Chris Kamara, of Ninja Warrior, with Here’s to Christmas.
The cover is both in black and white and features the singer looking off camera, for some reason, both pre-requisites for success in the genre.
£9.99 on Amazon, or there’s the Spotify link above. Out November 15th.
Actually speaking of which, there’s still not been a recording for a further series of Ninja Warrior. There was a Stool Pigeon suggestion it had been axed, perhaps it has?
I’ve heard the opening track, and I can EXCLUSIVELY REVEAL… it’s pretty good, all considered. Whether it was my headphones or not there seemed to be a bit of a mixing issue with the backing being a bit too loud but, you know, reasonably well executed.
Not to mention this isn’t Kammy’s first rodeo at slightly ill advised licensing deals – anyone else familiar with Chris Kamara’s Street Soccer on the Playstation?
Ooh, there’s a Plays Badly waiting to happen.
I put it on my, ahem, ‘modified’ PS Classic recently to have a go with. I’d say it had aged badly, but it was never that good in the first place. If you do ever find a copy with the cover art, it’s a thing of beauty – in desperation to find an ‘action’ shot of Kammy, they’ve tried to clean up one of him at the back end of his playing career about to clear a ball, and have somehow managed to Photoshop his lead leg out entirely. Symptomatic of the rest of the QA process, IMHO
The most important thing is: can he actually sing? We’re probably not far off having enough game show hosts that have released albums to have gameshow-themed series of Celebrity X Factor.
he isn’t the best but he can hold a tune. After all he did the all together now celeb special. still annoyed the BBC dropped it for the usual generic excuse. “need more space on the schedule for new content”.
BB Australia is coming back next year…
https://twitter.com/bbausnews/status/1186991734976212992?s=21
As you can see from the promo, they’re going to use the US/Canada rules. However, the big controversy is that the rumor is the show won’t be shown live- instead, they plan to tape the show in April, but not air it until August..(after the Olympics, which the network bringing it back will air)
This means BB will have aired in Australia on all of their major commercial networks…(first Ten, then Nine, and now Seven)
How does that make any sense? How do the eliminations work then?
The US/Canada format is completely different than most of the other BB versions- think “Survivor in a House”.
Here’s the general format as of now:
-Every game week there are two major comps; the “Head of Household” (or HOH for short) comp (done right after an eviction and the start of a game week) and the “Power of Veto” (POV for short- done after nominations in the middle of a game week). These can vary wildly from week to week, from a Q&A about house facts, to an endurance competition, to a puzzle-solving comp, to a “Yankee Swap” comp with prizes, powers, and penalties, etc.
-The winner of the HOH comp is safe for the week, gets use of the HOH bedroom, laundry service, a goodie basket with personal photos and a letter from home, and other perks.
-They also get to pick the 2 nominees for eviction.
-The HOH, the nominees, and three other HG’s picked at random (the HOH and the noms pick a chip from a box with the names of the other HG’s along with a HG’s choice chip to decide) compete in the POV comp.
-The winner of the POV comp has the right, but not the obligation, to take one of the nominees off the block (including themselves) at a ceremony after the comp. If that happens the HOH picks a replacement- but the HOH cannot put up the POV winner or the person who was taken down.
-At the end of a game week (usually the live show in the US), the non-nominated HG vote to evict one of the nominees. The HOH does not vote, unless they have to break a tie.
-To prevent someone from dominating HOH, with one exception, a person can’t be HOH 2 weeks in a row.
-That exception is the last HOH when the final 3 remaining HG’s compete. This comp is in 3 parts. The first part is usually physical or endurance. The winner goes to Part 3. The other 2 compete in Part 2, which usually involves remembering events that happened during the season. The winner there competes with the Part 1 winner in Part 3, which usually involves predicting answers of the last 8 evicted HG’s.
-The last HOH winner evicts the person they don’t want to go against in the final 2.
-The first few evictees go home (however usually there is a twist where the first 4 or 5 people compete for a chance to re-enter the game before that happens).
-After a few weeks, evicted HG’s go to a sequestered jury house (they get to see tapes of comps and such while there- sometimes there is a comp where the first few jury members compete to re-enter the game)
-the jury then votes for one of the final 2 to win (usually 5 votes out of 9- and BB Canada had a infamous moment when one of the jury members voted for the wrong person because she though it was a vote against someone, not for- and that vote ended up being the winning margin)
-and unlike other BB’s where it’s usually against the rules, players can talk openly about nominations and voting- so you see a lot of strategy and tactics talk.
The game’s evolved of course:
-early on everyone competed for POV, and a nominee couldn’t take themselves down.
-The noms and the HOH picked the players for POV for a while after that; but that changed after a HG used a unique strategy to guarantee someone went home (she nominated two of her alliance members, and the three of them picked three others of their alliance to play for POV. No matter who won, it would be used, and the HOH would then put the real target up)
-In Canada last season the HOH no longer competed in POV, so there were only 5 people playing and not 6.
-The first couple of seasons of this the evicted HG’s were not sequestered, but that changed after a HG lost the final vote because while she was nice to the other HG’s in the house, but was vicious to them in the Diary Room which soured the jury since they could see the episodes and something that is usually only known to the home audience and not the HG’s, and it was considered unfair to do that.
-There have been twists every season that alter things (some seasons there were comps that let someone put up a 3rd nominee in secret, sometimes there has been a “Diamond Veto” which let the holder not only take someone down, but pick the replacement instead of the HOH, some have had a “Coup” power which let them take down both noms and pick both replacements, etc.), some (but not all) involved home audience votes (but it’s not necessary- thus you can tape the show in advance as it’s rumored there).
I was aware of some of those differences, but not most of the smaller ones. Thanks!
This may or may not be news, but Challenge has bought Lily Savage’s Blankety Blank, no idea if it’s the BBC or ITV version though.
Also !mpossible starting Sunday nights at 8 pm on Challenge TV. Series 1 currently bought. I would like some more classic BBC properties rather than modern ones.
Sadly, it’ll be a while before there’s an abundance of pre-Pointless BBC shows (GFG, Wipeout, Bob’s Full House etc) in Challenge’s schedules again…
And why haven’t they gone after ’80s Play Your Cards Right? This was produced solely by LWT, so the rights can’t be difficult to obtain (and I doubt the paperwork has been misplaced – unlike with pre-1994 Catchphrase, All Clued Up, Ultra Quiz, etc). And it would certainly make a change from Bullseye, great as it was, being repeated for the millionth time…
Sadly, given that broadcasting 30-minute BBC shows means less time for adverts in the programmes either side of them, having them on too much would probably be unsustainable. Challenge recently had Small Talk on during weekday daytimes, but sadly it only lasted for three-or-so weeks.
It certainly had me thinking, would Small Talk work today? Probably not, for two reasons. One: Ronnie Corbett is irreplacable, and Two: all the kids would be insufferable and keep flossing. Kids these days, basically.
>Would Small Talk work today?
Maybe. Big Star’s Little Star and What Would Your Kid Do have that market pretty much covered, but the whole thing of kids saying funny things will never stop being popular.
I can’t think off the top of my head of any other game show with an in-vision host introducing themselves via voiceover. 😉
Returning to ’80s PYCR, and (sort of) in response to Steve, I don’t see how today’s Challenge viewers would be put off by the kaleidoscopic title sequence, or the end game being played for points rather than pounds (they might wonder how many points were needed for each prize besides the car, but they wouldn’t be greatly bewildered by it, would they?). Or, indeed, Brucie handing out fivers to audience members when the episode ran short…
One thing I always thought would be a good thing for Challenge to buy was Brucie’s 90s Gen Game. They showed the Larry episodes a couple of times, and they also repeated 3-2-1 a bit, but I’m sure the 90s Gen Games would have been a bit more palatable and coherent to a modern audience than those two shows. And the first series lasted 50 minutes so they could have probably crammed them into an hour long slot with adverts. If they were going to do it they’d presumably have done so just after he died, mind.
Challenge are too busy being Bradley Walsh’s bitch!
I know Brig isn’t really a Circle fan. But I’m sure he’d agree that Tim [Wilson] would be an amazing host if they decide to give The Crystal Maze a last throw of the dice.
I’m not *not* a fan of The Circle, I do think people bigging it up as a phenomenon need to wind their necks in a bit.