Wednesday, 9pm,
Right here and on Youtube
Tweet us! #bbpoll
You are cordially invited to the TV awards event OF THE YEAR as proper TV professionals David Bodycombe, Daniel Peake and most definitely not professional in any shape or form Me count down the best and worst new UK formats of 2017 and best currently airing shows as voted by YOU, the readers. As ever we’ll have some interactive votes running throughout the show. David and Dan don’t know the results in advance, will they agree with them? Will YOU agree with them?
You will want to watch the stream and read the report before continuing under the cut, where facts and figures lie.
OK now follows the lists for each of the three categories. Every show that polled more than 1.0% is included, percentages are of votes cast only and so will not include people who declined to use all their votes.
Hall of Fame 2017
| Impossible | 17.8 |
| Richard Osmans House of Games | 15.8 |
| Armchair Detectives | 11.7 |
| Crystal Maze, The | 7.6 |
| 5 Gold Rings | 7.4 |
| The Boss | 5.4 |
| Alien Fun Capsule | 4.8 |
| Lego Masters | 3.3 |
| Bigheads | 2.6 |
| Raven | 2.6 |
| Cheap Cheap Cheap | 2.4 |
| Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes | 2.0 |
| Babushka | 2.0 |
| Price is Right, The | 1.5 |
| Blind Date | 1.3 |
| Your Face or Mine | 1.3 |
| Bromans | 1.1 |
| Fake News Show, The | 1.1 |
Hall of Shame 2017
| Babushka | 12.9 |
| Partners in Rhyme | 12.2 |
| Letterbox | 11.7 |
| Cheap Cheap Cheap | 8.9 |
| Cannonball | 7.7 |
| Don’t Say It Bring It | 4.5 |
| Let It Shine | 4.2 |
| Bigheads | 3.7 |
| Don’t Ask Me Ask Britain | 3.7 |
| Crystal Maze | 3.5 |
| Guess the Star | 3.2 |
| Bromans | 3.0 |
| Pitch Battle | 2.5 |
| Name Your Price | 1.7 |
| Boss, The | 1.5 |
| Alien Fun Capsule | 1.2 |
| Even Better Than The Real Thing | 1.2 |
| Game of Clones | 1.2 |
| Price is Right, The | 1.2 |
| 5 Gold Rings | 1.0 |
| Celebability | 1.0 |
| Weakest Link | 1.0 |
Golden Five
| Chase, The | 12.6 |
| Pointless | 11.7 |
| Only Connect | 11.5 |
| Taskmaster | 10.1 |
| Tenable | 5.9 |
| Impossible | 4.8 |
| Tipping Point | 3.6 |
| Richard Osman’s House of Games | 3.1 |
| Crystal Maze, The | 2.7 |
| Countdown | 2.5 |
| Robot Wars | 2.3 |
| Great British Bake Off, The | 2.1 |
| University Challenge | 1.9 |
| Armchair Detectives | 1.7 |
| Would I Lie To You | 1.7 |
| Cash Trapped | 1.5 |
| Strictly Come Dancing | 1.3 |
| Hunted | 1.0 |
| Raven | 1.0 |
| Apprentice, The | 1.0 |
| Code, The | 1.0 |
And the results of the live polls:
Was 2017 better or worse than 2016 for game shows?
Better – 43.8%
The same – 33.3%
Worse – 22.9%
Which channel/broadcaster has made the game shows you enjoy most?
BBC 1 – 28.6%
BBC 2 – 24.5%
ITV 1/2 – 16.3%
Dave – 16.3%
Channel 4 – 6.1%
Do you think the UK has more or less influence in the world game show market than 10 years ago?
More – 35.4%
Same – 33.3%
Less – 31.3%
If you could swap the UK’s entertainment format output with another country’s, who would it be?
NONE (UK is best) – 37%
USA/Canada – 17.4%
Japan – 13.0%
Netherlands – 6.5%
Germany, France, Aus/NZ, South Korea tied on 4.3%
It’s been a while since we’ve had a mega-hit game show. What do YOU think will be the ‘Next Big Thing’?
Selected comments:
– The Wall (4 comments)
– House of Games (2 comments)
– Live shows with interactivity
– Raven
– Some form of large-participation ‘ultra-quiz’ style show
– “Taskmaster” meets “Game of Thrones”
– !mpossible (once it moves to primetime)
– “Get out of debt” shows, sponsored by various finance companies.
– Judge Rinder’s Weakest Link
– Something involving VR
– High Stakes Hungry Hungry Hippos
– A new ITV celebrity format… The X Factor and I’m A Celeb are pretty tired
– Well, I think Naked Attraction is GOOD
– Road to Sortition OF COURSE
In your opinion, which decade has had the best UK game shows?
1990s – 50.8%
1980s – 22.0%
2000s – 18.6%
2010s – 6.8%
POLL OF POLLS #1 – which of the 12 past winners of the UKGS/BB “WORST Show” award is your ultimate WORST show?
Red or Black – 27.1%
The Colour of Money – 11.9%
Take on the Twisters – 10.2%
101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow – 8.5%
For the Rest of Your Life – 8.5%
The Mint – 6.8%
The Bank Job – 6.8%
POLL OF POLLS #2 – which of the 12 past winners of the UKGS/BB “BEST Show” award is your ultimate BEST show?
The Cube – 20.7%
The Million Pound Drop – 13.8%
Duel – 12.1%
Deal or No Deal – 12.1%
Secret Fortune – 6.9%
1000 Heartbeats – 6.9%
Two Tribes – 6.9%
Have you ever tried getting a game show idea of your own on TV, and – if so – how far did you get?
Not at all – 46.6%
Had some ideas but didn’t try them out – 19.0%
Have played things with family/friends/on social media – 15.5%
Had development meetings with TV companies – 10.3%
Had at least one idea commissioned – 6.9%
HIDDEN GEM AWARD: Outside of the main shows, which game shows of 2017 are the most underrated?
Raven – 51.2%
Lego Masters – 34.9%
The Fake News Show – 20.9%
Don’t Say It, Bring It – 11.6%
Celebability – 9.3%
Curious Creatures – 9.3%
The Big Spell – 7.0%
Me and My Dog (2) – 7.0%
On a (Completley) unrelated (Ish) American wrestler john cena (Yes, that one) will be hosting a us kiddyfied version of Itv’s Pilot Spotless.
“Titled Keep It Spotless, the show will be hosted by difficult-to-see wrestling man John Cena, and a press release says it’ll be about “kids competing in a variety of physical and paint-filled challenges” where the goal is to not touch any paint. At the end of each round, some kind of machine will scan each kid and scientifically determine how much paint got on them, with the winners being the ones who stayed the cleanest. Clearly, “PC culture” has finally gone way too far.
In addition to hosting Keep It Spotless (which will premiere later this year, Cena will also appear on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a bad guy named Baron Draxum, and he’ll host the 2018 Kids’ Choice Awards in March.”
Cant wait to see how they present Cena. will it be a voice like the uk pilot? Dunno, Dont really care…..
Any way, i was bored recently, and decided to whip up my first only connect grid (ANd when i mean by that i mean the bootleg “puzzgrid”) So check it out and rate it with the link below….
http://www.puzzgrid.com/grid/13287
If they have him on VO-only and don’t do a “You Can’t See Me” reference tables will be flipped.
Nice grid, just a shame I don’t no anything about entertainment.
I scored 3/10, but very nice grid.
Xander and Richard have finally been caught. And for them, the Chase is over.
Well, *someone* had to say this… 😉
I actually only gave The Chase one vote this year – I couldn’t resist giving Tipping Point a second vote, along with my usual two votes for Countdown.
But I’m delighted that Bradders is the new Game Show Prime Minister. It’s been the general view in my house for some years now that The Chase is the best quiz on telly – we like just about everything about it (though there’s a slight preference for Anne over the other Chasers), and we’re never put off by the bits that tend to annoy, like the minus offers and the Chasers deliberately getting questions wrong and/or pausing in the Final Chase for entertainment purposes.
And in all fairness, it was about time for a change, after five years of Xander and Richard winning and Victoria coming second. I wouldn’t be surprised, however, if some people argued that The Chase has *only* won because it hasn’t been hurt by repeats or a bizarre move to another time slot…
The title is clearly an analogy to the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party, and the Wikipedia page thereon is fascinating. It lists the hosts for many years; Pip Schofield hosted the first four, Ant and Dec and Lily Savage (!?) hosted in 1996, and then it gets really weird. Apparently in 1999 it was hosted by Steps and Bob Monkhouse, who would then have been the rockin’ age of 71, and in 2000 the hosts were Vernon Kay, Margherita Taylor, Emma Bunton, Ritchie Neville, all fine, but also Channel 4 Racing’s Brough Scott and Derek Thompson.
The 1999 video is on YouTube, minus the sound for copyright reasons, and a quick flick through it suggests Bob might have had a cameo at best. As for the claims of the hosts in 2000, I have three theories. The most likely is that it’s a charming piece of Wiki-vandalism, just plausible enough to fish in a sucker like me to tell the tale elsewhere. The second is that it was related to the SHPWP moving to Channel 4 next year. The third is that it was some kind of stunt.
So, with all that in mind: who would the Derek Thompson and Brough Scott of the UKGameshows.com/Bother’s Bar Poll Winners Party be?
There are some funny old edits on Wikipedia. For a while there was a whole page for a completely fictitious controller of BBC1 – nothing funny or anything, just a completely fictional biography. I think this falls in the same category as the person (presumably the same one) who keeps on adding football commentators to the running order of Live 8, and who once had the cast of The Brittas Empire performing at Live Earth. So, for the avoidance of doubt, Brough Scott and Bob Monkhouse did not present the Smash Hits Poll Winners’ Party.
That show never really managed to reflect the brilliance of Ver Hits on telly, alas. I remember when Simon Mayo presented it in 1992 there were loads of complaints in the magazine itself that he was a “sarcastic git”.
Still: got me going, though. As much as I cannot approve of vandalism, one point to someone with a pleasingly whimsical and finely-judged sense of mischief.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsKvaDUFWU4
It seems the Steps & Monkhouse colab are false.
Random but seeing Duel mentioned above made me go on its Wiki and spot that it’ll be 10 years since the first episode tomorrow.
So there you go.
I love Duel, especially for the fact that it wasn’t until halfway through the series someone evidently realised they’d need to change the format or they’d be paying out £60-70k an episode in bailout money on top of the accumulating jackpot.
As well as Tenable’s rise, one can’t help but notice the big falls for both GBBO and University Challenge…
GBBO was fifth in 2014 and 2015 and sixth last year; now it’s only 12th. UC, meanwhile, was equal fifth in the inaugural Golden Five in 2006, equal fourth in 2007 and then bubbling under for nine consecutive years – now it’s down in 13th, with less than 2% of the vote…
The popularity of new or newish shows like Tenable and !mpossible, and of the Crystal Maze and Robot Wars reboots, was almost certainly a factor in these falls. I suspect, too, that a significant number of voters did the same thing as Mel, Sue and Mary and chose not to follow GBBO from the Beeb to Channel 4.
As for UC, were voters more annoyed than impressed by Eric Monkman and co? It does feel like the producers are making the show with one eye on press and social media coverage; could this be counting against it? And could it also be that voters are growing tired of Paxo, who’s now fairly close to 70 and is fast approaching Bamber’s records of 25 years and nearly 1,000 editions?
It’ll be interesting to see how UC and Only Connect do in the Poll of 2018, now that Quizzy Mondays are back but with UC *after* OC…
We’ve always said that the poll represents nothing more that the cross-section of people bothered to send us votes. There are always massive discrepancies between what the game show fandom likes as the ‘new hotness’, and what the public at large prefers to watch. Kids shows, cooking, variety, reality, radio and ‘heritage quizzes’ are always under-represented in the poll. For instance, Masterchef – one of the most solid performers over the years – has never really been on our radar. I don’t think, in ratings terms, UC have anything to worry about just yet.
There are some indications that the Crystal maze will be returning back on a Fri 8PM slot starting the 16th Feb. Only clue is that Jamie & Jimmy wrap up in 3 weeks leaving the slot open for a program. With only 7 remaining I suspect it will be the case. I would of thought they learnt their mistake after the Xmas special did better on a Thursday than Friday. Of course this is all predictive at the moment.
I wouldn’t say UC has anything to worry about either – I can only see its future being thrown into doubt if Paxo retires or (God forbid) pops his clogs.
But this *is* the first time ever that it has failed to make the Golden Five or bubble under – it was the last remaining show to have done one or the other every year since the award began. And its share is down from 3% last year – which in turn was down from 4.3% in 2015.
Maybe it it simply because shows like Tenable, !mpossible and the CM and RW reboots have come along. I haven’t a problem with that at all, mind. 🙂
Significantly better rating for Release The Hounds episode 2, 390k (1.9%) exc +1, so should be towards 500k with +1. More than double episode 1, looks like many didn’t realise it was back. Promotion wasn’t great it has to be said.
Good news, that’s the sort of ballpark figure it had been getting previously.
521,000 with +1 for RTH so all the better.
Pleased, it was another good episode (albeit one where they had pretty much did two of the challenges previously). Much prefer teams whose baseline isn’t ‘hysterical’, it makes the reactions much more amusing.
Loooooool The Wave launched with 56,000 on Monday, less than the slot average of 68,000 and last night dropped to a mere 18k! A whole 0.01% share. What a disaster.
Still haven’t watched it! Did they only record five? It seems like quite a big production for that.
10 eps altogether though the other 5 don’t seem to be scheduled at the moment.
A shame, as yesterday’s episode was genuinely tense.
Jesus wept, look at this unbearable description of how Letterbox came about. http://tbivision.com/2018/01/08/show-of-the-week-letterbox/
“I realised competitive hangman could be very fun and accessible as a format.” Gosh.
Letterbox really is bloody rubbish, although I’m intrigued that it’s “in talks for a new slot”.
If it got Mondays after University Challenge I would laugh.
Mondays at 9pm? I’d laugh too… 😉
For a while, BBC Two were broadcasting game shows against the 1 o’clock news, like Two Tribes. For me, that slot has “Letterbox” written all over it.
You hope someone at the BBC saw the primetime Saturday BBC One almost zero ratings possibillity before it was too late, so shunted it to BBC Two. Close shave, there.
“Young says a fun, ’shout-at-the-screen-TV’ quality of the format means the show can attract linear, family audiences”
Pity most of the comments “shout-at-the-screen-tv” in my house were not the answers, but stuff like “Get on with it” “They know the word, where’s the bail out and answer option” and “This simply isn’t good enough”
Where else could this show go, other than weekday 6 or 6.30pm? There’s no other ‘stripped’ weekday 30 min slot on BBC Two.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p05v8s4z/last-commanders-be-the-first
Trailer for CBBC’s Last Commanders, looks like Knightmare set in the future.
Though I can’t help it would be better if the contestants were actually in the studio, I imagine the poor audio quality will get grating after a while.
Feels like Stoke Up The Boiler from Reactive meets The Crystal Maze.
https://youtu.be/RgVMEjsXnHA
Watched the stream live, nicely done guys.
Why is the chat disabled during the stream? Is it just easier for you to see twitter messages then a livechat?
Basically.
80-90% of people use Twitter to contact us, so if people were to do YouTube it’s unlikely we’d see it until it’s too late.