Saturdays, 5:40pm
BBC1
Joe Lycett, ably assisted by referee Alison Hammond, present new Saturday teatime quiz where contestants are asked questions against the clock, but the clocks are weird and wonderful. The best contestant gets the chance to win a holiday.
I think it’s a great pairing, I think the idea on paper is pretty good, I fear it will struggle in the same way most light entertainment struggles these days, if it’s not a crucial watch it probably won’t get watched. Not sure what sort of figure they’re hoping for in this slot. Suspect it needs to feel anarchic to work and suspect BBC-styled controlled anarchy will work against it.
I wonder what happened with the Craig Ferguson US pilot?
Anyway, if you watch it, let us know what you think in the comments.
I remember that Jocelyn shows in Italy (Grande Gioco dell’Oca, Sette per Uno and more) had a few stunts to be performed “in the time it takes”. Usually something silly like the time it takes an animal or a child to do something.
Anyway, Enrico Papi is going to host a show about records, and he’s telling us with the most multi-language promo ever.
https://www.facebook.com/TV8it/videos/334395260443737/
Not gameshow related but this might be interesting to any format fans
Disney has ordered a new sitcom called just roll with it. It will have a live audience as these things tend to do but this time they can affect the show. At the sound of a horn the cast will go backstage and wait for the audience to vote on what they want to see happen, this being a show for kids it seems they will vote which out of three stunts they want to see. According to the press release it could be anything from a cast member having to eat a gross sandwich to a man falling down the roof. and then they have to just roll with it as the title suggests
This could be interesting to see as it sort of merges theatre and TV together. if done well, I could see this format doing well for different genres, like imagine a murder mystery where you decide who gets murdered, or decding where the TARDIS will land.
Reminds me a little of “Thank God You’re Here”
I’m reminded – way back when – of “What’s Your Story” on CBBC, which had that as a broad premise
More on Danger Balls- filming is in 2 weeks:
https://deadline.com/2018/11/danger-balls-bbc-1202493953/
I thought this was alright. Lycett and Hammond a good pairing, and Lycett’s a surprisingly natural quickfire question master.
Speaking of which, I enjoyed the nature of the questions, a mixture of general knowledge, comedy 50/50s, trick questions and meta questions.
The timers were decently fun and actually do lead to some decent interesting decision making, although I think in round two, given it’s an extension of round one, should probably be played in reverse rather than the person with in-built round one choice advantage probably getting to keep their first pick advantage.
Also you couldn’t really see the bath bomb dissolve at the end there. If he’d picked the microwave, would Sooty have just buggered off? Seems like a waste.
Certainly this was way more entertaining than Partners in Rhyme, hopefully it will grow an audience although it probably won’t start off with much of one. It’s a decent piece of LE, but as we’ve established new LE has difficulty in finding an audience these days.
I really liked the questions, especially “How many questions have you been asked so far?” and “What was the answer to the first question?”. Some pleasingly daft answers as well.
I know it’s blatantly been commissioned for a Taskmaster-style format but I think it reminded me the most of Remote Control, which I used to love.
Nothing wrong with this; it has the feel of something that would have fit in the schedules at the start of a Saturday evening pretty much anywhen in the last forty years, especially in a summer schedule… and Sooty and Sweep would have popped up in the endgame anywhen in the forty years as well. When “they” “say” that they want the BBC to make family entertainment, this is exactly the sort of thing they’re after, to the point where I’m going to call a second series for this off the back of a single episode. (I can’t see this lasting forever, unless they’re eventually willing to throw thousands and thousands of pounds on featuring brilliant Rube Goldberg machines as timers with the quiz as a sidenote, but a second series seems more likely than not.)
It was very slightly wittier than it needed to be with its questions, has surprisingly much playalong value not just with the questions but with the decision on which timer to pick, and the chance to ask questions about the timers in advance is fun and visibly contributes to the transparency of the show. Hammond and Lycett were lightly used but fit well. A very minor hit!
I found the timers seemed far too generous in certain games – the first game kept going…and going…and going even after Alison had got to the gold line on the cup with the soup
The Fawlty Towers clip was bizarre…I’m sure they said the timer would stop once he stopped hitting the car but they just seemed to call time randomly as he was still hitting the car!
Finale seems like it’ll always be ‘you’ve got a guaranteed minute OR YOU COULD CHOOSE OUR MYSTERY SUPER SPECIAL GUEST’
Also based on some of the names on the football shirts and Alison Hammond getting involved it feels very much like a show that was pitched to ITV initially and they turned it down.
I spotted the in-joke, but I don’t think it’s any more than that.
I think the timers are fine between 40 seconds and 1:30.
I think it’s more “People associated with Alison”, which happen to be primarily This Morning folks; there was also Skorjanec, in amongst them, and Aljaz was her partner when she did Strictly.
They should have had a ‘McCall’ or a ‘Lawler’!
But then you’d have people wondering why there wasn’t a ‘Goody’.
I thought I had misunderstood the Faulty Towers clip rules as you rightly said it stopped and the car was still being hit.
I really enjoyed this, I thought there was a good variety of questions and the whole show felt fun. It’s not an absolute must-watch, but it’s the best thing on Saturday night TV at the moment.
It’s time to stop putting that awful sparkly stuff on sets. Please.
The last show I remember using that stuff was the 2006 version The Price Is Right, the one where the set was so shiny it looked like the cameras couldn’t handle it.
A little under 2m for ep 1.
What say Ratings Bear?
Ratings Bear reckons the first ep did roughly as expected and is waiting to see a trend.
Sooty to Ore Oduba. Hmm.
The final game suffered again this week in that for the audience at home it is actually very difficult to see when it is ‘completed’ – I’m sure during the credits I saw a stray can on the floor that Ore had missed!
That electronic horse-neigh noise in the theme tune and at the end of the sting isn’t as funny as it thinks it is, and it pops up quite a few times per episode.
(Compare with Bellissima by DJ Quicksilver from 21 years ago.)
No new episode this week, and no upcoming episodes listed? I was getting very into this show, don’t tell me Ratings Bear has eaten it already 🙁