What are we missing?

By | January 22, 2017
31 Comments

OK there’s not much new stuff this week and I’m also quite busy. This being said in recent comments we’re aware Swedish Fort Boyard (Fangarna pa Fortet) is back, German show Duell der Stars on Sat 1 and is quite good and that Youtube Red’s Escape the Night is better avoided. What other foreign things should we be having a look at?

31 thoughts on “What are we missing?”

  1. Mathew Palmieri

    Oh yeah, CBS Version of Hunted starts tonight after the Steelers vs patriot game in the good old USA. Unlike your like me who lives in Merica, You DO need to use the dark arts to watch it.
    Hers’e a trailer.

    https://youtu.be/23ZRPhX8pHo

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    1. Mathew Palmieri

      Never Really watched the original, so this will be interesting for me.
      How WAS The UK Version?

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  2. John R

    Well I just watched it live through the dark arts as I couldn’t sleep. The American medical adverts are quite amusing just on a side note, ‘Side effects may include suicidal thoughts’ nothing to worry about there then!

    Anyway it was quite a decent opening episode, amazingly they just seem to have stuck to the UK formula and not done too much over the top Americanization at all! Even featuring a cameo here and there from the UK’s very own hunter Ben Owen

    What I did like is it went back to the UK S1 idea of them randomly being told they were on the run and had an hour to bugger off rather than all running from a central meeting point

    Seems to have gone down pretty well just having a quick scan on Twitter anyway, even if it did feature possibly one of the most idiotic pair of fugitives ever!

    Was surprised it was only a 1 hour premiere but double checking the 2 hour one is on Wednesday and then that becomes the normal time slot then, not that it affects me in particular!

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    1. David

      It’s actually had a pretty mixed reaction- the most accurate IMO is from website reality blurred- “Hunted is a reality show made for CBS procedural fans, not for CBS reality show fans. That is its problem.”

      It drew OK, because of it’s football lead-in (though it was hurt by the fact the game was a blowout)- about 10.8 million viewers in early ratings. Wednesday will be more telling.

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      1. John R

        Just caught up with Episode 2 and to be honest I’m now actually finding it…boring

        Don’t know if it is because I can’t really relate to US geography compared to UK geography or the fact it just seems a complete paint by numbers of the UK version so the novelty has worn off

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  3. Nico W.

    Last week It Takes 2 started, programmed against Vox’s successful show sunday (mainly 3 hour long celebrity versions of their daytime programmes e.g. Celeb Come Dine With Me plus a cooking show called Grill den Henssler) and Sat.1’s Duell der Stars.
    It sees a celeb jury of 3 singers (including Conchita Wurst) judge celebrities not known for their musical talents (TV Chef, news anchor, actresses, actors, model…) based on duets they perform with their mentor. The first show saw the three mentors choose their mentees based on a Voice-style blind audition while the three judges were judging meaning six people judging nine singers. It was weird and a bit tiresome after the first singer’s wow moment was done. It was very repetitive. Yesterday the second episode was shown and the semi-good ratings dropped despite being the lead-in to I’m a Celeb.
    It’s a Talpa production and I think I have heard of that format about eight years ago from a Dutch/Belgian girl. Maybe they sell it around again, maybe it’s another format. I think ut’s boring despite actual good musicians as judges/mentors.

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    1. Nico W.

      Oh, and it’s on RTL hosted by Daniel Hartwich (also one host of I’m a Celeb which they referred to quite funnily at the end of the first episode) and Julia Krüger. She used to host on Joiz an interactive youth channel that went bankrupt about half a year ago and since then she has hosted on RTL II and rocketbeanstv. She’s one of my favourite young hosts, but on this show she’s degraded to being a useless assistant.

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      1. Qusion

        That sound’s a bit like Just The Two Of Us, which was on in the UK about ten years ago. I seem to remember too much rested on whether you liked the professional musician in the pair, rather than the singing ability of the celebrity.

        This sounds like each mentor has multiple partners though?

        http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Just_the_Two_of_Us

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        1. Nico W.

          Yes, each mentor has three partners and it’s all prerecorded, so you cannot vote for the winner (if this is your suggestion with “it rested on whether you liked the professional musician”). So it’s a bit fairer imho.

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  5. Greg

    I quite like The Wall, in fact it was the show i voted for i most wanted to see come to the UK during the live Poll of the year results. It is certainly not perfect, but with a few small tweaks, for what it is i think could do quite well on ITV. I feel like it would do well with the Tipping Point audience.

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  7. Mart With A Y Not An I

    And in other, other news..
    The Boss ticket applications are now on-line over at the Beeb’s website – why not apply and ahead of transmission, see if the last bit of the format brief reads like BBC Entertainment development has been infultrated by someone from Endemol..

    (clicky)
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/shows/the_boss_feb2017

    Talking out loud to Brig, here –
    Hoping to go to one of the Saturday recordings – will supply a report if I do, unless someone else goes before me and does the honours. But it’s a 50/50 at the mo…

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    1. Brig Bother Post author

      Good stuff, it’s in Salford which is much more difficult for me to get to so if anyone does go tell us what it’s like.

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    1. Chris M. Dickson

      If ever I “do” something for a Schlag den Brig or some other Bother’s Bar TV live show, there’s a good chance that it may have a 60-second clock purely for the purposes of being able to use the think music from The Maze in the background.

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      1. Mart With A Y Not An I

        Wow – that is something isn’t it?
        Starting off with several jokes from the man Sachs, that landed somewhere between the contestant podiums and the camera run – rather than the intended target of the audience.

        Two contestants who didn’t appear to know that they could block a 4 square from the opponent from happening.

        And a final round with the dubiously arbatorial time limit.

        You know, if I hadn’t watched any of the original transmission you would have said given the basics of it – it was one of those early shows ITV companies made for Sky One (or other family geared satellite channels)rather than a production from – as the certificate proudly announced – ‘The BBC Elstree Quiz Factory’

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        1. Brig Bother Post author

          The following series irons out a lot of the issues (third series, incredible really) – not set in the back of a warehouse, speedier round one, allowing them a salvo of four free squares and ending the round when no more four squares are possible, and then pausing Pair the Squares mid-round to do The Maze and finishing it off after (apparently to conclusion). John Sachs still not quite comfortable.

          I probably like it more than it really deserves, but it certainly did some unusual things for the time (Pair the Squares actually a bit cleverer and tactical than first appears) and it will forever get a free pass for Ian McKim’s soundtrack. Also I don’t think people credit the show’s sound effects nearly enough.

          https://youtu.be/_GadvlbHc90

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    1. Callum J

      Also interesting that the international versions have a visible studio audience. Something you don’t see much on ITV daytime (the only recent one I can think of is Pick Me).

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      1. Brig Bother Post author

        International versions are: Israeli, and that’s about it, as far as I know.

        If I remember correctly Ryan Seacrest is involved in this in some capacity.

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        1. Delano

          Just another style-over-substance gameshow made by Israel. The Vault was gripping, The Bubble okayish, but they seem to conceive formats because they can rather than coming up with something that will keep the viewer grounded for weeks.

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          1. Brig Bother Post author

            I feel everything about it is geared towards risk aversion, particularly so towards the end, this just isn’t something that will entertain past the prop design.

            I’d be fascinated to find out what the commissioner was thinking.

            Of course they may have retooled it significantly, the contestant call prioritises knowledge and skill, so you know.

    1. Brig Bother Post author

      It was quite interesting thanks, I quite like the set, graphics, host, always quite disliked the Spanish music package, thought the endgame dragged out for too long (also the whole point of the Sudden Death element is to eliminate situations where the game is impossible like it became here so disappointing to see it not used here).

      I would suggest the Italian show is a much easier watch because the comedy is quite broad and you can usually work out why they’re laughing from what’s going on, this was quite dry by comparison, and if it’s going to be dry it needs more rounds and less chat between questions, even in the Italian show a round of questions tends to be pretty quickfire, the arsing about happening between rounds.

      I get that the first characters were tourists and the third was a rapper (I’ve long thought a UK version should have an MC character named Quizzie Rascal who raps questions. Also I want Trevor and Simon.) I’ve no idea what the second guest was all about. An actress who seems to have a question a bit like the Alien? Not a clue.

      Also I don’t understand the completely spoiling The Genius-style flashforwards. As in genuinely a bit baffled by them.

      I think it’s quite hard to underestimate how important Bonolis is to the format. International versions need the host to also be a producer, really.

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  13. Andrew 'Kesh' Sullivan

    A new panel show on its way with Harry Hill at the helm. It’s called ‘Harry Hill’s Alien Fun Capsule’. Here’s the breakdown from an email from SRO that I got:

    Come and join the one and only Mr Harry Hill and his comedy pals for his brand new TV show, Harry Hill’s Alien Fun Capsule.
    Harry Hill’s Alien Fun Capsule is a panel show that sees Harry presiding over two teams of comedians and celebrities tasked with saving planet earth from alien invasion. Their mission is to find the funniest stuff around and place it into a capsule so that in the event of invasion the aliens will spare us. Expect guest appearances, sketches, songs and funny clips. Oh, and if we’re lucky there may even be an appearance from an actual alien!

    Guests currently scheduled to appear include:
    Wed 1st Feb: Joe Lycett, Ainsley Harriott, Lorraine Kelly and Kathy Burke
    Fri 3rd Feb: Des O’Connor, Nish Kumar, Nina Wadia and Fay Ripley

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