… that if you want the best chance of winning Fantasy X Factor, remember to get your teams in before the first live show this evening at 7:40pm.
This week I will be reviewing the Bullseye iPod app, but it won’t happen until midweek.
Meanwhile, Davina McCall’s just announced on her Twitter she’s hosting the next series of The Biggest Loser.
I’m actually going to be away this evening, so I’ll be catching up with X Factor tomorrow. Do not get your forms in late if you intend to play, they are timestamped so I will know!
I have this horrible feeling that Widdecombe could win Strictly Come Dancing.
Not…
A…
Chance…
One week, all the judges will mark her so she gets a nailed on 4, so that it is impossible for the phone vote to make any huge difference.
No dance off this series – so I guess it’s down to the judges to decide who week on week, is making the best improvement – and that’s where Widdy will soon find the door out of TC1.
It does though have all the classic DNA of it quickly becoming a ‘Sergent Ver 2.0’ if we are not careful, and sucking the air of credabillity out of the actual dancing competition.
As far as I can see, the current format weakens the judges’ power and thereby actually makes a JS2 scenario more likely, not less. Firstly, since there’s no dance-off, coming second-from-bottom in the combined vote isn’t enough for elimination. Secondly, the rule for dealing with a tie in the judges’ scores results in a smaller spread of converted scores (I think last night the spread went from 14 points down to 4, or something like that), making the phone vote more powerful.
This could get very ugly indeed.
So, I got the kicking out proceedure wrong then!
After watching last night
A) Given the amount of padding and inserts, I fail to understand why Bruce isn’t co-hosting the show. It would only taken around another 20 mins out of his evening.
B) Having no last ‘second chance dance’ wrecks the build up to the last 10 mins of the Sunday show. Makes you wonder why bother having a Sunday show at all – they could have kept the lines open during Casualty, then come back for a 15 min show at around 9.30.
Plus, the format is still wrong. You should have an elimation dance-off. What should happen (and I’ve always said this with my format creation hat on) is the couple ranked last by the judges are automatically in the dance-off, with the great un-washed voting for the other couples, and the couple with the lowest combined judges/viewers score finds themselves as the other couple in the dance-off, with the judges deciding which two are seen stamping out a small fire on the dance floor as the credits roll.
Aww, crap, I forgot. Having said that, I couldn’t bear X Factor for more than 20 minutes or so, so it might be for the best.
Also, is this The Biggest Loser series they filmed earlier this year? I assume it is. Still waiting for that to broadcast, they did say it would be primetime.
I might be wrong but Des Elmes said earlier this year that the BBC would be crazy if they don’t recomission Who Dares Wins.
The good news is the BBC have given the show a fourth series in 2011. Contestant calls started this week and featured in today’s Sunday Mirror.
Des Elmes said earlier this year that the BBC would be crazy if they don’t recomission Who Dares Wins.
I did indeed say that – and thanks for the good news Travis. 🙂
I still think Auntie was crazy not recommissioning 1 vs 100, though – especially after it peed all over The Colour of S**t (sorry, couldn’t help it) from a great height.
It is alright, you can say ‘shit’, we are basically grown ups.
but the show got slaghtered against Britain’s Got Talent where this year Who Dares Wins & In It to Win It 2012 fared better against it. Moving the show to Glasgow also didn’t help since the production costs shot up. Squeezing the whole set inside a much smaller studio (compared to Fountain and Maidstone) and no doubt Endemol/BBC paid extra train and plane fares for 310 odd people travelling up to Glasgow, where getting them to Maidstone was more affordable.
Studios are by far the most expensive component of any TV production. Trains and hotels are a factor if you’re spiriting away a large production on tour for a long length of time, but usually overnighting some contestants – even hundreds – may turn out cheaper in the end.
I don’t disagree that moving it to Glasgow didn’t help – but wasn’t it possible to simply move it back to Maidstone, or find another studio that was big enough for it, and (ideally) no further north than Manchester?
After all, it’s not as if the BBC has to film practically ALL of its primetime game shows at Pacific Quay…
…if you leave out UC (as a Granada show), OC (as it’s on BBC4) and also Mastermind…
Now were are getting all political – but the BBC has said that ALL lottery shows – which have a quiz show around the draws – are going to be made in ‘the nations’. This means the studios and production offices have to be elsewhere than England.
Hence why In It To Win It / Who Dares Wins and Tonight’s The Night (and 1v100) was made at Pacific Quay and the new as yet un-tx’ed one, Secret Fortune, was made in Belfast. BBC Wales haven’t come up with a good idea to pitch yet (although that’s where Crimewatch is now broadcast from)
If you read Martin Kempton’s website, he thinks it’s stupid moving the lottery shows to Glasgow, as it’s the same set and lighting that were used in London (or Maidstone) that then moved up the M6 in three haulage lorries – great for the carbon footprint (and then there are the contestants and London based production staff stopping over – which I suppose is good for the hotel trade in central Glasgow).
It was a move done not for practical reasons, but moreover to shut the anti-London brigade up and stop hitting the BBC over the head with a rather huge metophoric stick.
The interesting issue is what happens when MediaCity opens in Manchester next year and better spec studios than Pacific Quay are fired up. If nothing changes, then it’ll smack of special treatment for Glasgow just because of it’s location.
I’d have to agree with Mr Kempton there.
And I also agree with your last paragraph Mart – it wouldn’t be right at all if the Beeb doggedly stuck with Pacific Quay even if Media City turned out to be way better.
But knowing them…
Also returning and seeking contestants: Quiz is Anfield on LFC TV.
Grr, last night’s ratings
The Wildcard Factor: 12.23m (48.5%)
Strictly Come Magic & MPs: 9.03m (42.1%)
In It To Win It: 4.08m (16.2%)
All Star Family Fortunes: 2.86m (14.2%)
Another excellent rating for World Domination Leader Cowell. Biggest rating for the first live X Factor show EVER. Also very good for the old knight and his mistress, they have learned their lesson for not taking on the World Domination Leader.
Respectable rating for Dale Winton but oh dear once again for Vernon Kay. His strong vehichle has dropped once again and is now performing less than Nu Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? It will be a matter of time before Ratings Bear will be tucking into roast Kay for Sunday dinner.
Prediction Squirrel has spoken to me earlier, informing me The Cube will acheieve around 4 million this evening, based on what Strictly Come Magic & MPs secured last night.
In It To Win It: 4.08m (16.2%)
All Star Family Fortunes: 2.86m (14.2%)
Respectable rating for Dale Winton but oh dear once again for Vernon Kay. His strong vehichle has dropped once again and is now performing less than Nu Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? It will be a matter of time before Ratings Bear will be tucking into roast Kay for Sunday dinner.
HOORAY!!!!!
I honestly think five series of a celebs-and-their-families-only version of a classic show – that also succeeds in getting sillier every year – is more than enough.
Currently on Five: The Great Race, a 1965 slapstick American movie about, well, a race around the world. Remind you of anything else airing tonight somewhere around the world?
I don’t know whether 1965 American slapstick is your bag, but you can see why this was one of the biggest hits at the US box office that year. The special effects are laughable by modern standards but it’s a film made with great joy and care.