Saturday Night’s Alright for Writing – 24th July 2010

By | July 24, 2010

Right, some experimentation here – new shows can have their own discussion post for their first episodes, but Saturday night at the moment is just chock full of gameshowy goodness (well, “goodness” at any rate). How best for people to go about it in one focussed ‘thing’? So here’s a post for anything interesting you want to talk about regarding tonight’s competitive telly:

  • 7pm BBC1, 101 Ways To Leave a Gameslow
  • 7:15pm ITV1, Odd One In
  • 8pm ITV1, Magic Numbers
  • 8pm BBC1, Tonight’s the Night
  • 9pm BBC2, Have I Got a Bit More News For You
  • 9pm Channel 4, Big Brother
  • 9:45pm BBC2, Mock the Week

Phew, they’ll be no time for dinner.

23 thoughts on “Saturday Night’s Alright for Writing – 24th July 2010

  1. Chris M. Dickson

    The best thing about Odd One In is that it gives me the faintest hope that someone might commission a You Bet! revival. It’s certainly less old-fashioned…

    Reply
  2. Alex

    Magic Numbers – so 50k is added on every week there’s a loss. No idea how that’ll be done, but go on.

    Reply
    1. Travis P

      I tuned over (watching darts) and saw Stephen botching up a magic trick, then mentioned about £300,000. I assume they replace £100,000 with £150,000.

      Reply
  3. Simon

    I think Stephen was trying to be a poor man’s Tommy Cooper with that routine.

    Reply
  4. David

    I didn’t even bother getting Magic Numbers from the usual places- I did do Odd One In though- it’s pretty funny (especially that hypnotist bit this week)…

    Reply
  5. Frank Lee

    The word is that Magic Numbers is almost certainly going to get pulled mid series.

    Not surprising. It isn’t just bad; it’s incredibly boring, predictable, derivative, clumsy, insulting and bad.

    How do these things get past intelligent scrutiny?

    Reply
      1. Frank Lee

        From Tellyland. I’m in Advertland so we hear things from over the border.

        Reply
  6. Travis P

    Magic Numbers is scheduled to run until 28th August. The X Factor is due to return around late August (possibly 21st). If the show doesn’t improve then ITV will certainly not have Magic Numbers as the lead in.

    Reply
  7. Joe

    Yesterday’s Ratings:

    Tonight’s The Night – 4.27m [22.4%]
    101 Ways – 3.93m [22.6%] (peak 4.7m)
    John Bishop – 3.85m [19.6%]
    Magic Numbers 2.77m [14.4%]
    Odd One In 2.67m [15.1%]

    Disaster for ITV1!

    Reply
  8. Coolcat

    I just don’t get the logic in the scheduling from ITV1.
    Odd One In would be fine in a less-exposed slot, though I agree it does seem rather old-fashioned. It’s not Saturday peak-time material, maybe Sunday tea-time along with the scones and crumpets?
    Magic Numbers to me has daily afternoon show written all over it, and could easily be adapted with a lower prize pot. Again it’s not Saturday peak.

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      I think they throw up the interesting thing – people apparently cry out for shows like they used to make (and Odd One In is very much in that mould), but when they do make them, nobody watches them.

      A show like Magic Numbers would eat through ideas pretty quickly so you’d have to adapt it to not do it so much if you wanted to do it daily, and really without the ideas there’s not much of a show there. I think what it really needs is to move to a weekday evening. And to give away some money.

      Reply
  9. BigBen

    Interestingly, 3 shows in and 101 finally did an exit that didn’t involve gravity and a pool of water! Though I suspect I still stand alone in enjoying the show…

    Reply
    1. Brig Bother Post author

      On the contrary, I quite like its sense of humour, I just think it should be quicker and more spectacular. It’s probably the best of the Saturday evening shows on at the moment.

      Reply
    1. Alex

      Typical, I show you it and it’s been removed due to use violation.

      Reply
  10. Timmy

    Australia’s Countdown is finnished filming and wil primere on 2 August. It’s called, rather uncreatively, Letters and Numbers. Australia already had a famous show called “Countdown”, it was their version of Top of the Pops.

    http://www.sbs.com.au/television

    It seems to be a Countdown Carbon-Copy. I was hoping for something a bit closer to Des Chiffres et Des Lettres. Oh well.

    Reply
      1. Mart with a Y not a I

        It’s the silver and reflected off the lights gold shine that makes it look stylish, but the second sweep hand looks cheap and nasty.

        I wonder if Granada Australia are behind the production of this show given how many visual elements you can tick off the list?

        Reply

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