Not much today, but Total Wipeout‘s new series sort of starts this evening on BBC1 at 5:30, and Solitary 4.0 is on tonight in the US as well. I’m out this evening, but hope to have some fascinating opinions for you all tomorrow, alongside the Board of Excitement and some new old features.
Round-up 29th Jan ’10
It’s very very late, but I think it would be good to have a quick round-up of some stories covered in the comments you might have missed:
- Evil Dr Will’s favourite man Neil Patrick Harris is hosting the The Cube pilot for CBS, and is even producing it, intriguingly.
- There’s going to be an Australian version of Countdown. Elizabeth Murdoch’s Shine Media will be producing it for Aussie Public Service channel SBS.
- It’s the official press release for Mission 2110!
- Deal or No Deal is searching for contestants again. SURELY THIS IS YOUR TIME, MISTER AL. You have until the end of March.
- It’s the Celebrity Big Brother final tonight! NEWS.
Fabulous Lotto Prizes!
Thanks to Greg Scott on Twitter for flagging this up, it’s not technically gameshow related but it is probably of interest – last night’s lotto prize breakdown:
| Match 6 | 5 | £264,490 | £1,322,450 |
| Match 5 plus Bonus | 41 | £9,924 | £406,884 |
| Match 5 | 1,402 | £181 | £253,762 |
| Match 4 | 46,269 | £12 | £555,228 |
| Match 3 | 550,174 | £10 | £5,501,740 |
| Totals | 597,891 | £8,040,064 |
It’s not up there with the hilarity of 5+bonus being worth more than the jackpot, but £12! The numbers were all really low: 1, 4, 7, 11, 13, 27 and the bonus was 12. About 16m tickets sold evidently, match three winners beating the odds rather significantly there.
Fun Thing Found on Youtube Thursday: Wednesday Night Edition
You have the internet’s Tony du Mont to thank for discovering this, the entire Krypton Factor 1989 final… from New Zealand. Dougal Stevenson hosts.
Part 2 can be found here and the final part here.
There’s something that’s slightly off about it, I think it’s the pacing. They’d stopped doing knockout mental agility rounds in the UK by ’89 (correct me if I’m wrong), here with intriguing scoring. The intelligence test feels like it goes on for ages (or I think so anyway). Incidentally, the rather brilliant The Last Duet with O’ Connor and Martin was also used in the UK 1988 final. We’ve no idea why it shows the ‘general knowledge’ sequence when they mean ‘observation’. Also interesting use of non-diagetic background music you wouldn’t have found in the UK version.
So all I need to see now are a) really old UK episodes, b) 1995 UK episodes and c) the brilliantly titled German version, The Krypton Faktor, which from what I’ve discerned seemed to consist of about 26 different rounds, and then I can be happy.
Incidentally a lot of people coming here searching for information on the Spanish The Whole 19 Yards. What you’re looking for here is Los Ultimos 20 Metros. Yes there are videos, but be aware that it sounds as though the show’s being modified a bit for the UK audiences (four contestants, “a tense endgame” and up to £100,000 to be won). Let’s hope they aren’t doing the rather cheap thing with the questions to determine the money where the first clue is something like “place”. I’ve applied for a ticket, so.
Let’s play a lovely game of “Questions That Are Probably A Bit Too Esoteric For Only Connect!”
Inspired by comments on other posts, I thought I’d set my own question. I will update this throughout the day if nobody gets it.
So, what comes fourth in this sequence and for no bonus or indeed credit, why?
- Stephanie Beecham
- Kate O’ Mara
- Rula Lenska
- Susan George is the answer because “DJB had already did this in a TV Cream mailout!” Well done Jenny Turner! Ahem.
Join us next time for another brilliant game of “Questions That Are Probably A Little Bit Too Esoteric for Only Connect!” Bye!
Round up 27th Jan ’10
I’ve not really got anything to add, I’ve been out for the evening, I won some money at cards, I’m going to get something to eat and then I’m going to watch The Krypton Factor, Charlie Brooker on BBC4 and possibly episode four of Band of Brothers on DVD.
Don’t worry, I’m not going all “lifestyle” on you all, I thought it was time for a new post and there’s not much to say. What’s on your mind?
Broadcast on Twitter suggesting that Steve Jones is about to host a new physical Saturday night gameshow from Argentina. 101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow? We can’t see behind the paywall.
Meanwhile, Jenny Turner has spotted this link to a new kids show called Mission 2110, which appears to be the new name for Roboidz they were advertising for contestants for a while ago. This could be really brilliant, although if The Mirror is to be believed Caleb’s undertaken a sex change because actress Lindsay Duncan is apparently fronting it now. Edit: Actually I might have got the wrong idea about that. It’s truly classic Bother’s Bar.