there’s the pure adrenaline-fuel of someone hitting the big money in the moneychase only to then solve the bonus in one go rather than clean up. The excitement that we might see a different colour flashing light in subsequent rounds – ah to be seven again.

Anyway Catchphrase was great, and really these days other than the 3D puzzles sometimes being a bit Full Of Stuff, it basically still is. Who turns over when they see Catchphrase is on? A psychopath, like the first 3D iterations of Mr Chips. There are people in their early 20s who won’t understand the significance of why he is called Mr Chips, think on that.

Anyway the point is I came across a Youtube vid of a VHS called Catchphrase For All The Family! Which is just two-and-a-half hours of puzzles, 500 in all. A link to the answers is in the video description. Enjoy.