Right, time’s up – I’m reusing the same post here so that the comments (which I usually turn off) still make sense, so without further ado let’s try and sort the fact from the fiction – as ever the only people who know the truth are the writers and the people involved:
- Following the continued success of Hunted, Rylan is being tapped to front a reboot of Wanted for the back end of the year. (Not true, his husband Detective Dan would likely be so good as a Tracker people would just complain to OFCOM.)
- Rylan to be on taskmaster Rylan to be on house of games (So little effort seems to have gone in to this one I probably shouldn’t have bothered reprinting it tbh.)
- Someone on Twitter made a claim in January that The Adventure Game is making a comeback in the near future, with a reboot in development. HOWEVER, I got in touch with the BBC and they state they still fully own the rights to T.A.G., so take that all with many grains of salt. (I take that with a lot of grains of salt I think.)
- The Crystal Maze UK will not be involving Civilians for the 4th production year and this decision was not down to Fizz but Channel 4. I’m also hearing word that the 2nd half of Season 3 will be going out in 3 weeks on the 6th March. (And so The Crystal Maze trundles on, very much the answer to the potential Fighting Talk question “What’s the Morrissey of gameshows?” at this point. Happy thirtieth birthday for Saturday.)
- Saturday Night Takeaway to take over the slot currently occupied by The Masked Singer when that show reaches its conclusion after this week. (I wonder if they’ve got any new features planned given an extra year to come up with some?)
- This isn’t really Industry Gossip, but on the topic of The Masked Singer UK, did anyone forget that Ceelo Green actually revealed he was the Monster a few weeks ago during the “Two Lies and a Truth” interlude? The panel seemed to act as though his response to being directly asked the question “Are you Ceelo Green?” was the first time he’d given himself away… I guess they all forgot about his earlier revelation because they thought it was a bluff? (They should have opened with Two Lies And A Truth in week one to open up the possibility space.)
- The Chase has been given a huge recommission. Somewhere between 600-1000. ITV also rumoured to be bringing back Poker Face later this year. (Huge if true, that’s 3-5 years worth, are they trying to lock people in whilst relatively cheap? Poker Face always seemed like a fan favourite rather than a public one. I’d be well up for it though.)
- Contrary to press reports, Big Brother‘s return isn’t imminent, sadly. There’s a chance, but it’s still very very early days. The Daily Star massively jumped the gun. That said, talks are ongoing. (In response to Alex’s comment, presumably. The Daily Star jumped the gun on Taskmaster moving to C4 as well, but they ended up being right (when I had several industry people tell me they were wrong), so who knows?)
- Queen Bee = Nicola Roberts Octopus = Katherine Jenkins Hedgehog = Jason Manford (This is in relation to The Masked Singer, out of context it’s like something from The Da Vinci Code.)
- Dave are partnering with Nintendo to make a comedy-gaming show based around their games, hosted by Doc Brown. (I think Doc Brown deserves better than Channel 4 Coors Lite Rap Battle break bumpers, I don’t think this is an idea with good synergy to be honest – Dave have tried a gaming show, they had a good go at it, don’t think they’ll bother again. Unless Nintendo are paying them loads.)
- Her from Survivor & Mock The Week is hosting a gameshow. (Not much to go on here, but Zoe Lyons hosting a show wouldn’t seem like that bad an idea. Perhaps she’ll get to host a rebooted Survivor UK that’s continually threatened.)
Not a classic edition of Stool Pigeon to be honest, but some potentially interesting tidbits all the same.
Looking forward to seeing if anyone has any intel on that supposed Big Brother deal.
i’m hoping someone from the crystal maze production crew might come forward with any info regarding not only the potential return date for season 3 pt 2 but also any info from production season 4 which we know has gone into pre production.
COULD THIS POSSIBLY HAPPEN? FROM AN ANONYMOUS SOURCE NO LESS?
Well it didn’t state insider sources. Sounds like a firm decision. Hopefully, this info is a bluff as it wouldn’t paint its anniversary year well. Unless they get former contestants from the past who are willing to appear again. “Celebs” don’t work (especially reality). Unless your recruitment team improves and don’t repeat the same lineups too often i.e Scarlett Moffat, i don’t expect the show will survive it’s UK roots and both the UK & America versions will die or their set is reproduced abroad.
please let it be the latter and have the set produced abroad. (as a yank, would be a FINE shame if we never got a live experience). Can’t they just fire ayoade and hire conover to host the uk version? He is so much better. I do not understand the appeal of the snowman at ALL. he *really* Does not want to be there. is it just british humor that i don’t understand? what the hell is the appeal in that robot.
Other news, (Dont look at me i hear what i hear) Netflix maybe in talks with endemol to buy black mirror? it explains these: https://deadline.com/2020/01/charlie-brooker-annabel-jones-quit-house-of-tomorrow-1202840327/
https://deadline.com/2020/02/black-mirror-charlie-brooker-annabel-jones-launch-broke-and-bones-1202853906/
it makes ALOT of sense.
There is no way Adam Conover flies as hosting the UK version.
I like Richard Ayoade, he’s funny when he’s being officious and skewering the contestants. The “cuh, TV eh? Why you watching this rubbish?” stuff is annoying – there’s a time and a place for such irony, The Crystal Maze isn’t it. I thought it was interesting to see which jokes they’ve lifted wholesale from our one, and interesting that it’s a lot of those ones.
Well let’s hope Ant & Dec have a leap year proposal in the wings for the 29th Feb edition. i know it’s probably too obvious but you never know.
Inspired by Schofe, Dec professes his undying love for Ant and proposes. RATINGS GOLD!
On Takeaway, the Facebook page was looking for people’s grandparents who weren’t engaged or married yet, so maybe that on the 29th…?
The trailer suggests same old same old for Takeaway with most of the features that have been around since the relaunch seemingly back (including place on the plane, I’ve heard Disneyland again) although TBF unlikely to announce new features in a trailer. No mention of In For A Penny but Steven is in the trailer so who knows.
I heard following the first Saturday Night Takeaway in Florida that the Disney marketing folks loved it, however the people in park operations found it an absolute nightmare having the show inside the park, hence why the following year it was at Universal, outside the main theme parks in a space designed for hosting events.
Not sure the Nintendo and dave one is true. Nintendo is historically very tight with licensing, there aren’t even any Nintendo funkos and those have pretty much every licence.
I doubt a company that isnt even giving its licence to a million dollar figure company is going to give a licence to a obscure channel only in the UK
Yeah i smell foulness around the Dave/Nintendo collaboration show statement. Microsoft would be more likely.
For many years, I’ve wanted to do a Nintendo game show. It would have had to involve VR or similar trickery to really get into the ‘world’ of it, though. Probably too expensive for the niche audience. But just think – Gusty Garden Galaxy on your telly…
Doc Brown’s Celebrity Mario Party.
Genuinely a FANTASTIC idea
Being a bit more serious, did the 6th Chaser ever get confirmed?
Also Mark Watson and Alex Horne were making cryptic comments on Twitter about the return of We Need Answers the other day – does anyone know if that’s actually on the cards? Come on (TV Channel) Dave – get this commissioned…
Sixth Chaser definitely happening but not revealed yet.
Has there been much speculation regarding the Sixth Chaser’s gender? There was certainly much talk of the Fifth Chaser being female before Jenny’s name was confirmed.
Sarah Lang was suggested back then, and I still wouldn’t say no to her being a Chaser – though, sadly, it’s possible that being from the same neck of the woods as the Beast may count against her. Lisa Thiel would be good, too – although if her name was confirmed before Eggheads’ demise was, the Beeb-hating rags would quite likely have a field day (“SHOCKER as Egghead becomes CHASER”, “Eggheads faces AXE as Lisa DEFECTS”, etc etc)…
If it’s to be a man, then Eric Monkman has to be considered, right? Brexit doesn’t mean that we can’t have a Chaser from overseas, and he’d certainly tick most, if not all, of the boxes. It would of course depend on whether or not he’d be willing to spend the required amount of time in the UK, though I don’t see why he wouldn’t be.
It’s definitely not an Egghead, I’ve been told.
Ooh, I know better than to get my hopes up but I’ll definitely be a bit crushed if the Poker Face bit is total nonsense. Seems like the right time with primetime quizzes doing decent numbers for ITV again, at least.
I’m pretty sure the Poker Face bit is nonsense. it did quite well in a some other countries but was never a big enough success to justify the expensive double whammy of a million pound top prize and paying for Ant and Dec, although the fact it was credited as their idea might have affected that either way. There’s no way the top prize would be a million these days, but if it was anything less then it would look odd to the few people who remember it. I think it’s also a very “of its time” show, formats centered around bluffing were very much the in thing, and the drama and conflict between the contestants would look really out of place now.
I know the UKGameshows Poll of the Year has power, but – fresh from its 2019 win – I didn’t know it had THAT much power:
I think you’re missing a link there, is this re: the third US series of The Wall finally getting aired?
Yes, it keeps blocking the link from Buzzerblog for some reason.
How weird!
http://buzzerblog.com/2020/02/12/nbc-finally-schedules-the-wall-for-march-15th/
Anyone got a good guess as to why it was shelved for so long in the first place? There’s a good theory that it’s because all the episodes featured small wins, but that has happened before with this format and the episodes have been shown just fine, the Australian version suffered from the wrong decision being made with the contract in every episode and a $0 win in 2 out of the 6 episodes made.
If The Crystal Maze were to get a 30th anniversary style special with old contestants, I would consider this as a good line-up of adventurers seeking redemption/redevising. (also note 6 people not 5). I’m sure there’s plenty of other ones, this is just off top of my head. And if they’re not doing civilian episodes again, this is the closest thing. Do it for charity too, and label it as the anniversary special.
ME (Will Stephen) – 9/10 games and yet no big prize (Statistically best team captain in history will be on my tombstone).
Rob Griffin (Cosplayers) – Needs redemption on the planets for the viral sensation that he is.
Shelley Hauxwell (The Hauxwell family) – Only team to finish with 0 crystals, and only person to be double locked-in, she needs a win.
Richard Colburn (U3 Guy) – Would be viral sensation from the original series and one of the most iconic moments. Ricardo needs redemption due to editing.
Lara Ekundayo (The London Girls) – Because arguing with Richard by saying “it’s mine” was one of the best New Series moments in history. Wouldn’t mind seeing a round 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbphQSb1w8A
Ed Tudor-Pole – Deserves far more credit and can be used as a platform for people to see the older series (which arguably has the best games of any season)
The Crystal Maze: Redemption Island
I was waiting for my update on if/when Eggheads was being cancelled. Sadly nothing this month.
Also queen bee is Jade from little mix 🙂
I suspect House of Games getting three-figure episode orders probably confirms it.
no there is a clue image going around claiming it is related to Girls Aloud not Little Mix
JUST BLOODY BRING BACK THE MOLE, GLENN:
https://deadline.com/2020/02/rat-in-the-kitchen-itv-studios-bbc-pilot-1202859106/
Reheats Die Mol?
Poker Face – ITV was interested in a reboot for a bit but then it fell through and isn’t happening.
Interesting – do you know how recently were they considering it? It’s a great format but would probably need some changes to really work out, the ratings at the time were considered a bit disappointing IIRC.
Within the last year.
They have referred Little mix lyrics and her link to the online bullying campaign that she did with the BBC documentary. Also there is a clear Geordie accent there.
The octopus I’m not sure on but I think it’s most likely somebody from Emmerdale that did I’m a celeb.
As for the Hedgehog I still think Rhydian Roberts. He has links to ALW and Phantom. Though I’m not ruling out Manford for sure
Got a funny one for you (french-centerd obviously so I skipped posting it one the stool pigeon – and it’s just a rumor).
FOX managed somehow to sell Spin The Wheel rights to TF1 – quite a feat considering that they already aired The Wall, with mediocre results. And after paying the fees, the execs were stumbled with quite an issue.
It seems (unclear) that the rights holders insists to use the exact same twelve meters gigantic wheel from the original ver. (guess they’re shipping it to Europe) ….and there’s no studio space anywhere in France big enough to welcome it. They’re looking at options in Eastern Europe now – possibly where The Wall’s set is currently used – if the project is not already buried deep in shame.
Ha ha ha!
A friend of mine literally had to saw two feet off the set of In the Dark so that it could fit into a smaller European studio.
Could they not just make their own dark rooms? Amazing.
I’m not really sure how well Spin The Wheel would work outside of the US. As far as I can tell, it only exists so they can promote the fact that it has the highest top prize of any game show in the world, but I doubt a French version would match it terms of top prize. As well as that, it has an insanely low average win as a percentage of the maximum, I worked out the average was $130,000 out of $23 million. So if it was the highest top prize in Europe at €6.9million, beating the Dutch version of The Wall on 6 million, it would still only have an average of €52,000 which isn’t far off what the French version of the Wall had as its average. The problem with having a huge unwinnable top prize and is that even if it brings in good ratings for the first episode, once the viewers figure out no one is likely to win anything even remotely close to the top prize they switch off, 2 obvious UK examples are Shafted and High Stakes.
Did we know about Lightning?
https://bbc.in/2Hhw9PP
Ah! That’ll be the Zoe Lyons quiz then.
Yes, were aware they were looking for contestants for it a while back, even know some Bar people worked on it.
HQ Trivia has finally bitten the dust:
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/14/media/hq-trivia-shut-down/index.html
From the start it reminded me of those call-in quiz channels, and had the same feel about them that it’s not all entirely above-board. Although we haven’t been given a lot of details to why it’s gone under, I have no idea how it actually made a decent amount of money for this long. In the US they had a few sponsored games, but I don’t think I saw anything like that in the UK.