I’m not sure if I can be bothered to do a Board of Excitement this week, but pip, pip! Phil’s back! A new series of The Cube starts tonight at 7pm on ITV1. I have no idea how many new games are planned.
Have a chat about it here.
Incidentally, if you want £20 to go and see the German version being filmed, Lost in TV still have a few dates avaliable.
Does anyone know if they’ve got new games in the new series? They need some to keep the show fresh.
After seeing the trailer it looks like they have got some new games to mix with old ones.
It looks like they’ve some new ones, I wouldn’t say some of the older games are getting stale though, they’ve a wide enough back catalogue. Especially compared to Total Washout where they seem to just use the same 3 obstacles for a 10 week run. (on the subject of Washout, why on earth did they only use that mini-sweeper obstacle in Dizzy Dummies once? That was the best obstacle of the series!).
Same question can be said why in the latest series they didn’t bother using The Dreadmill and use it only once on the last series?
I’d bet the BBC are being ultra cautious with health and safety over there.
I think The Cube would be better if they asked general knowledge questions and combined it with the physical element.
For example, the contestant would first of all go in The Cube and compete for £100 in the physical game. Once they’ve won it, Schofield would ask them a question. Get it correct and they’d be able to compete for the next level (£500 I think). Get it wrong and they’d have to play for £100 yet again but another game this time.
The combination of physical games and general knowledge questions would be brilliant. Similar to The Whole 19 Yards but with the more stylish Cube set all flashy camerawork.
Don’t say you hate The Cube as well???!?!!??! 😯 🙄
‘Cause that’s a rubbish suggestion TBH.
And you ought to know the saying – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it… 😉
I don’t hate The Cube. ‘Hate’ is a strong word. I think it’s okay. It was lucky that it was the first show to use those fancy camera shots because without those camera shots, it would be boring as hell.
But you think a big change should be made to its format – which is absolutely fine as it is – plus you think it would be boring as hell without those camera shots.
That suggests you do, er, dislike it… 🙄 😆 😉
…I’m not sure I like this mega-negative Joe. I liked him more when he was all, “EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL!!!1!!111!!!1eleven”
It seems like everything that isn’t Endemol these days is either boring, plodding, or derivative of an Endemol show, according to Joe.
I actually agree with the general concept that The Cube would be dull (if not ‘extremely frustrating’) without the ‘flashy camera angles’, but I suspect I strongly disagree with the reasoning.
The Cube, fundamentally, needs the fancy camera angles (by which I presume Joe is including the rampant use of ramping and bullet time?) because around half the games it has would be /very/ difficult to see what’s going on in them, particularly the all important ‘why did he lose/why did he win’ aspect, in real time with conventional camera angles. (Also it allows the producers to fast forward through 6 fails in a row without it feeling like an artificial direction device)
Adding a quiz element… Not in the form of questions between the challenges, that would be poor (basically amounting to having to earn the right to risk your winnings) but there’s already a precedent for mental games within the Cube; Off the top of my head, two counting based ones and one memory based one. As such it wouldn’t be out of place to add more of that variety. Things along the lines of ‘count how many dots are inside the opaque square based on how many enter and leave it’ would very much be in keeping with the already established precident, and that specific example is probably in line with the ‘looks easy but isn’t’ nature of many of the challenges.
But wait, wouldn’t using questions to impact the outcome of the game be infringing on the format of the incredibly popular Endemol format 101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow? I smell entrapment!
But the point is it’s Physical Millionaire. That is the point of it.
And you’re right it could be brilliant, it was called The Krypton Factor and originally ran for about twenty years.
you know what is bizarre? i actually quite like endemol.
i hate them so much more when joe does weird things like this.
question joe: imagine the cube was an endemol show? considering 101wtlag is an international mega-super-hit, what would the cube be?
Is Pendulum a new game? I can’t remember this game from the episodes I’ve seen previously.
Played in series 1 with a target box, and played in series 2 with the target ball.
I’m not sure I like the Star Wars music introducing the games.
It’s the sort of thing I like now, but I’m not sure whether I still will at the end of the series.
I *was* glad to hear the first part of the theme (you know, bum bum, bum bum, bum bum, that sort of stuff before the Star Wars portion) more often, since it was my favorite bit of the music, but it really is out of place, and was better with just the wooshy effect.
The new ‘new game’ cue sounds a little bit like something out of Assassin’s Creed 2!
Personally, I love any effort they go to keep the show fresh between series. Many other programmes (ahem) would do well to take a leaf. No wonder they’re not releasing the soundtrack, it almost certainly wouldn’t fit on a 2 CD set.
It’s just the big win cue cut short though, surely?
Incidentally other than Assassin’s Creed what IS Jesper Kyd up to these days?
I don’t mind it but I think they should save it for the fifth game (£50,000) onwards as the money gets serious. So have the original theme for the first four games then use the Star Wars-esque theme when tit jumps to £50,000.
They play Barrier too much.
Wow, Composure is Contact on crack.
This is a real stinker of a game.
If she manages the trial run here, she’s got a horrible decision because this game is so easy to go wrong at.
And that’s exactly what she’s done. Oh dear.
Well done her!
Reversal is such a rubbish game, nobody is going to risk £50k for it, and it is difficult go learn from your mistakes.
No way I’m risking £50k on a game where I can’t see what I am doing.
Vault is quite a hard game also because the set up forces you to push the ball a certain way.
Well there we go. Would like to see The Cube do well but would be surprised to see it break 5m. 4.5m maybe.
It’ll rate at 3.5 million.
And if it is that – or, dare I say it, even less – you’ll probably be jumping up and down in delight… 😉 😉 😉
4.2m for The Cube. Solid if unspectacular, and better than Joe expected
Just to be clear The Cube got 3.96m and 252k on ITV1 +1.
Countryfile beat it by 2.3m head to head !!!!
Like All Star Family Fortunes, The Cube being scheduled near the X factor previously has artifically boosted the show.
4.2m, so I am better than so-called media professional Endemol Joe ONCE AGAIN. I don’t know how I do it, I really don’t.
He has
done a thing and won some points got it wrong and won a scone.But that’s what happens when you risk it for a biscuit! Notwithstanding that I’d rather have a scone than a biscuit.
He has
done a thing and won some pointsgot it wrong and won a scone.But that’s what happens when you risk it for a biscuit! Notwithstanding that I’d rather have a scone than a biscuit.
I have no idea why “got it wrong and won a scone” made me giggle quite as much as it did, but thank you for coining that phrase. I genuinely hope it crops up in an actual show sometime.
You’re the creative, you have my permission to use it.
And if anyone reading missed its relevancy, I’ve been exploring format ideas on Twitter over the last few days. I MAY NOT BE DONE YET.
Thanks go to Brig. It’s far too catchy for me to have come up with.
Brig, I try telling some of your jokes at work. I really liked the “Dyson with Death” one, but it attracted only groans and abuse among my colleagues.
I like Dyson With Death, but I don’t think it’s one of mine!
Just to be clear The Cube got 3.96m and 252k on ITV1 +1.
Countryfile beat it by 2.3m head to head !!!!
Like All Star Family Fortunes, The Cube being scheduled near the X factor previously has artifically boosted the show
Proof please.
No it is right, I said all along it would suffer when standing on its own two feet (you could tell that last series when it didn’t have The X Factor to lead into with the celeb specials), but this doesn’t change the fact I am UNDISPUTED CHAMPION… OF THE WORLD! Can’t wait to see how word of mouth success Million Dollar Drop does today. Amazing.
To be clearer, The Cube got:
3,882,700 on ITV1
308,300 on ITV1 HD
261,900 on ITV1 +1
Which totals 4,452,900.
Countryfile got 6,113,400 including HD.
That makes a difference of 1,660,500, assuming all my maths is correct.
Source: I get the ratings sent to me.
Then I was basically bang on! Absolutely brilliant, thanks Paul.
Joe is probably still going to be very happy that The Cube was fairly comprehensively beaten by John Craven and Julia Bradbury, though… 🙁 🙄 😆 😉
Did that ITV1 figure include STV as the Scots had The Cube airing an hour later at 8pm?
That’s WRONG! It had 3.9 million INCLUDING HD. I was closest to that prediction rather than Brig’s 4.5m prediction.
Those ratings are wrong, you need to make sure the ratings sent to you are correct in the future. Broadcast Magazine and Digital Spy websites have CONFIRMED that The Cube got 3.96m on ITV1 and ITV1 HD. It had a further 262,000 on ITV1+1.
My prediction was 3.5m, Brig’s prediction was 4.5m. 3.96m is closer to 3.5m than 4.5m so I was more correct. 🙂
No, I think we’ll take the ratings of someone who works in television properly over Digital Spy, and as you’re neglecting +1 I think it’s perfectly clear I remain CHAMPION OF THE WORLD over some apparent media professional.
I’m still the Champion, in my eyes. 😉
In all seriousness, The Cube did better than I expected and rated better than what AntanDec got the previous night. So not bad at all but if they want more viewers, they should trial my idea of having general knowledge questions.
I’ll say it again Joe – your suggestion is rubbish. 😉 😉
If it ain’t broke… 😉 😉
Courtesy of Richard Bacon, a picture of the set of Sing If You Can: http://t.co/MV886zW
But where does the swimming pool go?
Apropos of absolutely nothing, this mental image came to my mind just now. I have no idea why it never happened before, considering how often that image has popped up on the front page.
http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac27/artbegotti/schofieldtheamericaneagle.jpg
As long as somebody (one of the Usual Suspects, perhaps) uploads “The Cube” onto an easily available website, where it may be viewed by fans throughout the world, I’m happy and Chuckles is happy. We may be a little bit behind the folks that can see it live, but there you are.
Lost in TV website suggests they’re filming another series of The Cube later this year.
Isn’t the whole point of having The Cube on Sunday’s in the spring is to boost ITV’s slot average at 7pm? I seem to recall they were running shows with Ray Mears in April last year which was struggling to reach 2.5 million.
Yep, across April and May last year in that slot documentaries were consistently below 3m, so if The Cube holds steady at last night’s levels then it’ll be a good improvement. Yes, it would have done better on Saturdays leading in to Britain’s Got Talent, but frankly Sing If You Can is going to need all the help it can get and that rating for The Cube is still decent enough.
This is as maybe, but it is important to remember that we are told The Cube is quite a bit more expensive to make than other shows, and therefore I would imagine needs to get numbers to justify it.
It is interesting that when Ant and Dec pull these numbers on a Saturday, everyone is quick to suggest it’s because the programme is shit, yet when The Cube pulls the same numbers everyone goes “ah, er, oh.”
Ant & Dec are the most expensive presenters on television. Their presenting alone costs almost £200,000 per hour and then there’s the programme budget on top of that too. ITV expect them to get big ratings but they haven’t been with Push The Button. 4m for AntandDec is disasterous, ITV don’t pay them £200k per hour to get 4m ratings.
The Cube is not expensive. The first series cost in the region of £300,000-400,000 but most of that was due to setting up the Cube set and getting the high quality cameras required. Since series 2 and 3, the cost per episode is down to £200,000-300,000 which is standard for an ITV primetime game show. So Push The Button and The Cube have different expectations from ITV.
I should also make you aware that Million Pound Drop only costs in the region of £100,000-150,000 per episode and that is the reason why the show has sold so well worldwide in comparison to The Cube. 😉
I’m quite curious to know how much of that is Marc Sylvan’s royalty cheque.
French production company Effervescence are trying to sell France 3’s teatime quiz Slam to the UK, clearly not happy with the lack of international take-up for Tout le monde veut prendre sa place).
But could this be the least-confidently presented pilot EVER? Ray Cokes is terrible!
Cheers Tom, I’m going to put this on the front page and at the weekend I’ll do a feature on it, as I should have a copy somewhere.
And having the World’s Tallest Man as a contestant is strangely distracting.
Or are they the World’s Shortest Women?
If the rants of “Endemol Joe” prove anything, they show a commendable loyalty.
Problem is that Endemol has had some bad luck of late. But then, bad luck can happen to anybody, and to any company.
Not all is hopeless for Endemol, however. The “(Total) Wipeout” franchise continues to flourish, having now proven that Americans will watch it at any time of the year, and not just in the summertime. “101 Ways. . .” is about to hit the USA market, and we’ll see how America takes to it–and how we also tweak it.
If somebody thinks that only Endemol (or any other particular company) can produce good game shows, and if that person condemns all non-Endemol programs to outer darkness, then one might be excused for thinking that loyalty has gone too far.
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really? barrier again?
its not even the iconic cube game, which surely should cylinder?
I quite liked Stack or whatever it was called. But yes, Barrier again?
Oh crap, we’re commenting on it here.
Aaaanyway, I reckon it wouldn’t be as popular as it was if a certain person didn’t take his trousers off.
Also I know it’s only episode two, but I really want to see a new bastard-hard game like Side-track again. Because.
Well this guy is clearly amazing.
I reckon this guy REALLY wants to win the £250k, but his family obviously aren’t going to let him.
This is a do-able game for £100k with what he has left to use.
Exactly. It’s tempting. They know his family REALLY don’t want him to go on. So they’re tempting him with a game they think he’s good at.
A nation slumps.
Well, here’s Cylinder for £100k…
GOD DAMN IT when are people going to actually risk it
When they stop allowing them to bring friends and family with them?
WHAT??!??!?! 😯 😯 😯
Six lives and his Simplify left, and he walks away?!??!? 😯
Expect many of the moaners on Digital Spy and Twitter to call him a coward, or a chicken, or whatever… 🙄 🙄
Last series there was a guy in this exact position, but with SEVEN lives and the game Digit.
I haven’t watched every episode – so I presume this guy was also pressured into walking by whoever he’d brought along?
I don’t remember much, but I think he was actually encouraged to go on by some of them.
Though Digit was a Rock hard game especially for 100k with all the nerves that brings – even the cube had to point out that there was no time limit to at least try and be tempting.
Cylinder on the other hand… Well I suspect its a higher target than it looks but still – If people turn that down then will we ever see a 250k winner.
Well, the aforementioned moaners aren’t being fair over Aperture…
Oh my God they did a trailer with a carryover game that didn’t spoil!
In fact, the tweeters are being ruthlessly mean to Claire for no real reason:
“The woman just on The Cube was really doing my head in.”
“Lolling at The Cube. She’s a retard.”
“The dumbest person ever on the #cube lol x”
“This girl on The Cube is annoyingly rubbish.”
“i swear that girl on the cube is dumb :L”
Has everyone just instantly forgotten Zoe in the ‘dumb stakes’?
If there’s one criticism I have of The Cube, there isn’t the right balance of risk/reward. If anything, you should have more attempts at the harder games.
Would having 7 or 8 lives today instead of 6 lives had made any difference to him though?
So would you suggest giving “bonus lives” after certain points? Maybe start them off with only 5 lives, but give two bonus lives after both games 3 and 5?
Sorry for the late reply. Essentially, yes I think this is the way to go. I think I’d start the game off on, say, 7 lives, then give 1, 2 and 3 lives back after game 2, 4 and 6. Something like that, so that even if a play scrapes through game 6 there is something still to at least think about.
A simpler idea would be to give one life back for each game completed.
Episode two ratings: 3.5m/3.7m (inc. +1) and a 17.1% share according to post on DS.
Not brilliant, I would have suggested, especially as Lewis afterwards got about what it got last week.
Edit: I’ll correct myself before anyone else does, Lewis is down almost three-quaters of a million on last week ACTually.
I think the golf on BBC2 knocked everyone down a bit. I understand what ITV is doing though (they want to give Sing If You Can the chance for a good debut with BGT).
Do you think it also is there was too little time between seasons for The Cube? It was only 4 months- maybe if they had held off until summer?
Also the hot weather, but I don’t think the length of time between series is a problem, it’s a solid show – if people want to watch The Cube then they’ll watch The Cube, it’s the sort of show that could probably run all year round if it wanted.
That is a very poor rating for The Cube. Beat The Star got axed even though it was getting better ratings in that slot, All Star Mr & Mrs got axed even though that was also getting better ratings. The Cube might be axed if those poor ratings don’t improve.
As I suggested a couple of weeks ago, the show is now tiresome. It’s the same old games again and again, the camerawork is boring once you’ve seen a few episodes, there is too much ‘fake tension’ built up through unnecessary music. Viewers just don’t like the show anymore, as shown by the plummeting ratings.
I’m slightly baffled that they’ve got a game pool of 60-80 games and they keep seeming to use the same ones over and over.
Me too. How many games do they fit into an episode? About 10, I reckon. They could show each game just once per series. Instead they’re showing the same game maybe 5 times in a series which is too much.
“there is too much ‘fake tension’ built up through unnecessary music”.
The two minute music package your good friends use at Million Pound Drop more to your taste, then?
You’re an idiot.
So here we go again with “dumb” Claire… 🙄
She certainly wasn’t dumb in using up her Trial Run before taking £20k with one life left.
“You start it, you stop it.”
Hmmm… wonder if Pip was watching a certain show with Chris Tarrant and a whole load of colours in it? 😉
Loved the Hit Rate part. The fact that the guy’s basically put his balls down on the line and gone for it, and everyone’s behind him. That just felt awesome.
Also the new music is awesome.
Amazing episode tonight. I know the game was played before with a bigger target time though IIRC.
Yes I think I’ve seen it with .75 for less cash.
Yep – confirmed on Wiki.
Yeah, the original player was Martin in Series 2, the one who in the next game had Side-track. And we all know what happened there.
Most heart-wrenching game to date.
I’d say it was tied with Martin’s game. Two similar circumstances with very different final outcomes.
Martin’s was pretty intense. Luke on the other hand already thought he’d lost it before the result was even declared, a difficult piece of drama to come by when not too many of the games at that level rely on “Cube, did he get it?”s.
Good point. On the slow-mo I could have sworn that he didn’t hit the last pad.
such a good episode tonight, everyone was holding their breath. strange how two almost identical situations evoked different reactions for me, i wanted the girl to lose it, but i was really willing the bloke on, shows the empathy the show can draw.
3.5m for episode three last night, apparently. Surely it deserved better than *that*?
I’ve always felt that the Cube gets 1m less than the viewers it deserves, but then again telly just goes to die during the Summer months. I think due to the bad Winter we had, lots of people have been taking advantage of the nice start to the Spring.
That’s not how ratings work. People wouldn’t have known to tune in to last night’s “amazing episode” because they’d only have found out it was so good once they’d seen it. The ratings will rise next week following good word of mouth for yesterday’s episode.
I don’t think it’s that simple, there have been plenty of heart stopping moments throughout the series but the numbers continue to go down. It’s a sad sad situation.
Numbers were up from last week’s nadir of 3.4m.
The problem with the show is that it’s not mass audience friendly. It doesn’t appeal to the core ITV demographic of elderly women. Something like Family Fortunes, Sing if You Can or Total Wipeout is much more accessible and watchable for a mainstream audience, even if they’re not “critic favorites”.
“core ITV demographic of elderly women”
That’s honestly the first time I have seen this phrase, ever.
On a Sunday evening, ITV’s core audience are elderly females. That’s a FACT based on extensive data. The Cube is more of a “Saturday night” TV show, but even then, it doesn’t appeal to the older ITV faithful.
I’m not sure that’s quite true, certainly Family Fortunes did similarly badly without a big show to lead into last year.
Presumably The Cube does reasonable demos? I can’t imagine ITV sells a lot of advertising on the basis of old women.
Also, surely old women love Philip Schofield?
Family Fortunes was an hour earlier and against Strictly though. Bear in mind that it got about 5m on Christmas Day against EastEnders in the same slot as Mr and Mrs was below 3m in on Xmas Day 2009, so it must be doing something right. The Cube’s demos are pretty good but I do see what Joe is saying about it not appealing to a mass audience in the way something like Family Fortunes does. It’d be better on Saturdays too.
None of this matters too much though as ITV are clearly satisfied with it as they’ve recommissioned it.
You seem to know your stuff Score, The Cube originally started out on Saturdays. Do you know how well it did?
Wow, I’ve just had a look, they used to show it *after* The X Factor! Seems inconceivable now.
https://www.bothersbar.co.uk/cellar/august2009.htm
The first 4 episodes in the 7 part series aired after The X Factor at about 8:30pm and settled just below 5m (5.6-4.8-5.1-4.8 were the exact ratings). The final 3 moved to 7pm before The X Factor and held up pretty well (4.7-4.6-4.4) considering it was against Strictly. I suspect it’d be getting similar numbers in the mid-4s before BGT on Saturdays (could be an idea after SIYC’s numbers last night). I won’t be surprised if it’s below 3m tonight in the earlier slot, what with it being a Bank Holiday and the sun shining. A shame, but they’ve already ordered another run so it won’t matter too much.
Ta.
But what I don’t quite understand is it was getting over 6m last year with The X Factor lead-in on Sundays yet everyone says it should be on Saturday. I can’t help but feel the numbers justify the logic of the decision.
It’s just been announced on Twitter it’s coming back for a fourth series, so well done everyone.
Glad to hear it. Whatever the viewing figures might be, it’s a great show.
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Replying to Brig about The Cube (it won’t let me reply under your post for some reason): Just looked at the figures, and The Cube averaged 5.6m and a 22.4% share of the audience for its 10 week run on Sundays last Autumn. Last week in the same slot it averaged 3.6m and an 18% share. Part of the 2m drop will be due to less people watching TV due to the better weather but it will have been inflated last Autumn by leading in to The X Factor. To work out how much of an affect this had, the share suggests that just under 25m people were watching TV last Autumn in The Cube’s slot on average over the 10 weeks. Last week’s episode had an 18% share so had it got 18% last Autumn the raw figure would have been approximately 4.5m. So basically The X Factor was adding about a million to it.
If this series would be on Saturdays it would be leading into BGT, which whilst not as big as The X Factor would still probably add about 0.6-0.7m to The Cube (possibly more as it was against Strictly last Autumn which will have dented it). So airing on Saturdays would indeed help it. Another way of looking at it is that there were 18.1m people watching TV in the 7pm hour yesterday. So an 18% share would give it around 3.3m (ie. what SIYC got). However, with BGT boosting it, it would probably clear 4m (a 22% share would give it 4m, but it could be higher as Strictly will have dented last Autumn’s share – before SCD came along The Cube was averaging 24% which last night would have got it 4.3m). So to cut a long explanation short, it would do better on Saturdays alongside programmes that appeal to a similar audience (I doubt there’s much of a crossover between The Cube and Lewis).
Thank you.
Incidentally, there’s an eight nest limit on replies, otherwise the box would eventually get so small as to be pointless so the options are to just reply to the last replyable one where it will get added underneath the last one, or indeed to start a new comment.
Thanks for clearing that up.
Incidentally it slipped to 3.0m (19%) last night. That’ll be the 6:30pm start harming it.
Great game going on with Wendy…
Four lives lost on the first game, then coasting through the next three.
Construction is one of those games that looks a lot easier than it actually is – and she was right to use her Simplify.
Now it’s Drop Shot for £100k – think she should use her Trial Run here…
Wow, Drop Shot is a lot harder than I thought.
Here’s an old favourite…
Wow – now you can understand why Les walked at £50k two weeks ago…
Oh dear, losing 9 lives on one game. That’s very bad! It wasn’t too tough a game either.
Eight, actually. 😉
I THINK that’s the third person to lose eight lives on a game?
Zoe with Time-Split, Alex with Descent, and now him.
Don’t they have rollover contestants on The Cube? I can’t remember. If they don’t, it’s obvious if a player is going to lose the game or take the money if there’s not much time left.
They do have rollover contestants – £20k Claire last week was one… 😉
They do carryover shows now and again. Their tactic is to have three contestants over two shows. So the second contestant is shown at the end of the first show and carried over to the second.
And they seemed to have stopped the spoilerific previews when they do have carryovers.