Thursdays, 9pm,
ITV2
When in Rome do as the Romans do, as the old adage goes. Eight couples travel back to Ancient Rome where the men will compete in tough physical challenges in the hope of making it to the Emperor’s Games at the end of the series with a cool £10,000 on offer to the winners. The ladies will aid and abet and partake in traditional ancient roman activities and help their partners, all under the watchful eye of Tom Bell as the Emperor’s assistant, Roman Kemp the voiceover and Tornado from Gladiators training them as Il Doctore.
It’s Hercules meets Love Island, basically. On a sliding scale, I predict the closer it is to the former the better it will go down on here and personally I can get definitely get down with this sort of thing although now I’m out of the demo whether I’ll find the contestants and their antics (and I predict many, many antics) annoying is another matter.
The set looks terrific though. The show’s from Electric Ray who you might remember were the people behind non-hit Prized Apart, let’s hope they’ve learnt some lessons from that.
If you watched it let us know what you thought in the comments.
I will be watch once it hits the hub. It is a interesting concept for sure. I was hoping for more of a
“The Quest” vibe but ill take a cheeky love island one if it means a great set and good setup for story lines.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2017/wedding-day-winners
The BBC are loving Rob Beckett at the moment, on top of his sitcom pilot and host of All Together Now, he will also be hosting ‘Wedding Day Winners’ with Lorraine Kelly.
The series will feature ‘ hilarious physical games, high adrenalin stunts, and challenges’ and will air next year.
I thought this was quite entertaining although I’m not sure it was all that great. Loved the set, approved of the gags (The Emperor’s New Clothes indeed), thought Tom Bell was excellent. Not convinced by Doctore and Roman Kemp’s not quite convincing either.
The clothes game I thought was quite Survivor-esque and then it was pointed out to me it’s literally from Survivor, although now with added male nudity. Looks like the girlfriends are involved in the challenges much more than anticipated. Second challenge OK, but the elimination criteria at the council seemed pretty arbitrary, I get that the team that finished last should be up for eviction but that should be the jeopardy anyway. I feel like there sjould be something a bit more concrete for the second one.
And then the elimination ceremony was basically The Quest.
So strangely for such a high-concept show there’s not a great deal original in it. It did frequently make me laugh though so I’ll probably continue with it for the moment.
Overnights: 351k / 1.5%
Love Island S1 opened with 600,000/3% on a Sunday (9pm) with a well-supported lead-in from a film (The Amazing Spider-Man) 761,000 / 4% from 6.15pm.
All about ep 2…
Thanks – that’s around what Release the Hounds gets and they seem happy enough with that to keep commissioning it. Whether it feels a bit disappointing in terms of how many column inches its had is another question. Plus seven ought to be interesting.
A gameshow which might have slipped the radar is Armchair Detectives. The host has been announced and it’s someone who has become quite reliable for the BBC recently. Susan Calman.
Press release: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2017/susan-calman-armchair-detectives
A play along and immersive investigation that can be enjoyed every step of the way. Like any good quiz, crime is crammed with titillating reveals, but as the drama unfolds, more suspects and clues will come to light. With their critical thinking put to the test will players and viewers be able to identify the killer?
Not only has it not slipped the radar, it was mentioned on a post just a few days ago, lots of the people who worked on it are Bother’s Bar regulars.
Same opinions as last week – quite funny, needs more Tom Bell, challenges feel irrelevant (no Liam in the bottom two, clearly the worst performer, for drama? Come on.).
Kai misunderstanding the rules to the first challenge was hilarious though. What did he think the game *was*?
From DS Forums, Bromans ep 2 down to 250k (exc +1), which is probably not good enough really.
Overnights: 235k / 1.4%
Will be under 200k in a couple of weeks at this rate.
I actually forgot it was on this week, which probably suggests I’m done with it.