8pm, ITV2
Alright so this is on tonight and in true Bother’s Bar fashion these days I’m going to have to watch it on catch-up, although it’s alright because I was in the audience for one of the episodes.
It’s quite a different take on the original format, here two teams led by Joe Swash and Caroline Flack battle against each other in a number of minute-long games, emphasis on fun, one team gets a shot at a decent cash prize. I’ve no idea why Darren McMullen of the Aussie version is hosting this but he is and I thought he was quite good, so.
I look forward to reading your comments.
It’s pretty interesting to know that the host of the Aussie version of “Minute” is also the host of the upcoming British version of “Minute” as well.
Yip. And almost every time he comes up, someone mentions his rather fantastic Scottish-Aussie accent.
And there we are, I’ve done it again.
Incidentally, it’s been rather an Aussie week on the bar, hasn’t it? Him, the ’84 WoF and Talkin’ ’bout Your Generation.
The orange throwing is in! Fantastic.
As is Joe falling over in the break build-up! Double fantastic!
This is especially interesting as I don’t think it captured well what actually happened – he goes to kick the pillow but slips up. It just looked like he dived for him here!
Didn’t care for the host but the consensus in our household is that we would enjoy if he would bugger off and let Swash and Flack do the hosting
To be honest, I thought the complete opposite. I really like him!
I liked him at the taping, but I didn’t think the material on the autocue helped to be honest.
Sensational show, loved it. I think it was better and far more entertaining than The Cuboid 😀
Well Joe I’m glad we agree on something!
So, apparently Minute to Win It’s not going to be available on the catch-up service? Or have I misinterpreted the website?
Ignore me. It’s there.
Watching this now. I’m not thrilled with the way it’s been edited together so far – there was quite a lot of comedy in the after game interviews and that’s all been cut in favour of a quick slo-mo.
I don’t know how much of McMullen’s commentary is live and how much is post, as we couldn’t hear him in the audience.
I would like copies of the clock music please thanks.
[This is the episode I saw, by the way]
Mmm, I am quite enjoying it, but I don’t think the Win Lose or Draw-esque friendly comedy competitive element that seemed inherent from the recording makes it across to the television, which is a shame.
Right, finished now.
I don’t think the edit helps it (although saying that it’s a fast paced show so I’m not sure what I’d cut to put the funnier stuff in), and McMullan’s script is far, far too try hard.
Saying this, it was plenty entertaining and I think it will do well in the ITV2 demographic, if they’re watching television on a Tuesday night.
I have to say i enjoyed it, it reminded me a lot of Friends Like These.
However i spent the whole episode wondering if the host was American, Australian, South African or Irish.
Or Ross King.
Friends Like These was pretty much the first thing that came to mind when I read those initial recording reports. I think its a worthy successor to that legacy. Also a good example of how this and The Cube can co-exist.
Wow. Now that’s how the the US version should have gone from the very start. The host was absolutely brilliant. His act with Joe Swash was superb.
I hope somebody uploads this onto YT, so that we Yanks can see this, and compare it with our own version, or the Aussie version (which is represented on YT).
Those who have followed the US version know that it started out as something of an imitation of “The Cube” when it premiered in March of last year. But by May, it had evolved away from being such sincere flattery, as several different formats appeared to be tried out. Best was a “Last Man Standing” format with ten contestants, with each game eliminating one contestant until two remained. Then they would play a head-to-head game, and the winner wold get a crack at the Million Dollar game (which nobody ever got, of cuss!)
However, by last Summer, the show settled on a team format, which allowed for some solo games and for some collaborative ones. Teams were sometimes related, but at other times were just thrown together at a sort of “boot camp” where folks who had applied tried some of the games on for size.
All this presided over by Guy Fieri, a spiky-headed individual who came off as more grating than ingratiating.
It’s not on NBC’s Fall schedule, but if their schedule winds up looking like it needs darning, then it’ll likely be back.
According to @tvscoops, this scored 497k and is 40% up on the slot average.
Paul B has it at 521k.
Basically it did alright.
Second week will be crucial, I suspect that there’ll still be about half a million viewers, but they won’t be the same half a million viewers (because the Marmite hosting will have led some to give up on the show and others to love it enough to recommend it to their friends).
First night notes: really didn’t enjoy that at all, and I can’t put my finger on why. Which means that I’m going to have to watch another episode (or the same one again) to get a proper understanding.
I’ll help you out Ian.
Try the hosting of it.
It swerved all over the place. Each link had a different slant so you couldn’t work out if he was on the side of the contestants or treating the whole enterprise as a ironic joke.
He was cocky, arrogant, aggressive, flirty, angry, shouty, happy, friendly, sarcastic, playful, midly funny, very unfunny leading to me getting very confused as to how he was (or was told) to play the presentation of the show.
It also needed a different voice to do the in-game commentary (rather than clunky dubs in post).
Tell you who would have been a good host for this – Chris Moyles. I think he would have carried it off better.
I’d just like to reiterate somethig I said from my recording report:
“In the main I thought he was really good, like a party host, although I think he was better ad libbing, the jokes on the autocue tried a bit hard I think.”
I stand by it, I think he’s a good host – great with contestants and audience alike. HOWEVER, and it’s a big however, very little of the ad-libbed stuff (particularly the post game chats which were cut completely) is actually shown, almost everything said and done by the host that made the edit was in the script we could all see from the audience (apart from the commentary stuff which as I said you couldn’t hear in the audience anyway, and sounds like a lot of it was added in post).
I feel a bit sorry for him really because I think thanks to the script and direction he gets a bit of a raw deal in the edit. ITV2 have gone for a certain style for the show (and to be honest, I think that’s actually a good decision) but I think they well overplayed their hand with regards to Darren.
Compare and contrast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhFoA0ggZ2E
Ok. So I’ve reviewed the evidence of the repeat on ITV2 and the You Tubeage clip and I now have to agree with you Brig.
The production team are badly advising him of the tone of his presentation in the UK version.
You can’t pull off a leery to Flack then agressive to Whatshisname style in the same link.
But, neither do I think the slick’n’smily gameshow host act he does on 7 Austraila would work for the 18-34 crowd ITV2 are hoping to attract with this show either.
I completely agree, it needs to be somewhere in the middle. As I said, all the “Cazza-wazza-wazza stop looking at my behind” stuff was on the autocue. Full marks for dedication, I suppose.
And full marks for him for making it sound like it was spontanious spur of the moment comment rather than something scrawled on the production running order in the lunchbreak.
That is also the problem with shooting across the floor with the audience facing the camera run. It gives away a lot of secrets..
Wasn’t a fan at all really – and another show with pointless “celebrity” intrusion.