2011! Fancy that. I wonder what is in store for the year. I’d like to thank all fourteen of you for making Bother’s Bar the world’s 863,566th fave website in 2010. We’ve got lots of (some) competitions coming up, and fingers crossed two shows to go and see and write about before the end of the month. But what about this week, eh?
- The Cube – Last celebrity special, I think, with Jennie McAlpine and Ricky Hatton. Watch out for a new game for Ricky, “Hat On”, can he throw a hat onto a hat stand for £250,000? (Sunday, 8pm, ITV)
- Famous and Fearless – i.e. it’s The Games EXTREME. Chris Evans and Claire Balding invite celebs to do extreme sports live every night this week, beginning with a two hour special this evening an concluding Friday. The question on everybody’s lips is, of course, will there be an accident? (Sunday, 8pm, C4)
- Poll of the Year 2010 – This is so exciting, apparently there is a budget for ACTUAL TROPHIES to send to the winners this year. Look out for the details tomorrow, and find out just what is replacing the Golden Fiver? (Monday, UKGameshows.com/Bother’s Bar)
- The Chase – New series of last year’s sleeper hit for Bradley Walsh and chums (Monday, 5pm, ITV1)
- Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2010 – This is SO last year. (Monday, 9:30pm, C4)
- Penn and Teller: Fool Us – Blimey, midweek is a bit dull. Anyway I was interested in seeing this partly because Penn and Teller are awesome, and partly because Peter Davey off of The Mole is producing, which makes us more confident of this than The Magicians on BBC1. Unfortunately we weren’t successful in getting a ticket but Geek Comedian Tom Scott was and sent us a recording report which I will put up on Friday. Anyway here magicians try and impress P and T in a bid to earn a slot in a Vegas show. (Friday, 9pm, ITV1)
- Total Wipeout – Anyway, new series of this. Let’s hope it doesn’t succumb to last year’s really stupid scheduling. (Saturday, 6pm, BBC1). NOTE: I’m a bit bored of the US one which has become a bit one note, but I should point out that Winter Wipeout begins Thursday night on ABC.
Edit: It would be remiss of us to not point out that Million Dollar Money Drop continues on Thursday night on Fox – the holidays are over, it will have nowhere to hide. Except behind more popular shows, obviously. ARF!
Ooh, apparently Deal or No Deal has new titles.
And slightly newer graphics.
Yep, last celebrity for The Cube tonight. Series three goes into production later this month with more specials planned.
Good 2010 review from Iain as always but Perfection is a 12Yard production, not Endemol.
Whoops! And in a section about high-profile failures, too. The irony!!
[goes off and changes]
I think we have the first entry for high-profile failures of 2011 already.
Famous and Fearless?
I’m watching on an hour delay, for something that’s meant to be action packed there’s an awful lot of not much happening – The Games was only on for an hour a night with a 90 minute final IIRC, this is 30 minutes extra daily.
The BMX is amusingly lo-octane.
The end stunt was OK but the rest of it was pretty meh.
Actually, I didn’t think F&F was all that bad. They’ve got the right staff for it, at least – Chris Evans makes the thing fly well, and although there’s still an awful lot of filler there seems to be a bit more meat to it than The Games, where I was often running up the walls with tedium.
The voiceover’s so echoey that we can’t here it, though.
It might be better during the week when it’s only got 90 minutes to fill, but if it’s meant to be exciting then I either need to check my pulse, or it isn’t.
I’m wondering if a BB-esque approach would work nicely for Famous and Fearless; run it live on E4 (or similar) and then make a more streamlined highlights package for C4 consumption.
I think Brig has it: the opener was a bit bloated (do we really need to be reminded of Kelly Holmes’ many achievements?) but zapping through the intros left a decent enough show. It should be better in a 90-minute slot.
I see you’ve snuck an anti-Million Dollar Money Drop comment in right at the end. Jealousy due to the success of a programme you don’t like…
Speaking of which, I know I said there would be no MPD in January, but as you’ll see from Channel 4’s adverts it is returning sooner than you might’ve expected. Plans have changed.
Well, I could have not mentioned it at all, it’s not like anyone else will be talking about it.
I don’t see how it’s jealousy, I don’t work in TV, I’ve little to gain either way.
Welcome back Endemol Joe!
I did say back in November it would be possible as Davina was hosting Big Brother on Friday and The Vault on Saturday night in 2002. Also the first Got to Dance semi final is on 30th Jan.
I see there are some TBA slots from Monday 17th January but the TBA slots are for 9pm…
Famous & Fearless was excellent tonight. A real sense of danger and “what will happen next” feel to it. Thoroughly entertaining.
The end stunt was exciting but neither the BMX or luge was that exciting. Will I watch the rest of it? Perhaps, but not if anything better is on.
Not sure if this has been mentioned before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSvxgJ-EfYs
But it’s definitely worth the watch. Shame that there isn’t anymore, but it’s good to have some!
BE WARNED: THIS SPOILS ALL PREVIOUS SEASONS OF THIS COUNTRY’S VERSION OF THIS FORMAT. You will find out the answer to *the* question that had been asked during the last four seasons if you go past the 5:30 mark in the first of the five consecutive seasons. You have been sufficiently warned 🙂
Brilliant mind game to start, that’s for sure.
R (et definitivement, je suis la taupe)
Can someone please try and get this show back on to British Television?
Where are all those suits that hated it at Channel Five? Are they at the bigger networks? I know Andrew Newman left Channel Four, but I’m not sure where Kevin Lygo went to.. Is he on the South Bank now?
I digress – it would make a nice Wednesday evening 8pm show for BBC One (and moving the midweek lottery draw back down to 8.50 to fill the hour slot)
In fairness, I don’t think anyone at Channel 5 hated it, but it was expensive for the ratings it was getting, unfortunately.
I’d be intrigued to see how a Mole 2011 would fare on a proper channel.
Recently, I’ve been thinking how The Mole might work in a daytime afternoon slot, similar to the Biggest Loser. They could start with 8 contestants on Monday, eliminate down to 4 by Thursday and reveal the Mole on Friday. Then start another week and another 8 contestants, etc.
It would be perfect for Channel 4’s lineup when Coach Trip isn’t on.
Blimey, you’d be needing to come up and film with 10-15 different tasks every week.
I guess for me as much as I love the Mole it would be a bit overkill in a daytime slot. For me the show is something special, you only get it for a bit at a time. Kinda like when one of the channels over here started watching UK Fort Boyard… the first couple of days were great but then it was too much.
So, do four one week seasons a year, and make a splash about them when you do them.
Watching Famous and Fearless on the morning repeat. It’s alright but not brilliant. The stunts meant to look extreme but it’s layed in cotton wool. The BMX race would’ve been better if they used dirt and mud. While the street luge was not steep and long enough, also it was only a time trial and not a race.
On another note, Endemol USA have uploaded the UK and Australian versions of Fear Factor on Youtube. In case anybody missed the repeats on Challenge and Bravo.
http://www.youtube.com/show?p=cqLQagoXyD8&s=1 (UK version)
http://www.youtube.com/show?p=4A0VJAoiyZw (Aussie version)
If anybody want to see how to do a street luge properly, watch the first episode of the Aussie version at the final stunt. I’m starting to wonder if Endemol can do a better job instead of Princess Productions…
…Oh dear. The site I get all my shows from doesn’t have “The Chase” scheduled. I’m not sure how I’m gonna break it to my dad that I can’t get the new season of his favorite show.
Good to hear that “The Chase” has another series going. Let’s hope somebody uploads it so that those of us who don’t live in the land of PAL can enjoy an excellent general-knowledge format done up with some degree of suspense.
Some have wondered if this could be done here in the States. I think that the biggest problem would be to find suitable Chasers. Big game show winners do not have the status here that they do over on the Other Side of the Pond. And I can’t see Ken Jennings or one of the other winners casting himself as the Big Bad for this show.
Hmmmm. . . perhaps the Watson computer program that is about to take on “Jeopardy!”???
Ooh, American Gladiators 2008 has started on Sky2 with the 2 hour special premier, brother.
Also also there’s Celebrity Pointless on. (Under the title of Pointless Celebrities, amusingly.)
Winter Wipeout: The way I see it, if you were a fan of it before, you’ll probably enjoy it, otherwise it’ll just feel like more of the same (with fake snow). Nothing majorly notable about the qualifier, except to say that they removed the Sucker Punch. Is this the first time they’ve been without it? The 12-6 round, the Ski Lift, is simultaneously brilliant and flawed for reasons you’ll see when you watch it (I’m trying not to give spoilers, not that there’s much to spoil). The 6-3 (yes, only 3 go to the Winter Wipeout Zone) round, The Seven-Letter Word, was a pretty dull mash-up of random elements from the show. Finally, the WWZ again follows the pretty standard sequence of launch into water, climbing-type obstacle, spinning obstacle, difficult straight-path obstacle. I know I’m really underselling the show, but as a casual fan, I’m glad to see it back on. Like I said before, if you were already skeptical about the show, this won’t drag you back in to watching it, but it’s a fun romp for the rest of us.
I will watch it, don’t get me wrong, but I do think the last season lost its way a bit, and I’m certainly not a fan of impossible obstacles.
Surprisingly, I don’t think think there were any “impossible” obstacles in the WWZ. The final two elements were completely doable if you took the time to think about the process involved, and the first one, while again controlled by hydraulics, seemed to be set to function on a set rhythm, rather than the jerk off-camera wiggling the joystick. (Unfortunately, that guy goes berzerk at the start and end of the qualifier, and perhaps a bit in the 6-3 with those stupid Hurtles.)
Winter Wipeout did very, very well last night apparently, despite being up against ratings behemoth Million Dollar Money Drop.
Very well indeed, especially in the 18-49 category. Something along the lines of “ABC Wins Thursday in Adults 18-49 as “Wipeout” Marks Most-Watched-Ever Telecast”.
Just to be clear, that’s “Most watched episode of Wipeout” rather than “most watched programme ever”.
I wonder if they’ll do some shuffling and move some of the filmed summer ones to the end of this six-week series?
Probably not (and I believe they made 8 winter episodes)- In a few weeks, the wounded but still dangerous American Idol comes back, and they’re moving the results shows to Thursdays this year (and the performances to Wednesdays)
No, the Sucker Punch was still there, but it was modified (the “pie” obstacle in Nana’s house…) I thought it was pretty good, and others did too- it got 11.5 million viewers last night and won in the 2nd half hour…
Even MDMD is up (a little bit!)! It’s the weekend and I’m feeling charitable, so I’ll let this little victory go.