Weekdays, 7pm (and 7:30pm)
Dave
For a long time now Dave have been at the forefront of taking slightly unusual show ideas and making a success of them (School of Hard Sums! Go 8 Bit! Taskmaster!).
However I’m slightly baffled by this commission of a format that’s been knocking around for years and years. Jason Byrne (off of Wild Things) rocks up at various town centres and asks people questions for cash money. But the catch is they can’t say the answers, they have to bring them.
We’ve long been sceptical of vox-pop based shows, feel much too light and inessential, and the only one that’s really worked is Billy On The Street which mainly works because each segment is effectively a half-improvised comedy sketch usually with a well-thought out core, you don’t really watch for the quiz, that’s just the conduit for the comedy.
Jason Byrne will certainly shout at people I’m sure but it remains to be seen how much of a must-watch this will be. In the plus column, there are good people behind it and Dave’s hit rate with this sort of thing is quite high, so we won’t write it off until we’ve seen it. It’s twenty episodes so it looks like they’re going to burn through them in two weeks as they seem to be showing two episodes back to back.
Fun fact for all you promo material fans out there: That picture of Jason Byrne was taken outside Victoria Square in Belfast. Behind Jason’s right shoulder you would find a Starbucks!
Oh dear. This is absolutely terrible. It seems like a game teenagers do, trying to get a sock off of a random MOTP, so why is it on at 7pm? Jason is good on Wild Things, but incredibly irritating on this. The graphics, music and general atmosphere lacks any sort of professionalism. I know this is a fun game on Dave, but even so. Shan’t be watching this again.
It does what it does but it’s not really allayed my fear that it’s too light for anyone to choose to tune into.
People are asked questions, they have three minutes to get it from somewhere and ring a bell. They can’t say the answer to anyone and they can’t steal it. Money ladder £50, 100, 250, 500, 1000.
I do wonder what Dave’s strategy is with these 7pm-ish shows. It’s I think the third in a row to get such a big commission for Dave, done cheaper than the 8Bit/Task/Sums/etc shows.
So in the last year we’ve had the ‘Joy of Techs’ tech review/comedy show (10 x 30), Nick Helm’s food one (which I really liked, but it was definitely odd, and got shifted late-run to 11pm) (16 x 30) and then this. Is it about building more variety in the early evening slot and not relying on Top Gear, and having content for UKTV Play? Cheaper than buying in something, and having something British? I can’t imagine they expected any of those to be one of their bigger hits.
I found it interesting enough to watch but I don’t think I’ll make much of an effort to see it again? Agree on it being a bit light.
Just come across it randomly, but Trutv is showing the US version of Hole In The Wall in the midnight graveyard slot. I believe its the Cartoon network version but i can’t be sure.
Ihateitihateitihateit. They’ve edited it like a kid’s show and somehow made Jason totally unbearable. Not surprised they’re burning off two episodes a night.
Sorry I have to come back and say how much I hate it a bit more. None of the gags they’ve set up are even slightly humourous. It’s embarrassingly bad. It’s like watching one of those old internal Christmas tapes with loads of gags only people working at the company would get.