Here are the contents of today’s Stool Pigeon. Once again, I will attempt to sort fact from fiction, but the only people who know the truth are the people who wrote the messages and the people it relates to. Without further ado:
- Japanese News: Toei Animation are trying to develop gameshows around the properties of One Piece & Dragonball. Both properties are celebrating major milestone anniversaries recently. Not sure how these will work due to both properties being close combat but we will soon see. (Could we see… Goku on Roku?)
- Some MAJOR, jaw dropping news about Taskmaster coming soon. And no, it’s not about the cast. (I’m not going to lie to you, I do find this sort of comment a bit annoying, a preview of something that may or may not happen – shit or get off the pot, please. But keep reading!)
- Comedy Central under Ben Frow is cancelling all UK shows, all of them. Roast Battle‘s just been announced as recommissioned but they’ve actually already filmed it. The channel is likely to be an imports only channel. (Ah, now this IS interesting if it’s true, and bad news for Jimmy Carr’s and Katherine Ryan’s accountants. Perhaps he’ll commission Comics on A Train. Shame about Your Face or Mine, can’t wait to see who tries Blockbusters again in a few years time. Sky Movies? Actually, hang on…)
- Strike It Lucky/Rich is being shopped for America using clips from “Epic Gameshow” (Given that it’s well recognised that the format for Strike It Lucky isn’t that good (it’s a quiz race! Except with a chicken element you can’t escape!) and that it’s mainly seen as a conduit for Michael Barrymore to entertain, this feels a bit… early.)
- The Final Throw – anyone know anything about it? Going only by the name and what they’re after (Italians/Americans) looks like it might be some sort of dice based game… at MediacityUK I suspect. It’s an Endemol pilot. (Anyone? Gut feeling they’re using “final throw of the dice” as a metaphor, not literal.)
- Hearing Rylan has signed up for a reboot of Interceptor in the Annabel Giles role. No word on who will play the Inceptor yet. (He’s playing The Interceptor, they’re already prepping “I got you, babes!” on T-shirts for merch.)
- The Circle has become such a national phenomenon and ratings hit in the demo that C4 will make 2 series per year from 2020. (Two series a year? Possible. National phenomenon? No. In A16-34 it gets around 400-450k, nothing to be sniffed at, but that’s equal to Taskmaster, less than Hollyoaks, 3/5s of Millionaire, 1/5th of Bake Off. It is quite far away from being the next Love Island. It’s barely doing what Big Brother was doing in its dying days.)
- A German version of De Mol is shooting right now in Argentina. Lots of people involved that are really really good and some of the original Belgian Mol people as well. Will use some tasks from the Mexico season and probably air on Sat.1. (This is great news! Especially with the Belgians involved.)
- Been watching some old JSF/It’s a Knockout on YT- Some of the events (especially the 80’s ones) make me wonder why I never heard of anyone being seriously injured doing the shows… (I’ll never forget seeing an episode of IAK where they had to race A-frame stepladders whilst inside them. There’s a lot of inventiveness the really old IAK had that was lost a bit by the costumes (and health and safety), I reckon.)
- The success of Five Gold Rings apparently booted out a planned Sunday night return of 1000 Heartbeats with an audience and double prize money. (I think this is a bluff I’m afraid.)
- Alexander Armstrong to appear alongside Stephen Fry in ROHoG, during a special week just after Christmas. (Also needs Sandi Toksvig and Fiona Bruce.)
- Heard rumblings of a Taskmaster UK Tour a while back, although seems a bit unfounded given the Horne Section are doing a tour at the moment. Might be something to tie-in with the tenth series? (Well here is a thing. I wonder how it would work, with local celebs like when they toured Shooting Stars? Only live tasks? Fun idea but I’m not sure about the logistics – not that this would stop them trying I’m sure.)
- Rebeckah Vardy has been approached for the next series of Celebrity Hunted, with Colleen Rooney joining the hunters. (No.)
- New Taskmaster Champion of Champions on the way, with Josh Widdecombe returning to defend his title against the four most recent winners (Tarbuck, Godliman, Sanders and [Series 9 winner]) (Plausable and would neatly into the two series a year scheduling. Would there be a new trophy though?)
- Danny Dyer and Rylan to star in a reboot of Richard and Judy’s You Say We Pay. (No, they’re rebooting Midday You Mug-gy)
- Interesting disappearance from Wikipedia: As of last Stool Pigeon, Chris Evans’ page listed him as hosting a show called “Don’t Forget Your Suitcase” in “2019”. But that has since been edited out. It’s likely obvious that that’s not happening by the end of this year, but was it a thing that was supposed to happen at some point? (I think someone was having a giraffe. You mug.)
- Adding to the German De Mol one: They fly to Argentina today. What a coincidence! (Exciting indeed!)
Phew, well that’s a lot to take in.
I really hope it’s true about german De Mol because I understand the language much better than dutch or flemish. Plus I might recognise some of the people from other German TV. Will be keeping an eye out with interest.
Don’t think it’s a celeb one, but I’m 90% confident it’s true.
I’m curious to see who’s on with Fry and Armstrong for ROHOG? I’m trying to see any upcoming quartets?
Interesting news about Taskmaster. Thought that if they would do a Champion of champions 2, it would be After 5 new series with the five new winners.
I know Rick Edwards and David O’Doherty are also doing Christmas ROHoG, but I doubt they’d do an all-male lineup
Hmm.. Both Edwards and O’Doherty have appeared on the programme before. If they are on together, it could be for a Champions week with two repeat women. I know that there is another week coming up with Richard Herring and a woman who will debut in Series 3.
My guess is that Series 18 will consist of 18 new quartets and 2 weeks of Champions weeks
Sorry about the lateness of this reply, but I just saw the last guests for the second half of Series 3. It looks like both halves were made up of 8 new groups and 2 Champion of champions groups at the end. There was no mention of a week with Stephen Fry and Alexander Armstrong as was reported here. I am not sure where this information came from, but I know that Osman is filming series 4 shortly and hopefully we’ll find out some details of upcoming guests.
If this is happening and I can fit it into my work schedule and our international Mol schedule I will try and subtitle the episodes. But I hope they don’t drag the episodes out as much as Germans usually do.
Sorry the vague Taskmaster comment was me. But it is big and I don’t think it’s known enough in telly to reveal so be patient!
Channel change?
I can’t imagine it being anywhere other than Dave, it would feel wrong.
I forgive you.
I wonder what it could be though if it’s not a live tour. I’m not sure aN Argumental-style channel change would work out that well for it, all told.
If it was a channel change, surely the only other natural homes (that would be an upgrade) for it are BBC 2 or C4, but I can’t see it doing better numbers than its already doing.
Outside bet, maybe Sky? The are launching a new Sky Comedy in the new year but think it’s supposed to be mainly imports.
I just think that Taskmaster does extremely well as a big fish in a small pond and I fear in terrestrial primetime it would suffer.
Oooh this is a fun game.
We’re due the next commission – and the last was 40 so… Biggest commission ever, 100 episodes!
Dave Ja Vu to become Taskmaster Channel
UKTV is now wholly owned by BBC Studios, so, er, it moves on demand to Britbox
Netflix acquired the show for a shitload and will make international versions
Comedy Central to pick up the show
Okay yes the last one is too far
Could the major/jaw dropping news about Taskmaster also be the live tour? That said we will have gone through all the currently commissioned eps by the end of this series so could be a mega order?
On Champions of Champions 2, interesting as Alex said on the book tour last year he really didn’t want to revisit Champ of Champs as he didn’t think it worked particularly well as everyone was a bit too knowledgable having gone through it once, and you don’t have the “rubbish” people that makes it super fun. I suppose if Dave really wanted it though, I doubt much of a fight would really be put up.
I’m putting my money on a Taskmaster video game *somehow*
If German Mole is anywhere near as good as the Belgian one I’ll be watching it.
I’m curious to see who’s on with Fry and Armstrong for ROHOG? I’m trying to see any upcoming quartets?
Interesting news about Taskmaster. Thought that if they would do a Champion of champions 2, it would be After 5 new series with the five new winners.
Yaaay, I got called a Mug. (I’m just happy I had a bit of nonsense to throw into one of these, usually I have nothing.)
The proposition about Taskmaster celebrating a 10th “series” hits me as a bit weird, being a US-er where “seasons” rarely break happen outside of an annual schedule. Do UK shows off of the annual schedule celebrate “X0th series” anniversaries, or do they focus on anniversaries by years?
They’ll usually celebrate their tenth series as their tenth anniversary, and then they’ll celebrate their tenth birthday again the next year because television.
The YouTube Channel The Variety Network is Uploading Full Original Episodes Of Winning Lines from Simon Mayo And Phillip Schofield. This is the latest upload From the 3rd August 2002
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=snySVBWS_8k
Ooh, the original BBC1 showing as opposed to Challenge’s edit.
That first episode of series 4 was also the first in which the Wonderwall scrolled across the top two-thirds of the screen, as opposed to the right two-thirds. Certainly a change for the better, since viewers could now see more of the answers at any one time than previously.
Pip *did* go grey quite quickly, didn’t he?
His hair was naturally grey many years before that, this is just when he stopped dyeing it. He looks more or less the same now as he did then,15 years ago.
Was it ever worked out the optimum times to take the pit stops?
Also I can’t believe nobody has knocked up a VR version of Wonderwall yet 🙁
Well, Ash the Bash on Twitch is doing a multiplayer Winning Lines as his current project, so that’ll be a decent replacement for the same feeling.
I would suspect with The Final Throw they’re just filming a few pilots for countries they know it’s likely to sell to. Strange that they don’t seem to be do one for the UK yet they’re filming it here.
Funnily enough while there seemingly weren’t any serious injuries among the competitors in It’s A Knockout*, there were some among the audience, because as that old Knockout fansite pointed out, the recording of this episode from Scunthorpe in 1982 had to be stopped because the audience seating collapsed, and several people had to be taken to hospital – https://youtu.be/CdU7hUIMyNo
I remember watching that episode on Challenge about a decade ago, and it’s pretty obvious the final goodbyes were recorded some time after everything else, with no audience in shot.
* I do have a Radio Times where someone writes in to say “Does Stuart Hall laugh every time someone breaks their leg, or just the foreigners?”.
Glad Taskmaster is getting a 2nd Champion of Champions and sounds like they’re doing it the right way with the 4 recent series winners and defending Champ of Champs.
Do agree with the comment it works well as a big fish in a small pond. Is it made by UKTV or by an independent production company for UKTV?
I wonder if the big news is that it’s becoming Taskmistress. Indeed if Greg were to leave it I’ve absolutely no idea who would make a suitable replacement, male or female. Although in many ways the show isn’t about him at all or indeed built around him it is difficult to imagine anyone else in that role – although I guess Jimmy Carr might have some time on his hands soon.
Taskmaster is made by Avalon for UKTV
Also a change of Taskmaster is an interesting thought, not impossible, but Alex has said repeatedly Greg was his first and only choice and I’m sure I’ve seen an interview with them both where they said as long as it keeps getting commissioned they’ll keep doing it in their roles, so would be interesting to see any motivation for the change of Taskmaster
Question re: Comedy Central, where would this leave Gods of the Game?
Brig Bother, Gods of the Games will get it’s one series and then be cancelled.
Not that my vote counts for anything, but ohhhhh … a new series of 1000 Heartbeats? (As unlikely or improbable as it would be.) Be still, my beating heart.