It was the week before Christmas, and all through the Bar, everything was silent, even the, er, oh.
- Drop Zone – Today in Istanbul and not as TV listings guides would possibly suggest, Constantinople. (3:15, Sunday, BBC1 except for viewers in Scotland where it’s going out at 1pm on BBC2).
- The X Factor – it’s the grand final final! (7:30 pm. Sunday, ITV1)
- Pinpoint – New series of the 5Hole Podcast gameshow with Bob Hagh and Alex Davis off of Buzzerblog. Still can’t get excited about GSN Oodles especially when it’s hard to win anything meaningful (Although apprarently easier this time round), but Tim Halbert’s music is fairly wicked. (Monday, iTunes)
- Only Connect – Second semi-final: the Alesmen vs Radio Addicts. (8:30pm, Monday, BBC4)
- Premier League Poker – Game three part two. (0:40am, Monday Night/Tuesday Morning, C4)
- The Million Pound Drop – Live! A third run for the show. Don’t forget our brilliant competition! It might be facetious but the prizes are very real. (8pm Wedesday-Friday, 10:05pm Saturday, Channel 4)
- The Apprentice – It’s the interviews! (9pm, Wednesday, BBC1)
- The Challenge: Cutthroat – I believe it’s the final this week. People shown being carted off on ambulance trolleys in the trailer so it’s likely to be quite tough. The surviving players have made the cash winning $180k between them, but which team will get to divvy up the final $120k? (*) (Wednesday, MTV)
- The Cube – Joe Swash and Kelly Osbourne play for charity. Will be interesting to see how it does without the X Factor to lead into. (7pm, Saturday, ITV1)
- Schlag den Raab – After last episode’s whitewash, there’s €1m up for grabs tonight. (7:15 UK/8:15 CET, Prosieben and hopefully naughty internet streaming, Saturday)
Look out for an iDevice review of the 2011 Millionaire game probably on Monday also.
(*) I think there is a lot of scope for shows with poker tournament-esque payout structures. I think something like Cutthroat‘s format but turned into a daily stripped quiz with everyone basically fighting to make it into Friday’s episode, and hence the money, might be a go-er.
“It might be facetious but the prizes are very real.” Just like You Don’t Know Jack 2001!
Incidentally I remember you trying the Night Before Christmas line last year, and I think it went “not a creature was stirring, not even a…er…car.”
It’s the “joke” that keeps on giving.
And it’s only a month-and-a-bit until the All New You DOn’t Know Jack comes out! Tremendous.
Still unclear whether it’s going on the Euro XBLA or not. I’ve asked, anyway.
I expect probably not. I’ll probably just get it on the PC.
Raab broke his right arm/hand, so it’s going to be Schlag den Raab mit links (as in just one hand; the candidate’s weaker one).
That shouldn’t be excellent, and yet…
Hope he doesn’t end up breaking his other hand punching something in frustration.
Hmmm. So – all the games on Saturday will have to be played one handed? That rules out most of the outdoor challenges (no bad thing if the weather repeats like last years’ pre-Christmas outdoorers which took place in a blizzard) so there’ll be a lot of on the buzzer, and ‘smelling’ things games. May as well, drop the usual format and divert this (and the next edition on the 18th Jan) to the fixed number games of Schlag Den Star way of doing things.
The thought that is racing through my mind is that seeing Raab taking part with one hand will be amusing for the first three or four games, then it becomes rapidly irriating.
Why don’t Matthias Opdenhövel and Stefan Raab swap places? That would be amusing to see Opdenhövel taking on the contender. Raab has hosted the first series of Schlag den Star in 2009.
One thing is for certain, as it’s the December show they will be playing the guess the mystery story reader game.
Penultimate second-round match on UC this week: Merton Oxford v Queens’ Cambridge.
It’s the second Oxbridge clash for both teams.
Merton sneaked past St John’s Cambridge, 180-175, in the last first-rounder on 11 October. They were just about the better team on the night – all four members got at least one starter, they had the better bonus conversion rate and fewer missignals, and St John’s took a bit too long on their bonuses – but I still think they rode their luck a bit on the music starter.
Queens’ took a 190-155 victory against the team that St John’s just edged out of the repechage, Balliol Oxford, all the way back on 19 July. Only good buzzer work in the second half gave them their win, their BCR being a poor 13/37.
Bearing in mind these two opening performances, and that St John’s went on to lead Peterhouse having being 140 points down, I’d have to go for Merton here. But as Magdalen’s disappointing second outing last week showed, anything can happen…
It’s also the final week of Series 63 of Countdown – and at risk of SPOILING it for those who still haven’t yet seen either or both of the first two quarter-finals, you’d have to think that a Jack Hurst v Eoin Monaghan grand final is even more likely than before.
I thought Jack did very well to score 108 against Peter Godwin, given that most of the letters games were fairly awful – indeed, SERAGLIO in the opening round was his only eight. Eoin, meanwhile, came within three of a perfect game when racking up 127 against Niall Young.
Before the grand final, though, there are the semi-finals, and before those are the two remaining QFs, involving seeds 3 to 6. All four are octochamps, though none of them were perhaps quite as impressive as Jack and Eoin.
Tomorrow, number 3 seed Daniel Pati does battle with number 6 seed Tom Rowell.
Mancunian Daniel achieved his eight wins with scores of at least 93 points, including four centuries, for a total of 840. Highlights included finding the brilliant CERASTIUM in his second game, en route to scoring 127, and not missing a single conundrum. Tom’s total of 774, meanwhile, included three centuries, highest 109 – but it could have been seven, as on four occasions he was in the nineties going into the conundrum but failed to buzz correctly.
Daniel might be just too good for Tom here, especially if the conundrum is crucial. That would set up a clash with Eoin on Thursday, which otherwise could be a cracker.
Tuesday sees number 4 seed Marcus Hares take on number 5 seed Scott Gillies.
“Bunny” Marcus made six centuries (highest 116) while amassing 834 points, and in his sixth game restricted Ryan Curtis to just 16. Scott “the Scot” achieved his first five wins in the last series, then crushed Judith Hunt 122-26 in his seventh game (despite trailing 0-6 after the opening round!), and finished with four centuries, three scores in the nineties, and a total of 810.
Likely to be a close one – I’d plump for Marcus to face Jack on Wednesday.
As in the last series, Paul Zenon joins Susie in Dictionary Corner for this final week. While Paul is always great, how come they no longer have two special guests for the grand final? Having someone like Tim Vine as well would make it a real treat…
Saying this as generally and politely as I can without spoiling it …
Am I the only person who heard the conundrum spoken as a form of the word and not the word itself? Perhaps it’s just one of those cases where us lowlife Yanks don’t really speak the language, and certainly no disrespect to the winner.
only connect will be interesting, but unfortunatly, the xmas radio times has ruined the result for me.
Oh, do the Radio Times do spoilers for non-drama now as well?
Shame.
Canada’s Worst Driver 6 came to a close last night; Dumb Dale (how dumb is she!?) didn’t win (or should I say… lose), despite picking up over $2,000 worth of infractions on the final public driving challenge, but it was agreed that she wasn’t the worst of the season, if she would re-take her driving test.
Lance ended up winning, mainly because he was consistently failing even more, and had to be taken out on an ambulance during the final challenge (in a nice shiny new Porsche!) cause he was panicing too much
IBM supercomputer set for Jeopardy quiz show showdown
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11996531