Tonight at 8:35pm before the England vs Norway match they’re showing a ten-minute preview of upcoming Saturday night reality show The Box with Gary Lineker, to give everyone a chance to write it off early presumably. Boxsen is in fact a Norwegian format so that is some fun synergy they’re probably not going to mention.

I’ve seen a bit of Boxsen and it’s… fine – celebs doing a variety of physical and mental tasks, the idea being they’ve got to figure out what needs doing and quickly get on with it, sometimes the situations they find themselves in are surprising (on top of a tower! In the middle of an ice hockey game!). Like every new Next Big Thing show I struggle to see it being the next big thing – it’s had some success in other Scandinavian countries but done rather less well in Benelux countries I understand. What NTA Best Host Gary Lineker is going to bring to proceedings I don’t know.

Edit: Also a repeat before France vs Spain coverage on Tuesday just before 7pm. About an hour before the game actually starts.

The Button liiiiiiivvveess.

Obviously we’re discussing this in the Discord, but as they’re uploading them to Youtube might as well have a chat here. The changes are good – Cyril Feraud brings energy as host (perhaps a bit too much, he seemed to make more noise outside of the cells than the team), pleasingly it feels like they’ve stopped being scared of their own format, it feels more like a gameshow again with rules and things that happen and good things and jeopardy rather than a sort of variety show where celebrities do things for two hours but not much of that is really consequential as it gets to the same end point anyway it seemed to become. I like the remixed theme music and graphical packages, although I think the games lack the musical identity they ought to have. The “Highlights” to earn bonus cash are fun, decent events to incorporate existing characters in meaningful ways, although I hope they have more than one game planned for the Thermal Baths and the Collective Adventure. Even the Council, usually a pretty boring bit, feels fun and meaningful. And it’s lean – most of the between game sketches (and the pre-cell rules!) have gone, and we don’t get a menu of adventures any more so they’re a surprise again, which is good!

First episode got the show’s best overnight in five years – much of that will be people tuning in just to see what it’s like, and I haven’t paid much attention to see if there are any real draws in future celeb bookings. Still though, you have to suggest pretty decent changes for a show in its 37th season.

Edit: Video swapped to international version with English subs.

From the Discord, extremely sad to hear about the passing of Chatsworth TV producer Malcolm Heyworth – what kid in the 80s and 90s wasn’t watching Treasure Hunt, The Crystal Maze, Interceptor et al? It was always this sort of thing that made me excited about the genre, and without which I wouldn’t still be writing about it 30+ years later.

Just a note that the new series of Korea’s Bloody Game/Game of Blood launches with English subs on KOCOWA+ from tomorrow, July 3rd. We wrote a bit about the last series we watched last Summer here. I hope we’re not getting three-hour episodes again, but who knows, hopefully it will remain art.

Since writing that the format (or at least the initial version of the format) seems to have launched fairly successfully on streaming services in various Scandinavian countries (and is on its third series I think in Norway – I’m not quite sure how or if indeed they bother keeping the secret house a secret by series three, or if they still get to see the elimination ballots). I’ve quite enjoyed seeing how each territory brings its own spin on it, Sweden’s is set in a luxury high rise apartment, for example, and “sorting coloured beads” seems to be the Scandinavian equivalent of folding pizza boxes for survival cash. I’m still not sure this version is much better than “Studio Lambert does a reality show for Channel 4” but there we are.