Right I’m cold let’s get this over with:
- Drop Zone – Not a hit, and probably wouldn’t have been a hit if it was on at a proper time but despite that I’ve quite enjoyed it and reckon there is something to work with here. An exciting double bill this afternoon, with the semi-final and final. (2:25pm, Sunday, BBC1)
- Sports Personality of the Year 2010 – Only really pointed out because it’s something we used to watch and people might be interested in. I will probably be watching the 100 Greatest Toys on Channel 4 though. (7pm, Sunday, BBC1)
- The Apprentice – It’s the grand final! (9pm, Sunday, BBC1)
- Only Connect – Third place playoff featuring the Wrights vs The Alesmen. (8:30pm, Monday, BBC1)
- The Million Dollar Money Drop – A format I’ve been correctly cool about travels to the US where it will probably do OK on its first outing despite being two hours long and Foxified then fail to hold its audience as the week progresses. I look forward to the positive spin on the numbers. (Monday-Thursday, Fox)
- Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – Live! With two couples (Chris Evans and James Martin, Carol Vorderman and Gok Wan), will be interested to see what happens if they don’t finish the second game in time. This time round a lucky home viewer can win half the value of the the prizes won for charity. Will they do LIVE ask the nationwide audience? (9pm, Thursday, ITV)
- Only Connect – I can’t find much to get excited about on Christmas Day, so why not watch the Only Connect marathon on BBC4? I say marathon, but it’s really only the two semi-finals back to back. (8pm, Christmas Day, BBC4)
- All-Star Family Fortunes – Although I suppose there’s this if you’re that way inclined, teams from This Morning take on Emmerdale in an hour’s special. How are they going to drag it out to an hour? (8pm, Christmas Day, ITV1)
One of the things that intensely grates about Drop Zone is the lack of any budget for the host’s clothing. With his penchant for sweaty singlets, I wouldn’t hire him to clean my loo never mind present a game show.
Oh, and the lack of budget for any sort of prize or trophy, natch.
They should have won a helicopter.
I kind of like the ‘no prizes’ thing. It’s cheap, but it’s kinda like Ultra Quiz. You don’t do it for the prize.
Mmm, yes. I’ve only watched the last two in the series, but I thought they were pretty good, likely to creep into the top five of a not-particularly-inspiring year at the last minute. It had rather more of a Now Get Out Of That! feel to it than The Amazing Race, but is none the worse for it.
Yes, it’s almost certainly getting a vote or two from me. I’m struggling to think of new shows I’ve really enjoyed this year, although no doubt a quick gander through the list will throw up some “hmm, yes” moments.
Edit: In fact I have just done exactly that.
3.8 million for The Cube last night- considering it was up against the Strictly final for the entire show, that’s not too bad…
Shockingly 5.5m for a Total Wipeout repeat at 5.30pm too.
And aren’t Anne Widdecomme and David Haye also on Millionaire – sure I saw an ad with that on last night.
iTV.com says no, although maybe they’re the back-up couple – it’s a 75 minute slot.
itv.com/millionaire says yes. Actually there is also a fourth couple.
Chris Evans & James Martin
Gok Wan & Carol Vorderman
Ann Widdecombe & David Haye
Mikey North (Gary Windass) & Debbie Rush (Anna Windass)
Getting Ann Widdecombe is a coup for the show, given her popularity but she has already done the show before with Piers Morgan, who have also done the show twice.
I suspect they thought having two couples with the Big Bad Clock would not get them through 75 minutes, so they’re playing safe by adding two extra couples. I will be impressed if they do get through all four couples, especially if they head into the third tier.
Later than usual, but anyway…
The second round on Uni Chal concludes with Newnham Cambridge v Bristol.
In all fairness, Newnham were probably the weakest of the sixteen to make it to this stage. When beating Southampton on 9 August, they managed only 135 points (to the opposition’s 115), scraping together just 7/29 bonuses along the way. They also got an enormously lucky break on a starter at the end, with Lucy Andrews first going down the wrong track and then taking an extremely long time to get on the right one.
Is it really nearly six months since we last saw Bristol?! 😯 Their narrow victory over St Andrews, 190-185, came in the series opener all the way back on 5 July. There was no controversy in this match, and the Avonsiders’ bonus conversion rate was a far better 16/33.
There have been quite a few twists and turns so far this series, with the result that quite a few of my predictions have turned out to be wrong. Could it be the same with this one: Bristol will win at least fairly comfortably? 😈
Incidentally:
http://www.tomscott.com/vowels/
…is brilliant, even if the questions do lurch into the obscure very often (but what’s new?) But how can you not love a program that gives ANUS LANGUAGE as my first question today?
Also, tonight’s show is a bit hard. Sorry about that.
Being the third-place play-off, I’m looking forward to seeing all the questions that you thought you both couldn’t use in a truly competitive match, whether due to not being able to fit them in or due to them not being quite fair, and couldn’t not use because they were so OC in their way.
Here’s a thought. What are the chances this Thursday’s live edition of Millionaire will be postponed due to the snow?
Since Elstree is not in Central London and previous history shows they had to cancel some recordings due to the snow levels. It might be possible they will postpone Thursday’s show on the basis we have got another layer of snow at the moment with more planned for Thursday.
Strictly went ahead on Saturday, and the white stuff was falling pretty fast during the afternoon in Central London.
The Pointless recordings back in January took place in quite dreadful conditions outside as well (I had tickets for two separate recordings and had to throw them back at the BBC as I feared I’d get trapped somewhere between home and Television Centre – and there’s a gap of around 115 miles between the two)
But I remember the last series of Dancing On Ice also had some problems with audiences turning up late due to the weather. I’m sure Schofe made some remark about it in the intro – but they could get away with it, as most of the audience was done the one side where the camera run is.
I’m sure they’ll be fine.
It’s been 7 years late, but it’s only now that I’ve realised that the Your Face Or Mine and Distraction theme tunes have the same chord progression. Hmm.