Alright then:
- The Cube (6:45pm, Sunday, ITV1)
- The X Factor JLS! Take That! Westlife. (8pm, Sunday ITV1)
- I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! Series nine, episode one. (9pm, Sunday ITV1)
- Only Connect Officially jumps the shark this weeek with its first celebrity special for Children in Need. God why do celebrities have to be in everything? It’s the Wheel Men vs The Larks, although for some reason I had it in my head as the “wheeltappers” vs “the shunters”, for obvious reasons. (8:30pm, Monday, BBC4)
- The Apprentice Proving that advertising isn’t as easy as it looks last week. (9pm, Wednesday, BBC1)
- The Challenge: Cutthroat (Wednesday, MTV)
- Children in Need Night includes Celebrity Mastermind on BBC2 at 10pm and probably A Question Of Have QI Got Buzzcocks For You All Over, inevitably. (Friday night from 7pm on BBC1 and BBC2)
TV gold on The Cube today…
What happened on The Cube to make it “TV gold”?
Stopping a clock at 5 seconds… failed 8 yes 8TIMES!
Yeah, it IS nice when they do well, but when people screw up massively it’s that much better.
Even using the Simplify, she still failed 3 times on it! 😀
Over 4 million watched The Million Pound Drop Live this weekend. Massive ratings for Channel 4 and certainly an appatite for a Christmas special or two 😉
Sounds good. Im kinda glad the celebrity didnt win because i would be calling fix. But im also glad they did get something towards the charity.
So…when normal people win it’s OK but if a celebrity wins it’s a fix?
Hmm.
No i mean as in. If every celebrity pair seemed to win. I would find it to be a fix.
I’d contend that you mean ‘percieve’ there.
In other words.
Friday – 2.30m
Saturday – 1.70m
Last night’s rating was good I suspect the lower numbers compared with Friday was probably down to everybody else watching Tom Scott Against The World. 😉
I don’t mind having the odd Christmas special since Channel 4 only relies on four things in December. Miracle on 34th Street, Elf, DoND and Big Fat Quiz of the Year. However, it would be best doing what Millionaire did in the early days, have about 3-4 mini series per year, otherwise you’ll over-expose it.
Also, can you pass a message onto your Endemol chums for me and see if they’ll consider doing something for Comic Relief (https://www.bothersbar.co.uk/?p=2490&cpage=1#comment-9850).
Er, no. By that reckoning The X Factor has been seen by about 120 million this series already.
However, the staff at the kebab shop I went to on Saturday were watching it, so there we are.
Gardies?
Tommy Tuckers, although I do love Gardies.
On the credits for The Cube, why did it say ITV Productions? I thought The Cube was Objective productions??
Because ITV have a very large share of Objective these days, presumably.
Also The Cube is No.3 worldwide trending topic on Twitter. Crikey.
If that is true–and if CBS still holds the rights anent the pilot they had made last February–then are the suits at CBS noticing? Could this be the show that will grab for them that youthful audience that makes sponsors just slaver?
Now, I don’t “tweet”, nor am I on Facebook (although that has been recommended to me by a trustworthy friend). But if “The Cube” is getting that many tweets worldwide (and not just in the UK and Eire), then things might just happen!
Hope so. I’ll keep beating the drum on this end.
This week’s UC: Exeter v York.
Turns out I was wrong when I said that Exeter would play St John’s Cambridge – as, for the first time since the 2001/2 series, the repechage winners WON’T be up against each other in the second round.
Could it be something to do with the production schedule – or have the producers simply decided to do things a little differently this year, as might be the case with Manchester’s absence?
Anyway, York – the only 1960s university taking part this year, remember – put in a barnstorming performance in the final third to beat new boys the Royal College of Music at the beginning of August.
Exeter played Peterhouse Cambridge the week before, and found them just that bit too hot to handle. They weren’t too worried, however, against a Cardiff side that were hurt badly by their bonuses.
Tim Abbott has led from the front for Exeter, with 13 starters to his name so far; opposite number Andrew Clemo picked up nine against the RCM. It could well be a battle between these two – but the southwestern team have played a game more, and that could be to their advantage.
If you hear a ‘smile’ in VC’s voice before the first question in tonight’s Children in Need OC special, it’s because I switched the question without her knowing in advance…
OK, random thing I’ve been wondering. Why do you have contestants pick their questions in the first two rounds, as opposed to just dealing questions out? It’s done very lightly and certainly isn’t all Deal or No Deal about it, but there aren’t even as many laffs to it as, say, the Picture Board from A Question of Sport. There are reasons why people have favourite numbers, especially in AQoS, but there aren’t reasons why people have favourite Greek letters. (Or Egyptian hieroglyphs, though possibly to a lesser extent.)
I can think of three reasons:
1) It’s nice to have some easy questions on there, not least to give a low-drama, low-intensity breather between the questions and answers.
2) It’s a lovely mental image that you just don’t get anywhere else on TV and the fact that the show dares to use non-Arabic alphabets reinforces its deliberate underpinnings. Viewers may enjoy watching a show which plays to their “Aren’t we clever? We’re watching a show that uses Greek letters” vibe.
3) It gives some cause-and-effect why some teams get music and/or picture questions, and some teams don’t.
That said, it’s pretty low-value air-time, and all of a sudden I’m not sure whether the fact that the contestants purportedly pick their questions actually makes a difference; we only have the show’s word for it that there aren’t six questions to be dealt out in a predetermined order whichever letter is picked.
I wonder whether the show might be better still if you did eliminate the Greek letter boards, just deal the questions out and extend at least the first round to eight questions so that each team had a music question and a picture question. Potential downsides: I’m not sure whether they are easy or difficult questions to write; it’s possible that they may be expensive questions for the show to feature because of rights clearances; the show may be running through all the reasonable questions in the world at a quicker rate than you’d like anyway.
we only have the show’s word for it that there aren’t six questions to be dealt out in a predetermined order
Same concern for A Question Of Sport since they dropped the physical picture board. About 20 years ago. Still can’t get the hang of these fiddly new fivepences, etc.
>Why do you have contestants pick their questions
>in the first two rounds, as opposed to just dealing >questions out?
If I knew in advance that questions ABC were going to one team and DEF to another, I’d feel a certain pressure to ensure that they were of equal difficulty and maybe had a high-, medium- and low-culture question in each triplet. It’s a lot easier just to select six questions that are in the same difficulty ballpark that are from different topics, and then let nature take its course.
>but there aren’t even as many laffs to it as, say,
>the Picture Board from A Question of Sport.
Maybe not, but I think teams are finding more laffs in the hieroglyphs. Certainly, the Alesmen have an aversion to the Water question.
>There are reasons why people have favourite numbers,
>especially in AQoS, but there aren’t reasons why
>people have favourite Greek letters. (Or Egyptian >hieroglyphs, though possibly to a lesser extent.)
That I disagree with. There are many forum posts where people say things like “Epsilon please, Vicky!” or “Save the Eye of Horus for me”.
>2) It’s a lovely mental image that you just don’t get
>anywhere else on TV and the fact that the show dares to
>use non-Arabic alphabets reinforces its deliberate
>underpinnings. Viewers may enjoy watching a show which
>plays to their “Aren’t we clever? We’re watching a show
>that uses Greek letters” vibe.
The original idea of the Greek letters (and the music, to be honest) was to set the show in a certain cultural echelon. From my point of view, the Greek letters made for useful, neutral scientific-style labels that were difficult to mix up with actual number or word clues in the questions themselves.
>That said, it’s pretty low-value air-time, and all of
>a sudden I’m not sure whether the fact that the contestants
>purportedly pick their questions actually makes a difference
Maybe not to you, but if any of the contestants were concerned that we’d shuffled the questions around to suit a certain team, we could demonstrate after filming that Two Reeds really did have a specific question behind it, via a combination of the computer console and the script.
>I wonder whether the show might be better still if you did
>eliminate the Greek letter boards, just deal the questions
>out and extend at least the first round to eight questions
>so that each team had a music question and a picture
>question.
I’d be against dealing out the questions in a specific order, for the reasons mentioned above. You would need to find FOUR MINUTES of airtime to fit in another two questions for Round 1 and 2. FWIW, I think the pace is pretty zippy as it is. In the grand scheme of things, the cost of the questions is pretty small.
There are reasons why people have favourite numbers, especially in AQoS,
Superstition, mostly, sometimes with ‘seeing patterns that aren’t there’ [Which applies to my love of the number 3]
but there aren’t reasons why people have favourite Greek letters. (Or Egyptian hieroglyphs, though possibly to a lesser extent.)
My favourite Egyptian hieroglyph is Eye of Horus, my favourite Greek Letter is Omega.
…These are for (very slightly) less arbitrary reasons than I have for my favourite number, about on par with the arbitrariness of my favourite colour: Number, because the Blockbusters homegame’s question 3’s seemed slightly easier; Hieroglyph, because the Eye of Horus features in the logo of the publisher of my favourite role playing game; Greek letter, because Omega is a fantastic Doctor Who villain; Colour… Umm… Because Tails is my favourite Sonic character these days – About 15 years ago it was blue for similar reasons (Only replace ‘Tails’ with ‘Sonic’)
Only my favourite number is down to flawed reasoning, the rest are fairly arbitrary and entirely irrational, but aren’t based on the habbit humans have of spotting things in favour of a premise and ignoring things that fit outside of it.
(Of Lion and Water for the walls I’d go for Lion. Because rawr.)
2) It’s a lovely mental image that you just don’t get anywhere else on TV and the fact that the show dares to use non-Arabic alphabets reinforces its deliberate underpinnings. Viewers may enjoy watching a show which plays to their “Aren’t we clever? We’re watching a show that uses Greek letters” vibe.
As I recall, the ‘…Why Greek letters?’ moaning Victoria referred to in her ‘got rid of the Greek letters due to being elitist’ spiel, was genuine (albeit online only) for the first season but which pretty much vanished by the start of S2 (To the point that, for me at least, the Greek Letters, by about four episodes in, stopped looking elitist for the sake of being elitist and started to be warm and welcoming in the way I’ve never felt ‘pick a number’ or ‘pick a letter’ have ever been on any show.)
The hieroglyphs were distracting to me for the first couple of questions in the first episode of this season, but I’ve since become accustomed to their differently warm, comforting, glow.
I’m sure when the show switches to another archaic and wonderful alphabet for S7 I’ll become accustomed to Akkadian labeled clues, or whatever, in a similar way.
I wonder whether the show might be better still if you did eliminate the Greek letter boards, just deal the questions out and extend at least the first round to eight questions so that each team had a music question and a picture question.
I don’t think its possible to make questions perfectly equally difficult. As such, allowing contestants to pick a question, to parraphrase Ian Weaver, ensure that, even when the questions feel easier for one side than the other, the show isn’t merely fair (As, in the case of predealt questions with no deliberate bias it would be) but also appears to be fair.
CMD wrote,
there aren’t reasons why people have favourite Greek letters. Or Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The Wick o’Twisted Flax o’Doom would beg to differ.
It’s nice to have some easy questions on there, not least to give a low-drama, low-intensity breather between the questions and answers.
One of the many ways The OC works is how the tension ramps up. What’s the connection? Complete the connection. What are the connections, plural? And the frantic, potentially game-changing, buzzer round.
Viewers may enjoy watching a show which plays to their “Aren’t we clever? We’re watching a show that uses Greek letters” vibe.
The alphabet is a deliberate point of distinction from every other quiz show. Question of Sport uses numbers, Catchphrase had Roman letters. Only Connect is a different quiz.
it’s pretty low-value air-time
I completely disagree. A good game show isn’t just about the game, the show is just as important. The questions are vital, but they will only occupy half the show. It’s the glue between, the theme music and set and show furniture that will stick in the mind. Every second counts, and Only Connect uses every second. CMD will recall the difference between Gladiators and Ice Warriors, younger viewers will perhaps note the gap between Ready Steady Cook and Iron Chef.
Miljoenenjacht is back. It features a brand new Round 2, the return of Number One for Round 3 and the new game element of an audience member getting a rude looking bell for the case opening bit.
http://www.rtl.nl/xl/gemist
Thanks, may have a look at some point. I haven’t actually watched it for ages, I don’t think it’s really all that tense. Although I think it’s a good production.
The set and graphics are also new (and really nice IMO), and they got rid of the case-guessing; they use models for the case openings now.
Right, watching this now. Like the big band version of the theme, but round 2 isn’t so much new as a head to head repurposing of the ‘how much of the audience agree with the statement’ elimination game from previous years.
I miss the gradual whittling away of the audience in favour of best person from each block, although I suppose this way keeps everything in your own hands.
It sounds like you win a car if you get the guess bang on.
THERE IS NO MORE RANDOM REMOTE OF DOOM.
Ah, I think I’m wrong about the car, I see the Number 1 thing now.
Basically the show seems to have dropped all the temptation aspects. Is that good?
Yes and no. I really like that the top ten have all got there through skill, not so sure about the head-to-head but combined with the new ‘one postcode area provides one block’ idea it does really get the crowd going, so I’m entirely OK with it for that reason.
The crowd still take three rounds to get into the DoND game though, unless a seven-figure amount goes. The whole thing with the bell is truly nonsensical, it was hilarious to hear the 20-eurocent case get groaned like it was the jackpot. Get rid of any element of the guessing game, and you will get the crowd cheering from round one, I’m sure of it.
I haven’t worked out the case game with the bell – do try have to predict whether the case is going to be higher or lower than the 50k for 50k, and try can play it any time in the first X cases – when the odds favour them, presumably?
The lucky bell bell winer can ring it at anytime during the briefcase game to get whatever’s in the briefcase (up to 50K€), at least it’s how I understood it.
I’d say the major flaw would be that it could be an atrocious anticlimatic game in some configurations, when you’d REALLY do not want to see one of the highest amounts go boom whereas the guessing game usually wasn’t that much problematic.
Also, for the ‘one postcode area provides one block’ – guess it’s also because the Postcode Loterij bringed back the lottery element into the game (and so the third €5 million to be won).
Only 4 more episodes to go for this season, too.
I think, if my non-existant Dutch is correct, they have to ring it within the first eleven cases (two rounds), in that case it would be very rare to have a game that’s in a dangerous state.
And it looks like everyone in the audience gets some sort of a gift (not sure if it was a cellphone or a digital camera) to determine who gets the bell…so that’s about €50,000 right there (assuming they’re €100 each, which might be conservative)..
Yes, Linda mentions an “Oprah moment”, it sounded like a video camera that also doubles as an actual camera.
Also, the blocks looked like 10×10, so you’d be talking a thousand I’d have thought.