Thanks to David for alerting us to the VERY EXCITING INDEED news that The Phone is back in The Netherlands, and you can watch it here.
I won’t get to have a look until I get home this evening, but it looks like it’s on a new channel with a new host (hosting Dutch mega-combo Take Me Out and Expeditie Robinson) and that the contestants are now preselected so the producers know things about them and can tailor the tasks accordingly, which by the sounds of it apparently wasn’t the case before.
In other news I’m slightly baffled that yesterday was the most popular day in The All New Bother’s Bar history, and I can’t for the life of me work out why.
I spotted a tweet Alex Davis did saying he was taping the Bother’s Bar edition of Double Cross this week, perhaps that got people click-curious?
In other news, C21 finally responded to me, and it seems that they’ve really strictified their selection process. From the email: “Many thanks for your response. C21screenings is strictly a B2B content portal so we therefore cannot give you access to the trailers on the site. However you have full use of the contact lists and you’re able to browse all content screened on the site.” In other words, still not much I can really use, but it’s nice to get some closure on that at least. So, you might want to curb how often you recommend people to go there, since it doesn’t seem to be as accessible as it once was.
Ha ha ha, welcome to my world of selective information. The whole point of the bar is to give a heads up of Interesting Things, and when people ask where I found it I’m going to have to do some creative lying in the future, clearly.
“I want to share but sometimes I just can’t” might be my stock response in future.
Sounds like a future banner quote for the top of the page. (Since, you know, the Paul Hendy one is still kinda new.)
And no, I can see the referral logs, it’s not Buzzerblog giving me a mention on Twitter.
All the UK contestants casted came from here so it was just a lame plug on my part more than anything. Tapes this Thursday.
Just to make it more exciting, if you lose, YOU WILL BE BARRED.
I’m joking of course. OR AM I? Etc.
haha, if nothing else you’ve provided my initial joke at the start of the show so thank you.
Sadly this is not working properly for me. The page will serve me up an advert for some sort of milk-like drink and then closes itself. Humff, especially as there is a huge gap in our Monday evenings now.
The link to The Phone? I just watched it – the episode should play after the advert.
Anyway, I’m not entirely sure I’m sold on The New Phone, it’s changed with the formula a bit:
* Host is Dutch TV personality Eddy Zoëy, as such there’s no real sense of mystery about him (indeed it’s a bit jarring to hear the contestants go “Eddy!” when they answer).
* The money is in a locked vault out in the open that will remain locked after three hours of play (supposedly). To unlock the vault, the pair require four keys for the four locks. This is basically three challenges, some more action packed than others, but not many showing the Mole -like cunning that made the original quite good fun. It also means very little in the way of quick tasks and teasers – if you can’t work out how to do something, Eddy will ring back with instructions for a €5,000 fee. Other than one riddle to work out a postcode and a workaround if you knew Chinese, there’s not much here to stretch the brain.
* So three challenges for three keys, where’s the fourth? Why! It’s locked away by computer. It is, of course, our very good friend quiz-leading-to-keep-or-split dilemma, which I’m not convinced the format truly needs. Not Prisoner’s Dilemma for those who haven’t seen it – the contestant who first gets three answers right wins the money and then has to decide to keep it all or split it.
So it’s still really nicely produced but as a show I don’t think the changes are for the better.
Provided there is a JustinTV feed to Pro7 this week, then you can see.
Tuesday 9.10pm-12.10am – TV Total Pokerstars
Stefan Raab and his chummies enter their occasional €100,000 poker tournament.
I was going to mention The Hoff is on his chatshow on Thursday but he can speak fluent German. Otherwise Stefan would’ve done the interview in English.
This may have already been said and I forgot, but the new series of QI tapes in May.
Is the voice-over for the Scream if you know the answer trailer that I’ve just seen on Dave really Colin Murray, or merely a sound-a-like?
Having been subjected to it every bleedin’ ad break, I think it really is him.
It’s definitely him.
Yes, it’s really really him.