New iPad review: Who Wants to be a Millionaire? HD 2011 Edition.
Currently going for £2.99, or £1.79 for the iPhone one.
Meanwhile, in an early Board of Excitement, not only is it the The Apprentice final on Sunday night (9-11pm, BBC1), it’s also a Drop Zone double bill, so it’s the final of that as well (2:25pm-4:25pm).
Tragic news. There is no Domino Day 2010.
They announced it some time ago, apparently I read it was down to lack of funding.
*sings* Do-mi-no Dayyyyy!
“Oh no! The builder’s challenge has failed and they have suffered a five million domino penalty!”
Mr. Domino is apparently looking for a new name.
Big day for Magic Mark Kerr today – he’s competing on Brain of Britain and Only Connect! (Assuming it’s the same one, of course…)
Incidentally, regarding tonight’s Only connect, far from being a problem Wikipedia is an excellent question source http://xkcd.com/214/
This semi seemed harder to me than last weeks, only got a couple of mssn gvwls and definitions of circles at the three pointer level.
Speaking of Magic Mark Kerr, did anyone else happen to notice him mouthing “Twats” when he was told that the Alesmen had been left the water wall??
And the first time they had a water question and it was like they had taken Kryptonite
I thought they had the water wall in their quarter, although that wasn’t as obviously ‘so that the Alesmen will have the water wall’
Remember a couple of months ago I told you there was massive International interest in the “Voice of…” television format following the massive success in the Netherlands. Many of you didn’t believe me.
Well, today NBC in the United States have announced that they have picked up the “Voice of America” and will air it in Spring 2011 when it will become a massive worldwide phenomenon: http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2010/12/13/nbc-teams-with-leading-reality-show-pioneers-john-de-mol-and-mark-burnett-and-warner-horizon-television-to-bring-the-voice-of-america-based-on-hollands-new-blockbuster-vocal-talent-discovery-show-to-american-viewers-530511/20101213nbc05/
NBC won the rights following a bidding war with ABC and CBS. I can also exclusively reveal that there is massive interest in the format among British broadcasters, particularly from Channel 4, Channel 5 and BSkyB.
Nah, not convinced, the singing market has been oversaturated and people will see it as an American Idol knock off. They will watch The X Factor though, because Simon Cowell’s on it.
Also having it on either CBS or ABC would’ve gave the show a better chance than having it on a dying channel.
from someone who even watched and enjoyed fame academy, that looks shit.
I think there’s room for two distinct types of singing game show: one where the performers are being judged on their skills as interpreters of other people’s work, and another one where competitors are judged as creators of their own work. falls primarily into the former category, (should) be almost exclusively the latter. The programme under discussion is almost certain to re-use existing works, and it feels entirely derivative of . A one-series wonder at best, I fear.
Not only that, but correct me if I’m wrong it’s going to be up against Cowell-less American Idol. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s unlikely to rate brilliantly this season. But it still has a name, and if the audience splits I would still be putting my money on AI for the moment.
Been anywhere nice on your holidays, Joe? You’ve been quiet for the past couple of weeks..
Anyway, point 1 – never trust a press release that spends the first two paragraphs shouting in block capitals – that looks desperate for it to be read, which then puts it straight into the filing cabinet that is cleaned out once a day after everybody has left the office.
Point 2 – for any chance of success it needs the right mix of judges. This could back The Voice Of America into a dead-end. They need to be different (that could turn some people off) but need to be – but not exactly like – existing judges on similar bawling down a mic singing talent shows. Someone acting like Cowell, but isn’t will turn off some of the audience.
Point 3 – it’s on NBC. Already a handicap….
..and now is a good time to post this link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN9wJ75DjdA
Actually NBC are a very well respected and popular broadcaster in the USA. It’s the American equivalent of the BBC. They have been the broadcaster of massive hits shows like Endemol’s very own Deal or No Deal, as well as Friends, Seinfeld, Will & Grace, The Office, Law & Order etc. NBC is not a dying broadcaster.
Also, the charming thing about “The Voice of…” format is that it’s not about the judges, it’s about the contestants. The producers don’t want it to be another farcical show like The X Factor in which the judges play a big part. The aim is to make sure that the spotlight is mainly on the contestants and their voice. Of course, the judging lineup will be good but the brilliant thing about this show is that viewers will fall in love with the contestants and care about the contestants more than other shows like Idol or X Factor.
Erm, no, NBC is very much in decline, regularly finishing bottom of the big four in the sweeps, and has done so for a number of years.
Joe, If you want to see what a mess NBC got themselves into and are still struggling to get out of, get yourself a copy of ‘Desperate Networks’ by Bill Carter. A fasinating read from the New York Times tv correspondent (so knows what he is on about) and tells the story, by the main players of the major US networks.
As far as NBC are concerned, most of the trouble is because it is exactly a total lazy and over-reliance on shows like Friends, Seinfeld and the Law and Order franchise. They sat back when figures were high, without spoting the network was running out of breath. Station hits the skids and bashes the bad times. So what do the top brass do? Buy NFL Monday Night football at a cost of $600m and cutting right back on commissioning new pilots across all programming genres to pay for it. Sound plan to sucess, guys.
Endemol’s Deal Or No Deal has been NBC’s one true ‘break-out’ hit in the last few years.
And NBC is nothing like the BBC – so you can’t really compare like for like.
Actually, the American network that is most analogous to the BBC is the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS. This network evolved by the early 1970’s out of such organizations as National Educational Television (NET), and that may explain part of their mindset.
They get their money not from license fees (as does the BBC), but from rich sugat-daddies, from the Federal Government (hence, from the taxpayer, albeit less directly than over there), and by periodic rattling of the tin cup during what are called “Pledge Drives”.
NBC is a commercial network, the oldest in existence, going back to the days of radio. They’ve had good years in the past, and they’ve had bad ones. Currently, they are in a protracted bad patch. If they did not have NFL football on Sunday nights (that’s American football, mind you), their overall ratings would be even worse than they are now!
And PBS is a very good illustration of why the donation model wouldn’t work for the BBC…
…If you look at drama output rather than funding model, incidentally, I think HBO would be the closest analogy… But that only really does one type of programming, and doesn’t do it in nearly as much quantity as the BBC – Instead of half a dozen or so very good highbrow dramas a year, HBO does 1 or 2, and as far as I’m aware doesn’t do high quality populist ones in addition to that… Because it being subscriber funded doesn’t allow it to do enough… Again, illustrating why the subscriber model wouldn’t work for the BBC.
You’re probably right on that one, Gizensha.
I understand that the current licence fee is something like one hundred and fifty pounds per annum, equivalent to about $240 a year. (This program can’t do pounds signs–sigh!) If we figure fifteen million households (and that may be a lowball estimate there!), and do the math, then we realize that the BBC gets more money by this means than they could ever get relying on rich sugar-daddies, endowments from foundations, and Pledge Drives put together!
Yet, if somebody were to suggest that the US should emulate the process over there, that politician would be run out of town on a rail!
£145, but close enough.
I can also reveal that Channel 4 has signed a 2-year deal for The Million Pound Drop, so that the show will run until at least 2012.
Meanwhile, there’s only 7 days to go until the hugely anticipated launch of The Million Dollar Money Drop on FOX. The show has received rave reviews from critics who have seen previews, being branded the “new Who Wants to be a Millionaire… except with more gravity” and respected critic Meghan Carlson called it her “new favorite gravity-based high-stakes quiz show”: http://www.buddytv.com/articles/remote-patrol/the-10-best-things-about-milli-38855.aspx
Yes, BuddyTV certainly looks like a well respected site!!!
I predict it will do OK. I doubt it will keep an audience throughout thr week.
“new favorite gravity-based high-stakes quiz show”
It’s really only this and Downfall though, isn’t it?
Russian Roulette?
Oh bloody hell why did I forget that?
Duel had some gravity in it, didn’t it?
Is that a reference to the chips going into the game board, or the contestant going into the set?
By extension, you could really say that 95% of shows involving gunge of some sort had a gravity element to them, namely from a container above the set down to someone’s head.
I meant the chips, not the leg breaking.
I do not believe there are [m]any high stakes gunge shows.
Ah, whoops, I forgot the “high-stakes” bit. Although in retrospect, 101 Ways had gravity and gunge, though it wouldn’t meet the “favorite” bit. (zing.)
Glucksritter?
Without Dan Peake bearing out the gravity of the situation, ‘s Accumulatower round would float off and give everyone 55 points.
Not everybody likes “Million Dollar Money Drop”, nor the idea behind it.
Our major newspaper here in Los Angeles is run by people who don’t appear to like any game shows (although one of their columnists did express a liking for QI–go figure!) They seem to think that their readers are the white-wine-and-brie crowd who go to all the trendy nightspots, watch pay-television dramas and subscribe to public television. These people think that all game shows are lacking in taste.
In an anonymous piece in last Sunday’s issue (12/12/10), whosoever opined that it was not a good idea to have a game show whose intent was to make people lust after scads of currency while so many were unemployed.
I have my own issues with the concept behind the show. I am not convinced that American viewers will warm to a show where the object is not necessarily to win cash and prizes, but not to lose them.
Yet, I also object to the blatant snobbery of such pieces as that mentioned above. The highfalutin’ audience is the section of the audience that does crosswords and plays Sudoku. They would appreciate a good, brainy game show. Yet the folks who act as arbiters of taste tell them that all game shows are end-product, aimed at the lowest common denominator.
Some years ago, when our own Public Broadcasting Service tried to run a game show in prime time (“Think Twice”), it was raked over the proverbial coals for pandering to the proletariat.
In an anonymous piece in last Sunday’s issue (12/12/10), whosoever opined that it was not a good idea to have a game show whose intent was to make people lust after scads of currency while so many were unemployed.
…Personally I’m just more suspicious of big money gameshows due to the tendency of making the show about the prize more than the game in them.
Yet the folks who act as arbiters of taste tell them that all game shows are end-product, aimed at the lowest common denominator.
…Based on what BBC1, ITV1 and C4 (excluding Countdown) have been putting out lately, I’d argue that most mainstream ones, thesedays, seem to be.
…But then I want to see a gameshow based around a similar concept to Evo, though not actually being a gameshow adaptation of Evo. (No! Think about it. Short multiple choice quiz segments, similar in implementation and pace to 100%, interspersed by auction rounds for what advantages they want to take to the board where they play their dinosaurs (or whatever) to score points and/or cash prizes via clever tactical play… The only question is if you want to just use the quiz for the auction phase or if you’d want to allow the map scoring to influence the auctions as well with the quiz simply enhancing what people have available from the tactical board. I think both would be valid.
(…That I miss Turnabout is starting to show, isn’t it?)
Gizensha and the other fans of the better UK game shows should be glad that the folks that run the BBC are not the kind of snobs that run “public broadcasting” in the US. Were that the case, there’d be no “Only Connect”, no “University Challenge”, and no “Raven”.
Besides, one could not in all honesty look at “Total Wipeout” and say that the programmers that slot this into the BBC1 schedule are snobs! No way, nohow!
More glad the folks who the BBC aren’t the sort of folks who run any of the US channels – Not just for UC/OC/Raven/etc, but…
…I may not watch it all that much, but my gods am I glad One Man And His Dog returned to BBC2 in the past year. (Granted if I’m ever in a room when it comes on its… Very difficult to stop watching.)
and in clear evidence of digitalspay being up to date with news *cough* : http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a293080/itv-axes-vernon-kays-whole-19-yards.html
Well the Man vs Machine Jeopardy competition has been announced for February..
http://www.jeopardy.com/news/watson1x7ap4.php
Wow, Michael McIntyre and David Hasslehoff alongside Amanda Holden on Britain’s Got Talent.
Bad news on the Wetten Dass accident- the performer is said by doctors to be a teraplegic (all 4 limbs paralyzed)- he might improve some, but he’ll never be able to walk unaided again…
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/entertainment/8183416/student-paralysed-by-tv-stunt-that-went-wrong
Yes, very sad this.
Terrible news.
I wonder if that will spell the complete end of Wetten Dass?
If that something as tragic happened over here, I’m guessing that show would have already been cancelled by which ever network it was on.
Not sure exactly how forgiving the German public are for misfortune events like that.
There’s an established protocol for this: set the show aside for a couple of years, then bring it back without Mike Smith.
Though I think this was the suspected case from early on, it’s a shame there’s now no hope of a surprise recovery.
So, patrons of the Bar, did any of you wake up this morning and think “if I went to work today listening to the theme from Run For Money, my work rate would be more productive”? Don’t lie, you did.
Anyway, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TJVuaqfd3I
The Megaupload file there has the full version and the short ones so you can host your very own version of Run For Money in your own head.
Also Running One in the Favourites on the right is the chase/capture music. Enjoy.
In other news… NDR- The German network who will be airing the Eurovision this year- confirms exactly what we all predicted…
http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=22603
Last year was my first Eurovision so I’m new to all of the politics behind everything, but what surprises me more is that with Raab hosting, it’s somehow not on Pro7. Or alternatively, with it not on Pro7, that Raab’s hosting. Or is it normally on NDR and I’m just imagining that I had heard that it was on Pro7 last year?
Art,
Like the UK and the BBC, ARD is the main German chequewriter of the EBU. NDR is the Northern ‘arm’ of ARD (Wikipeida will help if you are lost on the politics and the way German state tv works).
I’m not sure if Stefen Raab is contracted to Pro7, or they just commission his shows via his Raab tv production company.
I guess as he was behind the winning song this year (and wrote Gildo Hornes ‘Gildo Loves You’ song, which was the only good thing when Eurovision invaded Birmingham in 1998) Pro 7 made have a relaxed view about him hosting a show for NDR going out on Eurovision.
At least they’ve chosen a host who can speak English no problem..