Ideas that are so bad you have to think they’ve come from a commissioner rather than a team that’s been running a show for over a decade

By | March 11, 2023

Saturday night on Pointless Celebs, the introduction of an idea I heard was happening a while ago, sounded absolutely awful then, is absolutely awful in reality… it’s the £500 Triple Pointless Final bonus!

I get why they want to shy away from doubling or tripling the jackpot if you give two or three Pointless answers in the final – if the jackpot goes into five figures, you’re on the hook for £30, £40, £50k every episode until it gets won which doesn’t *sound* like a lot of money, but actually that’s how much it would cost to make two episodes – it’s actually not small beer in BBC daytime terms. But £500 for a triple Pointless is not only anticlimactic (you’ve won a four figure sum! Let’s see if you’ve won FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS more!), it is actively insulting for the object achieved, and the amount it has happened, so much so in fact that it’s less insulting to not offer it as has been the case for over a decade now.

You want to make the Triple Pointless something people might talk about? Offer a telephone box sized Pointless Trophy. Maybe one the size of a bollard for a Double Jackpot.

5 thoughts on “Ideas that are so bad you have to think they’ve come from a commissioner rather than a team that’s been running a show for over a decade

  1. Michael S. Collins

    It felt counter-intuitive too, as the team that made the final had done well and had done so for *charity*, so instead of the finish being “well done for raising a decent chunk of moolah for a good cause” it was “you got 2 Pointless answers in the final on a tough question, but because you didn’t get three, your charities lose 500 quid.”

    Unnecessarily downer. On top of the small amount/daft idea/etc.

    Reply
    1. Mr Babbage

      Call my cynical, but it feels like they’re editing references to this back out of episodes, suggesting it was never won, and they’re trying to pretend it never happened. Certainly there’s some very funny looking cuts in the final rounds.

      Reply

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