Thursdays, 8:30pm,
Comedy Central
Here’s something we’ve been looking forward to for a while as it’s from the people behind Bother’s Bar favourite, the award winning Wild Things. And if it’s anything like the team’s previous work it will be highly silly with an incredible found soundtrack.
Bradley Wiggins and Tom Rosenthal challenge ordinary members of the public to duel against actual properly successful sportspeople (in the first episode: Sir Chris Hoy, Sam Quek and Max Whitlock, episode two Mo Farah, Michael Owen, Nicola Adams) with nothing but a headstart, with hilarious consequences presumably.
Sounds a bit like a more overtly comic take on (the already comic) International King of Sports. Episodes are only half an hour, let us know what you think in the comments.
This was good! It’s basically Stupid Gladiators.
The games felt mildly clever and fun (even if the lack of budget shone through on occasion) and legimately challenging, as ever the editors do a good job of a) playing the contestants as slight comedy caricatures but b) also sympathetic and basically normal. And this also applies to the Gods as well. It’s the real reactions that work.
I thought the commentary team would be really annoying but actually they had some good gags. Amused that Hot Dad Bradley Wiggins can *almost but not quite* deliver a line, in a way that makes the whole thing slightly madder and more amusing.
I really liked the look of the stadium bits, although I found the constant crowd noise throughout a bit irritating. Maybe it could have done with an end game. But overall an enjoyable half hour.
In case you were wondering what the events were:
Max Whitlock: Contestants race across a 100m long set of monkey bars. Every ten metres headstart they want docks a point, which they only get if beat Max to the finish line.
Chris Hoy: A pedalo boat race around a lake, contestants can choose the time headstart (five seconds for max points, 90 seconds for minimum). Like all the other events, they must beat the God in order to collect the points.
Sam Quek: Hockey bowling. She gets 10 balls to knock down as many pins as possible (pins reset for a new frame after every second ball, like in proper bowling). To win, the contestant must match the amount of pins knocked down with 10 balls + however many extra balls they want for points.
I’m informed this did a massive 24,000 last night. This is totally going to be a show that everyone ignores but the people who watch it like it.
What’s that in comparison to it’s normal timeslot?
Really enjoyed it, Everyone getting hand injuries on the monkey bars seemed excessive, were they not given chalk?!
Can’t give exact figures, but Friends from 8-8:30 would likely have been doing just over 100k, going by previous week.
In comparison with other Comedy Central originals, Your Face or Mine could pull in a quarter-mill pretty easily.
Yes, and “Blockbusters” in this exact slot was doing 150,000 to 200,000 on every episode last year.
I agree with Nick – “Gods of the Game” is going to attract an audience as loyal as it is small. A shame.
Netflix has just given a order to a Turkish gameshow
“Exatlon Challenge – Exatlon is an international sports reality competition format owned by Acun Medya. Exatlon Challenge is a brand-new version of Exatlon, with a modern twist which features Turkey’s favorite influencers from digital media. Hosted by Orkun Isitmak as well as a special reality face-off segment on each episode by Oguzhan Ugur, Exatlon Challenge is an epic sports reality show that is not only not seeking the best player of the influencers, but also the one that has the most ‘gut’. The show will premiere on July 3rd in Turkey. “
While entertainment TV in Italy is in shambles, Enrico Papi attempts to rebuild with a classic.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1762960930490796
whoops wrong link (still relevant though)
That’s the one
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=204421487575248
When you are watching a sporting activity programme and you start willing the actual programme to step up a gear, rather that the contestants – you know it’s failing to hit a couple of beats.
I really, really wanted to like this. It’s right up my street with sport, comedy, knowingly overblown self importance, visual stupidity and obscure music in the soundtrack, but it all just felt like a on air pilot. And the rest of the series, one fears, will end up like this.
Didn’t warm to Tom Rosenthal at all – would have prefered his Dad do this programme.
Like Sir Bradley though. Suspect if they had allowed him to break free from some of the script chains and to wing i more, it could have been far more amusing.
Not sure what – other than a doubling of the low 5 figure budget – could improve it. Give it a go though.
A constant ‘god’ throughout the programme who does all three games. That would allow a stronger narative, and allow for some between game banter between the mortals and that programmes resident god of the game.
A self contained arena for those games (see budget, current constraints of)
Not having crowd cheering, music, commentators on the soundtrack – all the time
Not having two ‘comedy’ commentators, doing the same ‘act’. It needs a real life tv sports commentator, ready to send him/herself up along side the out and out gagsmith.
It’s an OK try – But International King Of Sports is still the holder of the undisputed heavyweight silly sports tv championship of the world.
Episode two also good fun:
Mo Farah: Contestants run around a race track for the length of time a Queen tribute band plays Bohemian Rhapsody. They can choose the time headstart they get over Mo, if he passes them before the final note they lose.
Michael Owen: Ten shots to hit as many football mascots as he can. Mortals try and beat the score in 10+headstart shots.
Nicola Adams: Contestants must hit a punching bag so that it hits a sensor, every ten times they do this their horse goes down a fairground Kentucky Derby track one space. Players can choose their time headstart.
Race events seem to work a bit better than the target ones, you can really feel where they’ve had to drastically cut trying to fit it into a 22 minute show (not the original intention, I think that’s quite clear).
This is doing pretty well in catch-up, I’m told.
Episode three:
Joanna Rowell Shand: A repeat of the pedalo game Chris Hoy did (I understand this is mainly because they were due to get speed skater Ellie Christie but was hospitalised a week before the shoot so this was a last minute replacement). However as a game this repeated well, mainly because everyone was so comically bad at it in their own way, whether that be steering into each other, getting stuck on the banks or whatever.
Tim Henman: Contestants choose however many balls they want, they have that many shots to knock off giant eggs balancing on the helmets of various crew members, each getting covered in “yolk” if their egg gets knocked off. Then Henman gets ten balls to knock off as many eggs as he can – with the Mortals standing in the line waiting to get egg on their face as Henman beats them.
I think the skill game working in reverse to how it’s been presented in the previous weeks with the contestants going first and the God going after worked pretty well, seemed more compelling than the previous games. I think it’s because it’s truer to the “chase” element of the show.
Ben Cohen: Carry a rugby ball and outrun Ben Cohen the length of a rugby field as he attempts to tackle them from behind. The more points, the lower the time headstart.
Still in pain from that tackle… and their music choice for myself. Haha
God Of The Games – TV Ratings – Inc. 7 Day Data.
These ratings are via BARB just incase any one.is wondering. The Overnight ratings are via Thinkbox TV.
Overnight ratings.
EP1: 29K
EP2: 100K
Inc. 7 Day Data.
EP1: 109,300K
EP2: 121,300K
Catching up with this on NowTV, the ambition of this show is quite something, but man does the editing hurt the pace. I really can’t stand being told what happened at the end of someone’s game rather than just seeing it.
It’s fair to suggest that the original idea wasn’t a half hour show, I think.
Yeah, thats one thing that disappointed me slightly. Why not allow us to watch it all.
XD
Episode 5’s Don’t Touch My Balls might be the funniest commentary of the series.