7pm and 9:15pm Saturday and variously across the week, ITV1
Well here we are then, months of speculation come to a head this week as Syco’s Red or Black? hits our screens potentially making seven millionaires.
And basically I have got no clue as to a) whether it will be any good or not or b) if it will be successful. I think if the games are quite You Bet-esque then it’sd in with a shout, and that’s initially what it sounded like, but since then we’ve seen pictures of people hoping to match a big jack in the box and picking cars and I’m not sure I see where the entertainment value in that lies.
Similarly will the excitement wear off after the first million, or will people tune in to that spin every night? Time will tell, use the comments thread for your thoughts.
For gameshows’ sake: hope it does well.
So that Simon Cowell stops going around thinking all of his ideas are automatically excellent because they’re his: hope it does atrociously.
Prediction: 7.5m to start, falling to 4-4.5m by the end.
(Viewers, not pounds.)
Apparently the show requires 9m + to make its money back
Fact wise. The first person to choose red or black correctly will become the latest civillian to win £1 million on a television show since the PokerFace final in February 2007. That’s four and an half years.
Ok plenty of bombast to start, gasps as a giant roulette-style wheel is revealed in the floor below A&D, then suddenly we’re off to Wembley… sorry, the ‘Red or Black Arena’… for an over-long thing with motorcyclists trying to get through a narrow gap. Finding it hard to care, so far… we didn’t even get a proper introduction to the stunt bikers…
I’m not sure there’s an audience with Ant & Dec in the ‘live’ segments: lots of flashing lights, applause effects, but no crowd?
Ah, that shot demonstrates there is a live audience ‘live’, as it were.
Applause Store were doing the tickets.
Well, that first bet went fast. You’d think they’d make a bit more deal out of limbo on motorbikes. And it seemed to me like the online game spoiled the result a teeny bit early, offering me the swap before the game had technically ended.
Well, so far, so pretty good, but I have a strong suspicion that if I watch in future days it won’t be live. This might prove to be a great 20-minute show stretched out to almost four times its length.
294 contestants left? I was kind of counting on a fairly strict powers-of-two reduction.
I expect not all 1000 people showed up to the Wembley stage.
Enjoying it so far. Shades of MPD with the playalong results.
Ultra Quiz revival, please!
Wasn’t actually expecting every single game to be one of pure chance, thought there might be an element of skill, but no. It IS Derren Brown’s ‘The System’ all over, isn’t it?
Mmmmng, it’s not terrible but it seems to have the over-production of Don’t Scare the Hare with the money-for-no-effort of The Big Ticket.
The cause-and-effect are clear and obvious some of the time and not there the rest of the time. I can see that the black biker beat the red biker, and that was satisfying. I can’t see why it was a red detonator or a black detonator that hoisted the Hoff, and I can’t see why there was a red jack or a black jack in the box.
Already I am regretting my decision to watch this live and Doctor Who on demand; the other way around would have worked better.
I’m quite enjoying it. I’m a sucker for journeys, really.
It’s not a journey! Ant & Dec said at the start it’s an adventure.
It is! Also, I bloody loved The System.
It appears to be straight half elimination for the final 3 rounds before the spin
I think it’s been a straight half and half thing since round three after the fortune cookies. I suspected this would be the case when I originally saw the numbers, the fortune cookie round is probably the dodgiest with regards to the concept (it’s not 50/50) but it does the job to get the numbers right.
I missed the start. Do we know whether it’s one spin? What if they had to get three spins correct?
I’m pretty sure it’s one spin. That’s the payoff they’ve been going on about for months.
Incidentally, if you hadn’t noticed, Angel was a Big Brother housemate a few years ago.
And already the Wikipedia entry has been edited accordingly!
Let’s link to her pro boxing record one more time. Marvellous.
It feels slightly off forcing the contestants to take red or black randomly, rather than always letting them actually choose.
Oh hang on this is a Simon Cowell Show
Cue the sob stories!
The worst thing about these is just how much it slows down the pace.
Yup. Can’t find a man? Check. Parent died leaving you in charge? Check. New mum? Check.
Meeting the final eight is taking much, much too long.
Hmm. I wonder if the whole first show will be to do with picking the winning player and the whole second show will just be to do with the spin?
I guess that even the losing contestants will have had quite a good time – the little intro videos are quite fun.
Over/under on the number of music acts who happen to make money for Cowell to be featured this week, please?
All seven.
Anyway, was enjoying it, now it’s getting a bit slow.
I dunno, I thought the inherent entertainment value of the Leona Lewis and arrows segments was reasonably high. Can’t help wanting to live in the parallel universe where the competitors from Epic Win, doing some slightly more random version of their stunts, appeared on this show and the celebs here appeared on Epic Win instead, mind you.
Anyone here not rooting for Angel?
Catching arrows not as exciting as it sounded.
I hope Angel wins – that’ll send the conspiracy theorists into overdrive!
Everyone make sure you watch Million Pound Drop at 9.15pm, much better than Red or Shite,.
Apologies for the swearing. But how dire was that live show. 6 minutes of sob story montages in a row, extremely boring! And very poor studio tasks. The outside tasks were better.
Wow, never thought I’d hear that from you, Joe, but you’re completely right. I hate sob stories in TV shows, that’s why I didn’t like TCoM as much as I could have done. They just drag a show down and make it more tedious, rather than have the desired effect of making you feel something for the players and their plights
I didn’t mind the swearing, but it didn’t make sense. Might I suggest Red or Cack? Or even Red or Wack if you want to sound ‘street’.
If you MUST swear, I’ve grown fond of “Red or Twat”.
Give me a good and valid reason why?
BTW Vernon Kay will be on Million Pound Drop next Saturday.
Well part one – enjoyed it initially, especially the scale, enjoyment dipped when the pace dipped at the final eight. Catching arrows felt less dangerous than it possibly needed to.
And now I’m going to have dinner!
To improve the show, they should let the contestants actual;ly choose the colours, rather than random draw.
They should’ve had games, which decided the running order to pick red or black. That would’ve been more entertaining.
That’s how Endemol would’ve done it, anyway.
Ha, ha – #redorblack trending, but so is #youbet.
“If Angel” is now trending. It would be total irony if she does win the head to head and the £1m spin since it will be another Simon Cowell show getting the publicity in the papers.
In Angel’s defence, she has applied for the show via the correct methods and qualified through the eligible rules to become a contestant. Simply, she is a bloody lucky woman.
It’s also surreal that ten years ago this month (September 2001), everybody was criticising Who Wants to be a Millionaire? as Robert Brydges became the the third person to win £1m but due to his occupation as an investment banker he was worth over £2-3m before appearing on the show. Yet, he entered to appear on the show and qualified Celador’s rules to be a contestant.
Catching this on ITV +1. Went RIGHT into the Syco-standard-sob-story-section.
As ways to get off on the wrong foot go, this is as bad as it gets really.
If ITV were thinking, there would have been a red button game for this and then they’d make you not change channels during The X Factor to keep your score.
Though they did plug the internet game a fair bit
In a way, its got the balance right and wrong at the same time.
Correct – We don’t care about the sob stories when they are miles from the final spin – the filler bits asking red or black to random people and coming back later work giving a sense of progression rather than flipping a coin 8 times
Wrong – Yes they are getting close but we don’t need 8 VT’s in a sodding row either wait until final 2 or 4 or don’t do it at all – The sheer number brings it straight back into “We don’t care” territory
With regards to the tasks – Whilst I like the idea of no faffing around like most shows seems to do these days.. The show seems to go at 90 mph when they can drag for tension yet goes at 10 mph when theres little tension
As for not letting the contestants choose in some games – Why? You have a good system used in final 16 onwards so why not use it then – Get everyone to queue up and select the cookies / jack in boxes one at a time red or black – if one option runs out then rest have to go with other – It works
Overall – I felt entertained but this needs refinement – I hope if they learn one thing from Endemol and that is use first night feedback from a live show well – MPD was awfully slow in first night and they improved – Lets hope SyCo listen
As for not letting the contestants choose in some games – Why? You have a good system used in final 16 onwards so why not use it then – Get everyone to queue up and select the cookies / jack in boxes one at a time red or black – if one option runs out then rest have to go with other – It works
But unless I’m missing something, that’s effectively what’s already happening!
Absolutely agree about those tediously dragging 8 VTs in a row. Reminded me of the (only) boring bit in one of my favourite shows, Winning Lines – we meet the last 6 contestants very slowly, then play an elimination game which whittles them down to 1, in just seconds!
Big county thing!
“Done incredibly well?” By doing *what*, other than standing there?
Well they’ve been VERY lucky.
“I don’t know – it’s 50/50” – most intelligent thing anyone’s said in the whole show.
Mmm, I like Nathan. He’s not going to get too excited either way. I also like Angel, though. Hooray!
I have to say, even though I joked about it on here when it was first announced, I really wasn’t expecting this to feel quite so much like Fluke with money thrown at it. And yet… it sort of misses the inherent silliness. There’s daftness in some of the games (the jack in the box), and spectacle in some of them (Daredevil Limbo had a lot of potential, lost somewhat in it being so hurried). But then… turning car keys? Picking a fortune cookie? That’s a lot of hassle which isn’t all that entertaining.
Stupid they did a random draw for this final 2 showdown. They should’ve done a task to decide who could choose the colour first! It would’ve been more entertaining for viewers.
Stupid fools making this show.
But that would have detracted from the whole “win a million without any skill needed” idea. At least I THINK that’s the avenue they’re going down. I could swear I heard this said pretty much word-perfect in the ads.
It’s a big mistake they’ve made. Big Big mistake.
Given that they’ve had contestants at the early stage talking about splitting the money, I wonder if there’s anything stopping them from arranging savers when it’s down to the last two contestants? Of course it may not work as there won’t be a guaranteed winner, but perhaps a finalist might prefer to have £900k-vs.-nothing or £100k-vs.-nothing riding on the spin, rather than a million-or-nothing or nothing.
I didn’t explain that well, did I?
Joe’s right. We should have SEEN them draw straws or whatever to choose colours. And this game should be an actual physical thing, not a computer graphic.
Only 46,000 playing online, whic is quite a lot less than Million Pound drop gets (although C4 viewers likely to be more tech savvy than the average ITV viewer).
This final game should have used something physical. IT is not very interesting visually or intellectually.
Given their reactions, the audience don’t seem to be liking Angel. That could be problematic…
ITV must be praying to God that Nathan doesn’t win the £1m. If he wins the £1m, why would people want to continue watching? If he doesn’t win, people will be less likely to switch off and may continue to watch for the remaining episodes until someone wins.
Haha, excellent phone quiz question there – ‘Rouge is French for which colour?’ Quality.
Personally, I’ve of done like European DOND is done and played 2 player bong game
Offer an amount of cash that goes up and stops at a hidden amount – If no one bails out then do a random draw
Regardless – Agree it should be done with a physical prop
I mean, it’s not like that thing from The National Lottery Wright Around the World is being used for anything these days is it?
I am amused that the terms and conditions suggest that whichever car the winner of the call-and-lose picks comes with “£30 (thirty pounds sterling) of fuel, seven (7) days’ insurance”.
Given that they’ve said there’s three and a half minutes before the spin, I hope they don’t fill the show with him deliberating for three and a half minutes. Groouuargh…
I have to say, rather like the lighting effect when someone comes through the doors. Most exciting thing of the night!
(I’m a sucker for a good set. That’s the high point of Eurovision for me!)
Incidentally, I am glad there is no green zero on the wheel.
Oooh, we’re applauding the wheel reveal again! Yes, we’re clapping the set…
I was convinced he was going to go “black”, but I’m glad he went so quickly!
Oh wow it’s exactly like the Italian show Jackpot with that wheel.
I’d have done a proper roulette wheel. Yes, it’s small, but it’s physical. Even have a proper croupier for that authentic touch.
Agreed. People understand how croupiers work, but how the funny “ball starts rotating by itself” thing work is harder to understand.
How do those Auto Roulette wheels work with getting the ball spinning on the gambly channels? Must be the same principle, but I was never completely convinced that they too weren’t sus.
Pressurised air.
We have a winner!!!