Two things caught my eye today.
- Broadcast reporting that ITV Studios is planning to shut down 12 Yard. Their shows over the last 20 years have varied from very bad to very good, but their penalty shoot-out style defined the genre in their early days. Feels like an end of an era. Presumably the two series of Popmaster TV that have been commissioned will be shuffled off to another ITVS studio.
- Mel Giedroyc is hosting a run of 25 episodes of Pictionary starting with a Christmas special, based on the current US show. Interesting TV Zone suggesting it’s a 30 minute proposition which means I’ve got no idea where they’re planning on putting it, you’d presume afternoons but you’d need another 30 minute show to pair it with and we’re not aware of anything in the pipeline (Jeopardy! should be a 30 minute show of course). Regular Saturday night slot? Anyway this will be somewhat of a homecoming for Giedroyc who hosted Draw it! on Channel 4 afternoons in 2014. Feels to me like an odd commission, doesn’t strike me as the sort of thing that will do great numbers live and especially on ITVX but you never know, it feels like the sort of thing people say they want but don’t actually watch.
- Bonus third thing! £20k Play is the awfully titled new show (seriously, it sounds like a lottery scratchcard) that starts on Channel 4.0, Channel 4’s Youtube channel tonight from 6pm. Groups of five friends judge each other with “brutal” questions to win up to £20,000 (so proper money) although there’s some sort of greed element at the end.
20k Play is exceedingly 2004.
The most irritating thing is Harry constantly switching between standing up and sitting down. Do you need the toilet or something? Pick one!
Popmaster S3+4 should already be in production and until early December at least, going by the advert 12 Yard put out for crew a couple of months ago.
Yep, Pictionary is… underwhelming. Another US import and legacy brand that ITV are keen on now but not sure that will make much of a difference. Its commission doesn’t surprise me with the similarly quirky and fairly low stakes Lingo and Riddiculous already around. I would be more shocked if ITV had went for something like Scrabble. One good thing though is that with there being a Christmas Special of Pictionary is that it will be eligible for the poll of 2024 alongside Bullseye and You Bet!!
I’ve had a hand in many of those good (and bad) formats over the years at 12 Yard. I can say it was truly a blast and full of creative, clever people.
Over that time I’ve read far too much on BothersBar. I must say it was brilliant for PopMaster to top the poll of formats last year – thank you guys – I’ve been hall of famer/hall of shamer far too many times.
Brig – keep it up for at least another decade
Cheers Jimmy – good or bad 12 Yard always gave us something regular to write about and there aren’t many who can claim that – like I say, feels like proper end of era stuff.
The Pictionary commission feels like something you’d read from 2014, not 2024. I can’t believe there hasn’t been anything else from development teams that wasn’t better than this.
I’m not sure what Jake Humphrey has on ITV bosses but presumably it’s something incriminating.
@ Henry There’s always something better but I think there’s a real push at the moment to get away from Q+A shows because so many of them have underperformed recently and helped to create the impression that viewers don’t want them, but I would say it’s a particular type of Q+A that viewers are tired of – shows that don’t do anything that hasn’t been done before. I suppose you could say that about most TV and none of these reboots are offering anything new either but they have tended to rate better and are different aside from the nostalgia aspect.
I’m guessing that this well and truly confirms that Eggheads is no more.
Is it fair to say that Eggheads was *the* flagship show of 12 Yard? Lest we forget, it ran for two decades, held down the weekday 6pm slot on BBC2 for much of that time, and is a member of the exclusive club of game shows that have racked up over 2,000 episodes.
In It to Win It *did* pre-date Eggheads – but of course, it wasn’t on *every* Saturday night of the year, and it died when BBC1 stopped showing the draws. (And if it *had* continued despite the Random People Picker’s obvious relationship to Guinevere, Lancelot et al, it’s quite plausible that it would have died with Dale anyway – after all, like the ‘Sweep, it was *his* show in more ways than one.) Who Dares Wins wasn’t on every Saturday night of the year, either – though it *did* survive for a few years after the draws left BBC1, and it *was* sold to other countries.
And I’m sorry, but while everyone can agree that The Colour of Money and Take on the Twisters were bad shows, I will *never* agree that Dirty Money was a bad show. Still great fun to watch 22 years later, even if it *is* very much of its time. And it wouldn’t have been as good had the host neither been Marcus nor out of vision.
I’ll always have a soft spot for Who Dares Wins, particulary the very complex ‘route to walk on set to meet up with partner and Nick’ design and how they often managed to sneak in a list that would inevitably feature Nick Knowles or something related to him as an answer (bonus points for the handful of lists over the years ‘according to UKGameshows.com!)
Surprised that although they continued the primetime format for a while after the Lottery vanished they never considered a daytime version considering the effort required to do so…just divide the prize list values by 10 job done
Although Tenable probably did it for them
I think after a decade or whatever of doing it, there’s a real risk of entertaining lists running out, and it’s probably a bit harder to modify this format than Pointless.
I can’t think of many other shows that liked to fakeout the viewers with the music, which is to be congratulated.
A lot of places tried it as a daily show and it never really worked internationally.