7pm, ITV1
The fourth series of The Cube begins this evening featuring brand new games but the same old cube. It seems the show has been successful enough that it’s now being parodied quite regularly, not only in Shooting Stars, but The Impressions Show on BBC1 did a take off of it last week as well.
It will be especially interesting to see the numbers – it floundered a bit in the Spring when stuck on its own in the schedules but as a lead in to The X Factor last year it was getting 5-6 million. Being scheduled around The X Factor is no guarantee of success as Holding Out For a Hero has shown, and not only is Countryfile currently performing very well but it will also have Strictly to contend with.
Ooh, I didn’t see the parody by the Impressions Show. Any links anywhere?
IPlayer.
Oh… this is back for another series….
Your point being? Or are going to say it doesn’t deserve to return for another series but an Endemol show should?
Why does it get 2 series a year whereas other more popular game shows like All Star Family Fortunes and Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? only get 1 series?
A series of The Cube is pretty short, though – only about seven episodes, yes?
How long does a series of ASFF last? Genuine question.
This series of ASFF was 11 episodes (including the Christmas special that’s yet to air), butnlast year’s was 15. Meanwhile both this series and the Spring run of The Cube are/were 9 episodes, so there have been more episodes of The Cube than ASFF this year. I’m a bit surprised they haven’t introduced a Spring/Summer run of ASFF as it’d do a good bit better than any of the stuff they’ve tried in the last few Summers.
Thanks for that.
You could perhaps start a 15-show ASFF run in July and have it run through until the autumn, with The Cube taking the slot thereafter until the last weekend of X-Factor. That could work.
Why do I get the impression that you’d be over the moon if ITV pulled the plug on The Cube? 😕 🙄 😉
Well, I wouldn’t. I like seeing as many gameshows as possible on TV. But I prefer Minute To Win It to the Cube. They should reduce the Cube to one series a year and promote Minute To Win It from ITV2 to ITV1. Apparently MTWI was very successful, reaching over half a million viewers on ITV2.
Who Wants To Be a Millionaire is back in less than 2 weeks’ time and it has normal members of the public playing. I told you this was going to happen. The proper normal version is still planned to come back.
I think they should do a weekly series with normal members of the public but keep it live as it feels fresher. They could put it on Fridays at 9pm as it did well there when it aired a special there in the Summer.
“The proper normal version is still planned to come back.”
Do you think I would put my faith in you? Someone who was 100% confident that Big Brother would bring back the live feed and Saying The Marriage Ref will be the next big thing and a must watch show.
I still stand there won’t be any more regular editons in the near future. It might have people from the Armed Forces taking part but they’re still being paired with a celebrity and the show will be called Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire Remembrance Special.
As Travis says.
I hate to say this, Joe, but… it seems that with each passing day, the impression of your hands working before your brain gets bigger and bigger. 😕 😉
We do still agree with you, though, that civilian Millionaire hasn’t been axed… 😉
Schofield needs to get a new suit. It’s always that one with the white piece of paper in that pocket.
Blimey, that’s a small container for £1k Capture.
Metronome looks like being a good addition…
Can Aperture be considered a favourite in the same way as Cylinder, I wonder?
They do like playing that, although it seems to be more in the £10,000 20 balls version than the £20k for 25.
Also the piss-easy call-and-lose game might be showing a new game, maybe?
A new theme for every level by the sounds of it now. Ken Bolam, you beauty!
Also hold on, two mini-ad breaks in 20 minutes? What is this, America?
What a terrible player this lady is. I bet they audition contestants beforehand and deliberately choose rubbish people so they don’t give away much money.
OK, now you’re overstepping the mark a bit here… 😕
Of course, because that would make terrific television!
Not something you would know the first thing about, of course.
As I’m trying this. #thecube is currently the second most trended topic on twitter.
That should be typing, not trying. Not easy jumping between this and ebay.
What are you buying?
I’m not. It’s free listing weekend afterall.
I swear this is the £20,000 version of Quantity. Man, this seems…nasty.
Well, I knew straight away it was over 30… but I guessed 35 too… 😳
This is a very hard game for £2,000.
Not particularly. Dead Stop’s always been a 1-2k game.
Ooh, they’ve subtly changed the “game preview” music to have motifs of the main theme in. Nice!
Think they’ve now got more than one on the go actually… awesome.
Ooh, Multisphere is now more fair, having the Cube automatically drop the balls instead of the player.
I think they should have the more epic music in the background for some games like the McFly special.
Is that “Before the break…” thing new?
Yeah, seems to be.
OH FUCKING HELL IT’S BARRIER.
Some way to Simplify it, though…
Yeah, by turning it into the £10k version!
I think it’s getting to the point now where the show needs a jackpot winner. It didn’t really hold my attention tonight.
There’s overkill of this show. Too many episodes per year.
Hands before brain again, I think – and it’s no good trying to shy away from your active dislike of The Cube… 😕 😉
And remember, if someone is to win the jackpot, they’ll have to twice succeed at the toughest game they face… 😉
Got to love the expression on Phil’s face when Ramel touched the barrier… 😉
And we saw at least some of the Body’s face, there… will we ever see all of it? 😉
I think these ideas might improve the format. What does everyone else think? –
1. Contestants get the option of a trial run on EVERY game.
2. Contestants are able to spend their winnings so far to buy help, eg in Multisphere £2000 to add 2 seconds to the clock, £5000 to remove 5 balls from the cylinder, £5000 for an extra life or £10000 to skip the entire game.
3. Contestants “rolling over” to the following week, so it’s not immediately obvious by how much time there is left in the show whether or not they reach the jackpot. (Can’t remember the technical term for this.)
4. A more light-hearted, less ridiculously dramatic presentation for what is ultimately a show about counting squares or stepping over low fences.
No disrespect to Joe whatsoever – but these ideas are better than anything that he has ever come up with, I must admit. 😉
But…
1. I think two or three trial runs would be enough.
2. Skipping the entire game wouldn’t be entirely fair.
3. I thought they already had rollovers?
4. I wouldn’t make it too light-hearted like MTWI…
I think there have been straddling games, but not many.
More than one trial run? Interesting, though I agree with Des that it ought to remain a lifeline rather than a default. Possible idea, though: a free trial run on the £50,000 game.
Using banked money to make the game easier (not to skip it)? Could become complicated, and a little bit like Krypton Factor 1995’s “advantages” in the Stupor Round, but on paper, a good idea. Adds an interesting element of strategy and risk-management, too.
Presentation? No, you don’t change that. The big thing about this show is that it’s got this distinctive feel about it. You do not mess with that.
Only things I’d change?
Game two should be for £3k (£2k to £10k just looks plain bizarre, as if Adam Adler roundhouse-kicked out the £5k that used to be there between them).
Don’t litter the intro and outro with spoiler cuts – the intro tells you pretty much straight up that there won’t be a jackpot win if more than one contestant appears in it, as does “next time on The Cube…” which not only does the aforementioned spoiling but doesn’t actually manage to convey anything of any substance anyway, so it’s all a bit meaningless.
More straddled games, please.
And release that bloody soundtrack already!
currently im sitting here wondering why on earth the cube isnt on itvplayer?
Apparently it’s so they can edit in another game of Barrier.
of course. can never have too many games of barrier *ahem*
So does that new music for the intro to each games only when the contestant has four lives or less, or something? The first contestant had it play from the second level onwards, but the second had it play from level 4 onwards.
That’s good thinking, we’ll have to see if that holds true for the other episodes. I figured they might just be selectively cycling through them based on mood…
I remember the last series used one for the first four games, another for the next two and another for the last game.
For me at least, this amount of presentational mixing-it-up each series more than makes up for intolerable amounts of Barrier.
4.1m for this on Sunday. Down on last year’s episodes, but a bit up from the Spring and well up on Holding Out For A Hero.
Not good. It was getting over 5 million last year, but the overkill of the show, is putting viewers off. Poor share too.
Although it’s up against Strictly results now, which is going to affect the ratings *and* share rather non-trivially.
It was up against Strictly last year too and managed over 5m.
Hands before brain… 😉
~20 episodes in one year is hardly overkill.
Evening peeps.
At first glance, Apex looks like being a tough game…
It’s like Summit, but harder. Which makes sense seeing that Summit is a £2,000 game. (Although it is damn hard for one.)
Is it just me or are the ad breaks shorter than usual tonight? 😕
And here’s Blind-Shot – a game that Jennie “Fiz” McAlpine needs no reminding of… 😉
I like the exciting opaque screen, there.
I really like the opaque screen.
For me, The Cube has a much clearer sense of cause and effect, and thus is more entertaining and less arbitrary, when it doesn’t rely on information hidden from the viewer. In part, I like the physical games because, I maintain, it’s more fun to see people playing with somewhat improbable toys than to see people playing very simple video games. In particular, I love games with dozens or even hundreds of little red balls, whether the “get all the balls out of the container” game or the “catch the white ball in the shower of red balls” game. If they can devise a game with thousands of even smaller red balls, even better still.
You remember that game Pendulum from last week? To me, it was dissatisfactory because the viewer had to trust the show as to the whereabouts of the dot after it disagreed. Consider the possibility that the translucent/opaque screen is placed just in front of the contestant, so that it blocks their view of the bouncing square when the screen becomes opaque. Then the square can keep bouncing and viewers can either play along at home or, at least, satisfy themselves that the game is being played fairly, but the contestant can no longer see the bouncing square. Similarly, “Stop Zone” might not have the blue rows disappear but merely have the contestant’s view of the rows advancing blocked by the opacity of the screen, and so on.
If the viewers and studio audience get to find out whether the game has been successful before the contestant does, that is no bad thing at all.
I wonder if this series does have a jackpot winner, which might be why the rest of the series has been toughened up slightly.
I noticed in the last ITV promo (for last night’s show) that the voiceover said “could this be the week someone beats The Cube”.
In honesty, I have no idea whether someone will beat it for £250,000. I know Schofe on twitter has been pretty quiet regarding the latest series when it was recorded in July. I remember on the third series (recorded in January) he was harping on being the best series yet but it seems this time he has been slightly subdued.
I’m sure they recorded the Italian verion around the same time of the fourth UK series. I noticed when they aired it in September, I stated the earlier games like for first 1-2 levels on the money ladder were harder than normal. I remember the game Vault (to remind you “The player must roll a silver ball along a beam so that it flicks off an incline and land in a target container a short distance away. The ball must remain in contact with the beam at all times.”) was played as the first game in Italy. Here it was played as the third game on the third series.
So either they have made it harder because someone actually beats The Cube or they decided to make it harder to save ITV/Objective Productions some money. I wonder if Red or Black is a factor since The Cube was recorded in July but Red or Black was in full flow with the local area recordings.
Quadrant appears to be just a different take on Direction…
Yeah, but much harder. They did something like that with Circuit being Stabilise Hard Mode: when in doubt, make it go in a circle.
Aaaaargh! That was very close… 🙁
How many people before have lost £10k?
Only one. But two have lost £20k (three if you count Joe Swash but he technically only lost £19k.)
I’m not sure I like the toughening up of the £1,000 games, in honesty.
It does scream “budget mode”, doesn’t it?
To put it into another perspective. In the last series (Spring 2011), not one contestant manage to win £100,000. I know Tom Fletcher from McFly won £100,000 but he is a celebrity. Four contestants into the latest series and nobody has won £50,000.
I know it’s been a while, but they really don’t make it easy for the celebs. He got Side-track, for crying out loud.
Evening again peeps.
We start with another new game that’s not dissimilar to the Batak Attack on Body Heat over a decade and a half ago…
A bit boring tonight
Will be fascinating to see if someone can get to £50,000 tonight.
Also it sounds like the life-earning game in the pilot.
Hmm… not really, that was a game of memory on a 4×6 grid.
Neat new effect during Gradient, there.
“I came here with nothing…”
“You could also walk home with ten grand.”
“Shut up!”
😆 😆 😆 😉
Well, now he’ll be going home with more than ten grand, or zilch… 😉
And all he has to do to get to the magical £50k is keep his balance for twenty seconds…
So we have a fifty K winner – but he came close enough to losing it all there…
And here’s another new game that, at first glance, looks like it should be played at a higher level than £1k…
Personally I don’t see the difficulty in it, but that’s just me.
“Anything with throwing worries me.”
She wouldn’t like Summit or Blind-Shot either, then…
So you know she’s not very good at timing. So give her one that’s half timing and half throwing (which she’s bad at)?
FANTASTIC.
Maybe it’s because I’m a drummer (actually I’m sure it is) but I don’t see what’s hard about rhythm games like that Trail one. Just tap your foot to the beat when it goes blue. It’s easy to do once you get a rhythm. I know there’s pressure but if you have even a vague sense of rhythm it shouldn’t be hard. The show has had harder 1K games recently but I didn’t feel that was at all. But again, I’m a trained drummer so I don’t know.
I’m not a drummer, but I can tap a beat! I thought it was fine at the £1k level, you might lose the odd life, but nothing too bad. Or so I thought.
I think it’s quite easy to second guess yourself during this sort of game, and I certainly think at the sort of speed the last one was going at there’s a decent argument for shutting your eyes and guessing. And I say that as someone who has rhythm.
Is the sudden increase in difficulty at the lower levels tied to an ITV directive to pay out less money, anyone know? It’s choking the game a bit.
So here we go with another episode…
“You start the game, you stop the game.”
Hmmm… does that bring to mind a catchphrase used by Chris Tarrant nearly three years ago? 😉
And for those wondeing, Perimeter was ALWAYS this hard.
All the evidence you need they’ve been told to pay out less money. It’s unplayable even when simplified!
Oh dearum dearum… 😕 😕
This looks like being a very tricky new game…
It’s time for THAT music.
Again.
They almost always go for it when they’re on £1k or £2k, don’t they?
And that was a nasty fumble to go down to one life left…
Isaac was given a hell of a time there, a difficult speed of perimeter to start with, once his confidence was shaken there wasn’t much he could do, and ending up with only 3 lives meant he knew he wasn’t getting very far. Poor guy was petty much dead on arrival.
Well, he had no problem with Ricochet…
Surely in Cube Transfer you could try to pick up an entire 9-block stack with your arms, drop them in, then repeat two more times. That wouldn’t take 20 seconds.
She should easily do it in 25, though – given how close she was just there…
Ooh, a classic. I’d rather have Pathfinder as the standout game instead of Barrier.
Incidentally it’s been five episodes and we’ve only seen Barrier once. Wow.
“Cube Transfer” is a bit of an un-Cubey name. Something like “Tesseract” would be better.
Also, Pathfinder remains still seems to be really easy, but you’re completely screwed if you don’t get the path the first time.
Construction’s a bit of a favourite, isn’t it? 😉
I think I can recall it being played 5 times. Twice this series, once every other.
HOLY BUGGER I didn’t expect that.
So is this the first episode where nothing has been won? 🙁 🙁
Yup, and now on average one person has been defeated every episode.
And (I believe) the first time someone has ever beaten a Trial Run, gone into play and then lost.