It is my 30th birthday tomorrow, and look at what a very good friend did!
You can click on it for a bigger version. Plainly, amazing – a vision in cross stitch.
Things to do this weekend:
- The ever-reliable Poochy.EXE has linked to the new version of Dasshutsu Game DERO! (TORE!) that’s now doing the rounds, it’s meant to have more of an Indiana Jones-y feel. It’s still quite good fun, but I’m not feeling it as much as I did the original – the blocks aren’t as good as the retracting beams, for example. You can watch the first episode here.
- If you watch Fort Boyard this weekend, add your comments to the existing thread. Greg has found a free way round the international restrictions. I’m not going to get to watch it until Monday. Kiddy Boyard starts recording this week. We’re still guessing the format, here’s the Zodiak press release if you missed it earlier.
- It sounds like Nick Hancock is about to start fronting a new BBC2 daytime quiz called Breakout. Basic premise is five people work together to win and share a prize by progressing down a 30-space track. Contestants can also opt to go for glory by striking out on their own. WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN? The set is 100-ft long, apparently.
Is this also your 4000th page? How fortuitous!
Great needlework, by the way!
It’s a shame the flash shows up. I took one without it, but you could plainly see me in the reflection, and nobody wants to see *that*.
Um… color me curious. I know there exists photographic proof out there, but I’ve never actively gone hunting for it.
Well USBB has gotten off to an interesting start- one of the HG’s has apparently walked. I don’t know all the details (this happened in the past 6 hours or so once the live feeds went up- they’ve actually been in the house since last Saturday). I won’t mention exactly who, but it’s one of the returnees.
Yep I’ve already had ti spoiled for me on Twitter. Grr Twitter!
Greg “Greggles Greggy Baby” Scott is on today’s Countdown…
And he didn’t fail to live up to expectations – even though he lost the game. 😉
Oops… I accidentally clicked “Submit Comment” there… 😳 😳
Anyway, as I was going to say before that happened, it’s far from the first time that a famous person has been a contestant in an ordinary episode – we’ve had Clarke Carlisle, of course, while the late John Diamond won two matches back in 1986.
Unlike Greggles, though, they had no connections with the show prior to their appearances.
So here’s a very silly thought – could any of Greg’s colleagues on Price-Drop TV, and its sister channels, get on Countdown if they wanted to?
Like Carmel Thomas or Danielle Fearnon… 😳 😉
They probably wouldn’t do as well as he did, but what the hey. 😉
I wonder if shows ever have their warm-up, or other sundry member of staff, as standby contestant of last resort if all the official standbys bolt? (NB Not to be confused with call-and-lose shows putting members of staff on as telephone contestants.) Seems unlikely if there’s any chance of the staffer seeing the game material in advance; while most of the game material in Countdown is procedurally rather than producer-ally generated, I suppose it would be difficult to prove that Greg hadn’t seen the Conundrum, as far as anything negative ever can be proven. Other than that, I think it would be rather neat, on a “the prize is participation in the game” show with a big turnover of contestants, for there to be such a standby.
All game shows bar emplyees from taking part.
Greg is no longer warm-up for Countdown.
“All” is demonstrably incorrect, though not a particularly large overstatement. Brig has just linked to an episode of Run The Gauntlet in which Julian Grant both competes and produces, and there’s the little matter of this show you were on…
RAI1 is considering to replace Affari Tuoi with… Odd One In! 😀
While I’ll admit the blocks aren’t quite as good as the beams, they’re still all the same extremely clever challenges as in the last show.
I personally think the game with the tunnels and balls was far better and more tense than the former game with the wires. That, and I prefer the person falling through a hole rather than being unconvincingly blasted with steam.
I agree balls is better, I disagree about the word puzzles on the blocks being as good as the visual puzzles of the beams.
I didn’t quite mean that… I just meant that the rooms on the show were just as clever as on DERO!
Happy Birthday 🙂
Many happy returns of the day!
And congratulations on your big three-o, Brig. 😉
Happy birthdaay Brig!!
Happy B-Day matey
Looks like the details for the proxy i posted for Fort Boyard last week still work, just waiting for the episode to be uploaded.
Thanks everyone! Today I outlasted Sir Clive Sinclair in a tournament. Still didn’t win though.
Ratings Bear is back to hunt down more unachiveable presenters. Grrr.
Last Night
Tonight’s The Night to be Surprise Surprise: 3.9m (22.5%)
In It To Win It: 5.25m (27%)
Have I Got More News For You: 1.95m (9.6%)
Odd One In: 2.7m (15.6%) , +1: 155k
Penn & Teller: Fool Them: 3.05m (15.9%) , +1: 246k
The Marriage Referee plus Single Referees: 1.88m (9.4%) , +1: 182k
Ratings Bear is pleased with The Winton. The first entertainment summer show to exceed the 5 million level. Also at least 1 in 4 people were watching the show at 8pm. Penn & Teller did OK but didn’t beat Winton. Very poor rating for Odd One In, losing out to Barrowman.
As for The Marriage Ref and losing to BBC 2 YET AGAIN GRRR. Ratings Bear is getting impatient as Ratings Bear is already hunting down Dermot O’Dreary. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
From today’s High Stakes recording. Jeremy is allowed to help the contestants with the questions. I reckon that’s quite a nice twist.
What!? That’s ridiculous. The host helping the contestants!?!? What sort of game show is that? I hate that idea. 🙁
Surely before saying things like that, you’ve got to see it in the context of the show.
From what I’ve heard about the format it might be the biggest primetime flop since The Marriage Ref to be honest. I thank Thomas for this as I was going to put something up tomorrow asking if anyone was going to the recordings this week and what their thoughts were.
Although the idea might sound odd on paper, I think in context it worked well. The questions are not at all easy and I don’t recall any occasion where JK said ‘the answer is definitely…’ it was mostly suggestions on how to narrow down the possible range of answers. I thought having a show where the host assisted was quite a neat twist and, I assumed, it had never been done before (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong)
I thought it was a really good way to spend a couple of hours but whether that will translate to good tv remains to be seen.
Kenneth Kendall in Treasure Hunt?
I remain unconvinced of the show’s merits – I just can’t see what the attraction woukd be, but thanks for filling us in, Thomas.
Chris Tarrant did that a couple of times on Millionaire if the contestant was a bit thick and struggled on the first couple of questions.
If I remember correctly, being able to ask the host was one of the early ideas for WWTBAM.
Jeremy Kyle helping the contestants?!??!?!??! 😯 😯 😯 😯
Has he decided to become nice all of a sudden?! 😕 😕
He’s obviously not as revolting as he is on his daytime show but I felt he was still fairly charmless and arrogant. So no, I wouldn’t say he’s now being nice just fulfilling a contractual obligation!
Just noticed the mention of USBB above and a HM leaving, it is a shame as i think the HM that left may have been playing a very good game.
Some intesting things happened on Boyard this week, like the contestent who left the game without the key and was able to go back and get it, after it looked like time had expired. Also interesting version of human breakout and more Cube inspired games to release the jailbirds.
I don’t like the fact that they used “Drop Shot with three platforms” again, though.