OMG! It’s practically Christmas!
- Deal or No Deal – A quick shoutout as it gave away its fourth jackpot last week, and epic episodes have been promised for this week as well. (4:15pm Sunday, 4pm weekdays)
- The Amazing Race – I say excitement, this will probably be a disappointment. It’s the show’s tenth year! A new thing is the Hazard, a penalty given to a team already in last place through a starting line challenge, because penalizing the team that’s furthest behind ALWAYS makes for a tense and exciting finish. (Sunday, CBS)
- The Shredder – I was unsuccessful in get getting a ticket to this, so if you’re going to see this pilot made at BBC TV Centre on Monday, do tell us about it.
- Only Connect – Rowers vs Linguists. Practically everybody I’m following on Twitter has now been a contestant on this. (8:30pm, Monday, BBC4)
- Minute to Win It (8pm, Tuesday, ITV2)
- Ton of Cash – New to the Board of Excitement, although I felt the mid-season twists (splitting the money for three teams, voting out a loser) lost quite a lot of the interest and charm the first five episodes had built up. Still, it looks like it’s returning to something closer to the old format this week, so we’ll see. (Wednesday although Friday online, VH1 in the US)
- Bundesvision Song Contest 2011 – There’s no Schlag den Star this week, but that doesn’t mean there’s no Stefan Raab. (7:15pm BST, Thursday, ProSieben)
- Strictly Come Dancing – The first weekend of the proper dancing. (9pm Friday and 6pm Saturday, BBC1).
Amazing Race never disappoints me, I’m always happy to see Phil Keoghan back on my screen.
Well I’d like to day the same, but I don’t think it’s the show it once was.
The only thing that really bothers my about newer TAR is the way Fast Forwards are done. Either one every leg or none at all, apart from that I reckon there hasn’t been too much of a decline in quality, it’s more to do with the cast for me more than anything else.
Thank you all for watching Million Pound Drop last night, we were the most watched show on commercial television from 10.30pm last night 😀
I thought more people were watching Match of the Day than The Drop as they had nearly 4 million. Still, second place cannot be bad.
I suspect Channel 4+1 will have a few watching at 11pm since word of mouth came out that they gave away £500k, with £300k going to Jack Whitehall and his ol’man. With that being the second biggest celebrity win on a UK game show.
BBC TV isn’t commercial TV, though… 😉 8)
I actually caught Jack Whitehall’s last question – and thought it was quite easy TBH.
Wilko was, of course, nearly two months shy of his 19th birthday when he made his England debut – but when Rooney played at Euro 2004, not only was he four months short of his 19th, but he’d already been an international for a whole year. And he was still with Everton!
I was away at my dad’s for the weekend, but I taped MPD to watch at my own leisure.
£750K given out on MPD the last couple of weeks…over £300K won on DOND last week. Channel 4 must be beside themselves…
Well, it’s not Channel 4’s money so they don’t care. It’s the production company who give away the money.
Ah, Joe, your inexperience showing there…
Unless Endemol are underwriting the whole thing, which is mildly possible but highly unusual, the broadcaster is the eventual guarantor of the prize money. Both production company and broadcaster will “set aside” a maximum prize level per show (say, £500,000 per episode in the case of MPD) which they’re budgeted to give away if they absolutely HAD to, and whatever remains goes back into the broadcaster’s coffers at the end of the series.
It can be the case that the production company funds some part of the prize money themselves in case of incompetence – e.g. if they made the questions far too easy – but their margins are so slim that they’re unlikely to have the money themselves. I think in the case of Millionaire, they could fund big winners #1 and #2 out of the telephone call revenues, #3 was backed by insurance, #4 from ITV themselves, and only then were Celador prepared to step in if there happened to be a 5th winner.
So what you believe is that Robert Brydges’ win was backed by insurance, Pat Gibson’s was funded by ITV themselves, and then Celador stepped in for Ingram Wilcox’s…
Now that WWTBAM is pretty much celebs only (though the civilian version hasn’t been axed, don’t forget ;)), it’s quite possible that the million will never be won again – but if it was, then going by the above, would 2waytraffic fund it?
My frame of reference was from about the second or third event week at the start of the phenomenon. Of course, as time went on, they collected more phone money and paid out of that. But, yes, one winner was paid by Celador who then claimed on insurance. I believe the insurers tried to wriggle out of it, saying that Celador had made the questions too easy.
Coincidentally or otherwise, the questions have been an awful lot harder in the 2waytraffic era. We’ve not even had a £250k win on the new tree yet.
David B,
I always imagined that prod and broadcaster would agree on an _average_ prize per episode and assemble a pot per series accordingly? Not true?
Haven’t brought up UC for a while, but anyway…
The penultimate first-round match tomorrow night is the fourth Oxbridge clash of the series – never before in the Paxman Era has there been a first round with more than three such matches.
In the Oxford corner is St Anne’s, making just their second PE appearance. And in the Cambridge corner is Pembroke, making their third.
Neither team has yet reached the second round – though Pembroke did make the repechage in their first appearance, in 2006/7, after losing to UCL by five points in slightly controversial circumstances. And, against Reading, they came pretty close to pulling off the comeback of comebacks – going from 190-55 down after the second picture round to losing by 225-185.
Talking of the repechage for this series, St Andrews’ place in it could be confirmed by 8:30 tomorrow night – but will fellow Old Scottish university Edinburgh continue to cling on to theirs, having so nearly lost it last week? If they were to lose it, they’d be just the second team to lose the opening match of a PE series and not make the repechage, after Hull in 2008/9.
It’s been a sensational week on Deal or No Deal, but things are getting very interesting next week…
You’re not The Banker are you, Joe?
(Only joking)
And of course this week is Geek Quiz Week on twitter!
Where’s Tom Scott when you need him!?
Slight plug… I’m in the audience of US Millionaire on Thursday as a contestant guest (on-air). Fun times! So if you can watch it, feel free 🙂
Here is a fun post from Paul Sinha re: The Chase:
http://sinhaha.wordpress.com/2011/09/26/the-chase-is-on/
“Let’s mix quizness with pleasure”
I haven’t even seen him in The Chase yet, but I think from this that I’m going to like him.
He is telling the truth with question 8. Also ITV Studios are happy to listen to the Chasers for ideas. Namely in the last series, one of them suggested the negative values to be introduced. Which they simply accepted and used on an occasional basis.
Appearing on my board of excitement is a note saying, “Remember to tell the Bar about 2.8 Hours Later.”
Right. 2.8 Hours Later is a very large chase game, where the objective is to get from the Start to the Finish, visiting interesting places en route, and all without getting caught by zombies. You know, shuffling and shambling creatures whose brains are long dead, distinguishable from contestants on Big Brother by … well, the lack of fake tan, probably.
Anyway. Everyone who has played it has come out saying how much of an adrenaline rush it is – Liam Herringshaw interrupted his Countdown run to play in May – and there’s a game running in London in the nights leading up to Hallowe’en. I’m there on the last Saturday in October, and if anyone else will be there, do say hello.
More details, and online booking, at the official website. And (if Mr. Bother will indulge me here), discount code VKV94Z7Z gets you 5% off the rather expensive ticket price, and stores that much for my future credit.
Also on my board of excitement is a jellybean, which reminds me to write up “Holding Out for a Hero” for the next Week.
I feel sorry for Holding Out for a Hero. It’s not a bad little show. But last night it had the misfortune of becoming ITV’s least watched primetime game show ever.
Quite a neat show though.
That sets the target for High Stakes to “beat”, I guess.
It’s good, but it’s not particularly memorable. Sadly, that means it gets fewer ratings than something memorably bad.
Interesting thing on Dutch Fort Boyard- if you get more than six keys, you get a 100 coin bonus for each key over six (as well as the full 2 minutes in the treasure room).
Curious rating for OC last night – 513,000 viewers (2.13%), our lowest this series by some margin, yet (I believe) it was the first time we were the most watched multichannel programme.
Was there something going on on another channel or IRL?
It wasn’t your show. Everybody was down last night. Panorama had 1.7 million. Doc Martin lost nearly a million compared to last week.
Hang on! They’re opening The Crystal Maze on the Grand Pier at Weston-super-Mare?
Oh.
OK, who put the Mario games link in the Connecting Wall this week? Because you are fantastic.