Well here’s something to do, in honour of Bar Best Friend Joe From Endemol (I’d love to find out who he really is, if anyone), two old features on the sorts of successful formats that really only Endemol can produce:
- Tutto x Tutto (actually kidding aside, it was a minor success in Italy)
- Set for Life
And you can also read my EXCLUSIVE write-ups of the British pilots of both of these formats I went to in August 2006, three-quarters of the way down, including, of course, the hilarious Dale Winton having a strop story.
What putting these up here reminds me to do is to ask the question: where’s Dick de Rijk these days? I’m aware he left Endemol to make shows on his own, although I can’t think of anything he’s been involved with since. Although Deal or No Deal probably means he never has to work again, but anyway.
Man, I love the 30 degrees clockwise gag in the Show Me What You’ve Got write-up. I used to be quite good.
The Junior’s jokes gag? Priceless.
Absolutely. At three in the morning as well!
(Scriptwriters: CALL ME *does phone sign with hand*)
Dick de Rijk bought out of his deal with Endemol and is pitching ideas independently to TV channels. To my knowledge, none of these so far have been commissioned.
Ratings for The Cube are down. Only 5.4m yesterday.
That might sound good but All Star Family Fortunes on the same weekend last year had 6.8m.
Also All Star Family Fortunes was winning its slot last year. Yesterday The Cube was comprehensively beaten by Countryfile which had 8 million.
I don’t think Phillip Schofield will be too happy with that.
True though its still likely to make a 3rd series with that – 5 million seems to be the benchmark figure these days
It’s definitely getting a third series, in fact.
Just like Accumulate!
Whilst 5 million viewers would be amazing for Accumulate!, I’ll be quite happy with 5, really. What does Joe think of Accumulate!?
There is an achievement on DJ Hero 2 called Accumulate! With the exclamation mark. I think there’s a lawsuit in there somewhere.
Home come he has declared it on his twitter as “fantastic ratings”. As for Family Fortunes last year, they didn’t have Strictly Come Dancing against them.
Right, random theory here.
As last night was the biggest night of crime committed by minors of the year (full details on request) maybe this does prove a thought I’ve had that The Cube plays to children and teenagers more than ITV thought (in the same way The Crystal Maze did for Channel 4).
The lower figures indicate they were out knocking on doors and annoying the hell out of most other people…
Maybe?
Decent ratings against brutal competition – proof that the show can hold up on its own, providing a useful lead-in for Top of the Pops, sorry, X-Factor’s Sunday show. A very useful show for ITV to keep hold of.
If ITV had given The Whole 19 Yards the same slot as The Cube, it would’ve rated better. And at least TW19Y is a family entertainment show for all ages and is not repetitive.
So now Joe has comfirmed that it’s all a massive piss-take with this comment, can we get back to sensible discussion?
No it’s not a piss-take.
What annoys me is that broadcasters give certain shows special treatment, The Cube being one example, whereas many other shows of the same genre which deserve similar treatment don’t get the support. All Star Family Fortunes deserved to stay in its Sunday slot after last year’s ratings but no – ITV had to change the slot and now it’s on the verge of being axed. All Star Mr and Mrs is unlikely to come back. The Whole 19 Yards was shunted to 6pm for one episode up against Doctor Who.
The Cube hasn’t been tested properly. Take it away from the X Factor pairing and it won’t stand on its two feet.
Just because a show is of the same genre as The Cube doesn’t necessarily mean it deserves the same or similar treatment.
ASFF certainly does not deserve it. As I’ve said before, it succeeds in becoming more desperate every year. There is certainly more unfunny faffing about than ever before – and it’s EVEN MORE repetitive than The Cube’s games, as is Vernon’s “Every point is worth a pound” and, of course, his overuse of “Our survey said!”
IMHO, five series is more than it really deserves – regardless of its viewing figures, might I add – and if ITV do decide to swing the axe, it’ll actually be a good decision.
“And at least TW19Y is a family entertainment show for all ages and is not repetitive.”
I will give you the first part. However I so disagree with the latter, and I believe we all do.
I agree with this post ^.
TW19Y also completely bombed the week it didn’t get to lead in Britain’s Got Talent.
and frankly bgt is as big a lead in as x factor, worse time of year = worse ratings, but percentages it does as well as x factor probably.
and alex, if we could ‘like’ posts here, i would.
as i would for the piss take one. Joe, the cube is a perfect example of how not to be repetitive, unlike TW19Y and the wretched second series of beat the star.
TW19Y was far, far, far more repetitive than The Cube and if anything, I personally think it was a key reason why it didn’t get a following.
I would also disagree that the Cube is too repetitive. Maybe one or two games have had too many runouts but in general they’re mixing it up pretty well.
I think the reason why ITV has backed the Cube is that it’s got a definite style and a modern approach. I think it was a confident show from the get-go. Let’s just think back to where ITV was 3-5 years ago and I think you’d say generally it’s in a much happier place (creatively and audience-wise) these days.
FWIW, TW19Y was also largely well done (in terms of look and feel, hosting, question writing etc.) but it was a real shame they couldn’t afford more game sets. Also, the end game wasn’t nearly as tense it could’ve been.
Yes. when I heard about the end game, I don’t think it quite matched up to the levels of excitement or cleverness I had been led to believe.
The Whole 19 Yards got solid enough ratings really and can be added to Duel as shows that should have been given a second shot.
Glad though The Cube is returning, but ITV letting All Star Family Fortunes play out in a slot where it gets 2-3m viewers is ridiculous. They should move the Harry Hill repeat on the Sunday and play it at 6.15pm where it probably would perform much better.
Anyway I’m going to be away for a few days. Have some things to attend 😉
I hope they are the sort of things that only Endemol can handle!
Can I request a review of the new Come Dine with Me app?
Oh is there one? I’ll add it to the list.
Sorry, I have some other things I need to review but I’ve been a bit busy.
Right, quick review: it gives you 100 recipes, allows you to create a shopping list with things you might find with said recipies, let’s you plan a party and includes 48 bits of Dave Lamb to bring up at opportune moments. You can upload your party invites to Facebook. Clever. Not as a dinner party person it’s not much use to me personally.
Also quite clever is a large section devoted to wine, sponsored by Harveys. This is quite good as an advert for Harveys, that you pay for.
I’ll write more when I give it an official going over soon.
I’m a Celeb back November 14th apparently.
Chuckles (great and good friend) and I watched the fourth episode of this series of “The Cube” on Saturday night on YT. We continue to be favorably impressed with it, and are beating the drum to everyone we think might find this of interest. I am glad that there will be a third series–it deserves it!
From what I gather, ITV is in a position to NBC over here: a once-mighty ratings colossus somewhat reduced. Any small success will be appreciated, and if “The Cube” can hold its own against “X Factor” over there, it will be doing well for ITV.
As for the shows favored by Joe (aren’t they all produced by Endemol?), “The Whole 19 Yards” had some promise. It looked kind of Nickelodeon-ish, judging by what I saw–but at that it was easier to take than that thing that Ant and Dec hosted not long before. I did not see the endgame of this show, but I’m sure that if I checked the archives of Another Blog, I could see clips and give you some opinion of it.
Endemol can do an exciting show. (Did “Estate of Panic” run over there?) But “101 Ways. . . ” was a mess–good ideas foiled by bad execution, lack of imagination, and dead-slow pacing.
Just how long has it been since an Endemol show produced the buzz that “The Cube” has had?
Scott, on Canada’s Worst Driver 6, got eliminated in a awkward fashion. He is a very reckless show-off, so much so that the partner he had been mooching insurance off of stopped his policy, he got snitched to the police after he ran off his dirty laundry on camera (going from driving while suspended, posing as another person to get around it, driving drunk, leaving the scene of an accident, etc), and now for everyone’s safety, he’s been forcibly kicked out.