Miss the stream? Watch it now.
And now read the report if you haven’t done so already!
The statistics we will hide under a cut as as to not spoil.
This year I thought I’d list everything that polled 1% (rounded to a decimal place) and above. As people could give shows up to two of their five votes, the realistic maximum is 40%, but not everyone used all of their allocation and the percentages are only representative of all the votes that were cast.
Hall of FAME 2016
| Go 8 Bit | 11.7 |
| Tenable | 9.6 |
| The Code | 9.6 |
| Robot Wars | 9.1 |
| The Crystal Maze | 8.5 |
| Cash Trapped | 6.7 |
| The Question Jury | 4.7 |
| Insert Name Here | 4.1 |
| Debatable | 3.6 |
| Time Commanders | 3.4 |
| Go For It | 2.8 |
| Think Tank | 2.8 |
| Blankety Blank | 2.3 |
| For What It’s Worth | 2.3 |
| Pop Quiz | 1.8 |
| 500 Questions | 1.6 |
| The Getaway Car | 1.3 |
| Top Class | 1.3 |
| Bad Language | 1.0 |
| Bang On The Money | 1.0 |
| Spotless | 1.0 |
| The Next Great Magician | 1.0 |
Hall of SHAME 2016
| Alphabetical | 11.8 |
| 500 Questions | 10.1 |
| The Getaway Car | 9.0 |
| Can’t Touch This | 8.7 |
| Think Tank | 6.7 |
| Sell or Swap | 5.3 |
| Cash Trapped | 5.0 |
| Spotless | 5.0 |
| Bang On The Money | 3.9 |
| Drive | 3.4 |
| Lip Sync Battle UK | 2.5 |
| Tenable | 2.2 |
| The Question Jury | 2.0 |
| Debatable | 1.4 |
| Robot Wars | 1.4 |
| The Code | 1.4 |
| 12 Stars of Christmas | 1.1 |
| Airmaggedon | 1.1 |
| Blankety Blank | 1.1 |
| Eurovision You Decide | 1.1 |
| Go For It | 1.1 |
| Meet the Parents | 1.1 |
| We Love Sitcom | 1.1 |
Golden Five 2016
| Pointless | 14.0 |
| Only Connect | 13.3 |
| The Chase | 12.1 |
| Taskmaster | 10.6 |
| Tipping Point | 4.4 |
| The Great British Bake Off | 3.7 |
| Countdown | 3.2 |
| University Challenge | 3.0 |
| Who Dares Wins | 2.0 |
| 1000 Heartbeats | 1.7 |
| Robot Wars | 1.7 |
| Tenable | 1.7 |
| Strictly Come Dancing | 1.5 |
| Would I Lie to You | 1.5 |
| Deal Or No Deal | 1.2 |
| Fifteen to One | 1.2 |
| The Code | 1.2 |
| The Crystal Maze | 1.2 |
| Time Commanders | 1.2 |
| Cash Trapped | 1.0 |
| Catchphrase | 1.0 |
| Eggheads | 1.0 |
| Go 8 Bit | 1.0 |
| I’m a Celeb | 1.0 |
| QI | 1.0 |
| Rebound | 1.0 |
Here are the results of the live surveys conducted during the broadcast:
Was 2016 better or worse than 2015?
Better – 51.4%
The same – 27%
Worse – 21.6%
Which channel/broadcaster has made the game shows you enjoy the most?
BBC 1 – 27%
BBC 2 – 24.3%
ITV1/2 – 21.6%
Dave – 21.6%
How do you PRIMARILY watch game shows?
48.6% – Live broadcast
43.2% – Catch-up TV
What is your ideal length of game show, on the whole?
30 minutes – 45.9%
45 minutes – 43.2%
60 minutes – 10.8%
Now that The Crystal Maze is coming back (finally!), what show should they remake next?
3 – Duel, 3-2-1
2 – Gambit, The Mole, Play Your Cards Right, The Adventure Game
1 – 19 Keys, Blockbusters, Bob’s Full House, Fort Boyard, Incredible Games, Interceptor, Knightmare, Scavengers, Stars in their Eyes, Supermarket Sweep, Survivor, The Colour of Money, The Generation Game, The Krypton Factor, The Whole 19 Yards, Turnabout, Whittle, WWTBAM, Winning Lines
If you could only watch ONE game show, past or present, what would it be?
3 – The Mole, WWTBAM, Only Connect
2 – Pointless, The Chase, Interceptor, Blockbusters
1 – Catchphrase, Concentration, DoND, Every Second Counts, Fort Boyard, Games World, Gameshow Marathon, Lingo, Robot Wars, Round Britain Quiz, Taskmaster, The Debbie King Show, The Price is Right
What format from abroad would you like to see in the UK?
6 – The Genius
5 – The Mole
2 – Solitary
1 – Baking in the Dark, Cutthroat Kitchen, Dero/Tore, Hellavator, The Vault, Idiotest, Jeopardy!, Race to Escape, Riichi Mahjong, Rischiatutto, Schlag den Star, Sion a Sian, Slam, The Big Music Quiz, Wheel of Fortune
As we mentioned regarding The Code, here is Tom Flynn’s analysis of the maths behind it – Part 1, Part 2.
And finally a comment on The Code which amused me from an Only Connect writer which I couldn’t really use:
‘The Code’ on BBC1 was good, but not quite up to its early episodes on BBC2 with Marcus du Sautoy. And I really wasn’t sure about its move to BBC4 in September with those Australian murders … [Just need BBC3 to do a series with that name now, and that’s an ‘Only Connect’ question.]
Thank you all and see you next year!
Many thanks to everybody involved!
How does the number of votes received this year compare to the numbers in previous years?
It’s actually down slightly by my reckoning, although far fewer ballots which just say “Pointless” for every answer which accounts for most of the drop.
It’s not really something I have a problem with – there’s nothing stopping Bradley and The Chasers getting their vote out, for example, as long as they engage with the process properly.
Similarly I’ve no real issue with production people voting for their show if they engage properly as they tend to do. Now.
As an interested party, can I ask how many votes were cast in total?
There seems to be a lot of shows on the same total – like 1.1 or 1.4 – that leads me to believe this isn’t exactly representational of GB??
Between 350-500 votes in each category.
It’s not really representative of GB, it’s representative of genre fans and insiders.
It wasn’t mentioned at the time, but a game show that I would like to see brought back is Turnabout.
Hey, I went for Turnabout too – as the answer to the open question at the end of the first part of the survey during the live chat.
If David sends them to me I’ll add those results to the end of this.
These have now been added.
Cool, thanks. I think Duel is a great shout for that question, the potential return of Dusty Bin less so.
Spotted an error in the UKGameshows writeup: in the 10-5 for the Golden Fiver, you’ve got Go 8-Bit as joint tenth, when the broadcast and the stats say that should be Robot Wars.
Well spotted, especially after discussing it on the broadcast as well. Amended, thanks.
Xander and Richard first, VCM second, Bradders and the Chasers third. For the fifth year running. Remarkable.
I doubt I’m the only one who strongly expects this run to finally end next year, though. I’m probably not the only one, either, who fancies Taskmaster to go all the way and dethrone Messrs Armstrong and Osman…
Tipping Point only seems to be getting more popular, so I’m not surprised that it’s finally broken into the Golden Five after bubbling under for the last two years. (And I’m kind of delighted, too – it has become a real guilty pleasure of mine, and hence I couldn’t resist giving it a vote. I still gave The Chase two, though.)
GBBO falls back to bubbling under after being fifth last year and the year before. Taskmaster and Tipping Point’s seemingly ever-increasing popularity were obviously factors in this; could the manner of its move to Channel 4 have been a factor as well?
The ‘Down got two votes from me as always, and goes up two places. I couldn’t agree more that C4 have not treated it well in recent years; the latest bad thing they’ve done to it is move it from 3:10 to 2:10 – supposedly to make way for DOND On Tour – but then keep it at 2:10, while airing shitty property bollocks at 3…
(No disrespect to those who *do* like A Place in the Sun, Coast vs Country et cetera, mind.)
University Challenge must be the grandfather of bubbling-under shows now, as it has been doing so every year since 2008 (coming sixth five times, seventh three times and eighth once); Countdown has twice broken into the Golden Five in that time (2009 and 2013).
Finally, I *am* surprised that Who Dares Wins is bubbling under after several years in the wilderness. I’ve recently become a fan of this show again, after going off it for several years – but surely this is a coincidence, since I didn’t give it a vote?
The Crystal Maze was robbed.
BBC1 need to ensuee another series of !mpossible is on air towards the end of the year so we don’t forget it. Renamed Impossible no doubt.
I’m almost certain I will vote for !mpossible.
I’m convinced Who Dares Wins bubbling under has something to do with The National Lottery going under, since we were all talking about it shortly before the poll.
That’s very possible.
However, airing it in the slot between Final Score and Pointless Celebs will not help its chances of bubbling under again next year – especially if this is a permanent arrangement…
Well, I have said in a previous post I don’t think it’s a bad slot for it because the BBC often air other game shows around about then. I don’t think it’s a bad slot for it at all, and in fact I wouldn’t put it much later (very, very possibly 6:20?). I do know Brig disagrees with me.
Well, one thing I think we *can* all agree on is that airing it at 5:30 is a pretty big change after nearly a decade of airing it at around 8…
How about a separate radio category next year?
That’s not a bad idea. i’d be intrigued to find out how much take up they’d be for it.
Well I know I threw a vote at Round Britain Quiz, and have for a few years now, I can’t be the only person making liberal use of iPlayer Radio?
Given that I threw votes to shows I actually watch properly I *should* have thrown a vote to Fighting Talk which I podcast every week. But I didn’t.
Round Britain Quiz got more than one vote, without the spreadsheet in front of me.
The question is are there *enough* radio shows as a going concern to make it worthwhile?
Yeah, I was struggling for a fifth show to vote for this year and only went through televised options. I’ve given a vote to radio shows in the past and I’m not sure why it didn’t occur to me this time. I probably should’ve thought of The Unbelievable Truth and gone for that over Rebound.
My radio listening consists of the Fighting Talk, Chris Moyles and Graham Norton podcasts, Planet Money and This American Life podcasts (but they’re American) falling asleep to Up All Night on Five Live and that’s it – radio quizzes are a massive blind spot for me, and I only really got into Fighting Talk by accident about ten years ago. It’s surprisingly entertaining even if you’re not really into sport, I greatly enjoy its freewheeling nature.
I expect I’ll just find all the Radio 4 quizzes *aggravating*.
In the Hall of Shame, I gave one vote to Alphabetical – but two each to UK’s Best Part-Time Band and Polterguest.
I know Weaver gave a vote to Part-Time Band as well. Were there any more?
I’m pretty sure I did.
Yes it picked up a handful, it also picked up a handful of positive votes as well.
Were there any votes for that show with the semi-colon in it?
I really like Who Dares Wins and have voted for it every year since it started. Well apart from the year i called it The Rich List lol.