Gang I’m going to come out and say it: I know it was an unexpected episode, but the results this time round are a bit disappointing. Last time we managed to piss-off a producer. THIS IS THE SORT OF JUICE WE WANT.
Let’s see the best of what you did tell us:
- Race around the world is starting filming in January. With added Covid restriction-jeopardy thrown in.
This might have been good JUICE had I not read it on Twitter about twenty minutes before Taskmaster started so bad luck. I still think this feels a bit hopeful, as much as I’d like it to happen.
- I’ve won £1000 on a gameshow……. But it doesn’t get paid until it airs…………. In the middle of 2022
Actually fairly unusual for a UK production as I understand it, so I understand a level of aggravation.
- Netflix has bought the rights to The Mole for all territories except Belgium, Netherlands and Germany (they were still trying to sell the second season of the remake when the rights were negotiated). Someone from the production company told me. It’s not really news, but it is a more definitive version of our guesses.
Yay! The Mole made for a worldwide audience by Americans basically. That’ll definitely be good *looks to camera*.
- The social media detectives have perhaps found out two of the contestants for taskmaster s13. Chris Ramsey, his podcast lined up with the dates of the studio recordings, and Judi Love, she posted a picture in the same dressing room as Desiree did when they were doing the studio recordings, the picture got taken down
Chris Ramsey wasn’t on a list that was floating about I saw IIRC, would certainly add a bit more star value to the list I DID see (although I know and accept that it’s not always the big names that provide the big laughs). Anyway we’ll hopefully all find out next week after the final.
- True Stories is a show coming up. Four people, all with an unbelievable story, only one telling the truth. All interrogated by criminal interrogators. A fifth player has to guess who is telling the truth to win the cash. Get it wrong and the chosen liar wins.
Think I heard vague rumblings about this, or at least a contestant call-out for something that sounded like it. Not really a new idea, it’s Tell the Truth/Liar/Pants On Fire whatever, but the professional criminal interrogators might be an interesting twist.
- Total speculation, rather than inside info, but there has been so much crossover between the global Taskmaster Cinematic Universe and the Escape This Podcast, er, podcast that I am convinced that Alex Horne and chums are trying to work out a way to pitch something like it commercially. If the success of Outsiders shows there is a market for “Taskmaster but outdoors”, there could just as easily be a market for “Taskmaster but puzzly”.
I’m not sure how successful Outsiders is looking at the numbers (started at 500k, now around 200k. Is that enough? More people watched the last episode on catch-up than same day. I don’t know what would make Dave happy). Comedians doing escape rooms sounds like a winner on paper, but nobody’s really managed to turn the idea into a workable TV show yet. The much missed Race to Escape is probably the best try at it, but even that only did one series. Would an escape room TV show use up too many ideas too quickly? I have to say I hadn’t heard of the Escape This Podcast podcast, but looking it up if I wasn’t currently overwhelmed with podcasts I’d certainly give it a try.
- It’s not very interesting, but I’ve seen large photos of the new Weakest Link set and it’s very shiny. Recorded in Glasgow recently (at the same time as COP, inconveniently).
Yep I’ve seen some as well – looks a bit like the US one but with prettier podiums than the US one. Let’s hope the format is a bit prettier than the US one as well, eh? I actually thought they were going to film this with an audience, but apparently not. Still, though.
There we go, maybe not that bad after all. I think the next big Happening is GamesMaster “dropping” on Youtube on Sunday before a broadcast on E4 on Wednesday, I’ll put up a Show Discussion post for that.
It would be quite funny if it turns out True Stories is made up, tbf.
I know of shows in Germany that edited people out, because they just didn’t have the time and those contestants didn’t get the money they won, because of that. They only get it if it airs, fairly standard here.
That’s awful! I know it’s pretty standard practice in the US, but I basically hate it. Players shouldn’t have to gamble on whether it gets aired or not, especially when the production company is getting paid regardless.
Sounds like this might be referencing The 1% Club, btw.
I know what the £1,000 reference is referring to but I know for a fact the last couple of Fifteen to One Grand Champions in the ST era had to wait a s’load of time for the £40,000 to arrive until the final was tx’ed and certainly Series 10 (the last ST series of which I regretfully was on for a second time (Series 2 back in 2014 prior to that!) ) took over a year to be tx’ed so these are things that are certainly not new and yes it is a pain in the rear end having to wait so long.
I agree, I think it’s really crappy on the part of the production company. Especially since, in some cases, contestants have been through some incredibly psychologically stressful and physically difficult experiences in order to win that money, it’s incredibly harsh to just say ‘oh, we’re not airing that, you don’t get the money, soz’.
RE Escape Room Gameshow: Really ought to look at The Great Escape in South Korea. By the same bods as The Genius, it’s a team of 6 famous people of varying skills and smarts (as a regular cast) being taken to a large-scale escape “room” that can span a warehouse, an amusement park, an underground complex, etc.
Each escape requires two hours to get through in viewing time, but can take rescuers 6-8 hours to complete. There’s also cross-seasonal storylines (escapes are seemingly within the same universe), and from season 2, the possibility of failure.
Some pretty damn ingenious stuff has come up in it, like the S4 “Crazy House” one where they play a board game with various puzzles to pass through the mind of a domestic terrorist, and to learn the location of their next target. All while dealing with various scary elements and needing to be on a moving floor that can raise and lower to take them from room to room, coinciding with their movements on the board game.
The one where they had to pass through pitch-black rooms was also pretty damn good, as is the introduction of the Time Machine saga.
Sadly, it seems that only streaming services like Netflix that aren’t really tied to scheduled blocks of time can really do it justice. And with the budget it deserves too.
Oh now I *was* watching that at one point when it started and kind of forgot about it, and I was quite enjoying it, so thanks for the reminder as that all sounds excellent.
That sounds very interesting! Where can I watch it?
So the taskmaster info was probably less rumour and more insider info (attended recordings)
Channel 5 have randomly swiped another ex BBC show, Cash In The Attic
Even more randomly, Kammy is lined up to present it!