We are 20

That’s right, happy birthday to us and what an exciting time to be a gameshow website, a dying genre in a dying medium. What does the future hold? Spoiler: it will probably a bit like how it is at them moment, with infrequent updates when new shows come on, new videos to promote, poll results and the like, whilst urging you to join the Discord (link in the sidebar) which is probably closer to a Bar in spirit than I could manage here. An expensive signpost really.

The grand irony is that I originally didn’t see the Discord doing much, you know those sheets you can get that you put on top of homemade soups that skim off the fat and the like? I thought all the lower-tier comments would find themselves attracted to it leaving the website for the quality stuff. In reality it hasn’t quite worked out like that, it’s enabled discussion to be a bit nimbler, a bit more wide-ranging, a bit more democratic (although be in little doubt, there’s only one person in charge and that is me, no your hysterical Late Show-esque opening topical monologue hot takes are not especially welcome). It makes events and watchalongs much easier. We’re pleased that some of the great and the good of the industry drop by (“the good,” mainly). My main annoyance with it is that’s it’s completely ephemeral, once it goes it goes. It has crossed my mind a few times to jack it in, but it’s quite good right now.

What have I enjoyed about the last twenty years? I’ve really enjoyed watching something new and being able to shout “this is a great show,” especially if it’s something international that requires a bit of effort – I maintain that a good show is a good show is a good show and if something’s been directed properly you should be able to understand and follow regardless of language barrier even if the details are fuzzy. I miss people making TV in London as I love going to see pilots even if there’s an element of masochism to this i.e. it’s rarely much fun actually in the minute-to-minute, especially when it’s the pilot of Don’t Scare the Hare, and now everything is filmed in Salford or Glasgow it’s a bit too expensive and time-consuming to do it when it’s on offer, I’m in my 40s now I have other responsibilities these days unfortunately.

We miss knowledgeable people from the early days who are no longer with us – the Travis Penery’s, the David Cooper’s (fucking hell, it’s absolutely criminal that’s he missed out on Genius Game). We had suspicions but never found out who Endemol Joe was. Congratulations to everyone who got a job or similar out of Bother’s Bar – and I know that’s at least one of you. Everyone does well out of Bother’s Bar except for me, etc.

If I have one frustration it’s a lack of practical video-making ability and endemic laziness, at one point I was going to make a pilot/proof-of-concept episode of something that has been sitting in my head for a while for this: the site’s 20th birthday, but it turns out I couldn’t be bothered. Still, you don’t get many crap formats these days do you? Except for Deal or No Deal Island, obviously. I like to think we’ve gone some way to help basic understanding, we hope people can remember the need to be a bit more aggressively entertaining. It remains extremely frustrating to see a good idea that’s *almost* there.

We never did get round to doing a Host Holding A Question Card Tumblr but you can rest assured we continue to have our beady eye on the HOTTEST promo trends and Boring Press Release Quotes going forward, you are never far away from a crap attempt at spin and I for one cannot wait. We will still be doing our best-in-field consumer journalism i.e. buying the latest Fort Boyard videogame and going “oh.”

Thanks to David J Bodycombe for hosting the site in the early days, an extremely generous man. To everyone who has turned up and contributed in the last twenty years, thank you for doing so. I have enjoyed throwing bouquets and brickbats from the sidelines of the industry for the past 20 years here (and almost another decade on top elsewhere), I’ll probably always be around whilst there is competitive unscripted entertainment in one form or another even if it’s just Netflix doing an elimination show in a jungle AGAIN, but as I say the website updating is likely to be closer to once a week or two from once a few days going forward – the site’s not really a destination these days. Our other branches are more active and fun at the moment so give them a look.

Edit: Incredible present from Little Timmy Halbert – I got 9 on my first go.
Edit edit: Took me four attempts to get ten. LOVE the slightly gothy, Toccata-esque stylings of the music.