So here’s a show I watched over the weekend. Currently airing its third season on the History channel in the US, Top Shot is a reality show based around a marksmanship competition.
I’ve watched the whole of the first season. In it, professional and amateur marksman from all over the country (and a Brit, and there’s nothing like putting a Brit in a US show to make their accent sound more ridiculous) come to compete in a competition hosted by Colby Donaldson (off of Survivor 2) for a $100,000 prize and the title of Top Shot.
The first eight episodes all worked the same way – the players are divided into two teams of two and shown a weapon from history – a variety of pistols and rifles and on occasion something a bit more interesting like a longbow or throwing knives. They’re given some time to practice with them, coached by an expert in the field, and the next day they do a challenge. The winning team is safe from elimination, the losing team must nominate two of its own to go into an elimination challenge (by shooting at targets publicly on the Nomination Range), and the loser of that challenge goes home. The final two episodes are all basically elimination challenges with the worst performer going home. In between they all get to live in a pretty house.
It’s pretty by the numbers in terms of structure then but there are a few things that make this stand out a bit. How many different variations on shooting things can there be? It basically boils down to different guns, different targets, different distances. Yet within this fairly limited scope they’ve done quite well to keep the whole thing entertaining – the nature of the challenge is hidden from the players at practice so sometimes they’ll throw in things like memory (there’s usually some spurious reason like in the heat of battle it might mean the difference between hitting friend or foe or something like that) or balance (see picture above – teams must race to stick six targets in relay fashion with throwing knives whilst the ledges get increasingly perilous). One episode has contestants trying to recreate famous trick shots from history.
The elimination challenges tend to twist things up again throwing something a little extra to the mix, like firing at targets whilst on a zipline or having contestants attempt to hit playing cards to create a poker hand. This one shown is a head-to-head challenge where contestants with one minute and forty shots must hit the targets on the post to turn them their own colour adding strategy to the mix.
Is there interpersonal drama? There is, but for the most part everyone seems to get on quite well and everyone’s got loads of respect for each other and so on – most of the time, with a few surprises, the weakest people at the team challenge tend to get voted for (there was a bit of “send me in, I must prove myself!!!” rubbish strategy at the start although that seemed to disappate). Most of the post-challenge analysis is exactly that with people being honest about their shortcomings.
Colby has a certain charm (even if he doesn’t really say or do anything outside of host mode) and he is believeable as someone who can probably handle a gun. His mannerisms and commentary have been very clearly influenced by Jeff Probst.
So season one nicely entertaining. It’s interesting that the first episode of season two suggests quite a different direction with people seemingly encouraged to bitch about each other more, but it did feature this challenge which looked like it took a while to set up – eight targets on ropes moving towards the shooter at different speeds. But also on each rope is a red “stopper”, and when the target reaches it it will drop out of play. The idea, obviously, it sot hit as many of the targets as possible before they all go. Not only a test of accuracy, but also of judgement.
So we’ll have to see if season two continues its different feel to season one. I think it’s worth a watch, and there’s just no way this would work in the UK with our different attitudes to guns. It’s already on its third season in the US though, so eprhaps there would be some scope for showing it on the History Channel in the UK.
Jesse J has been confirmed as a coach/judge on The Voice UK. A very credible signing.
Agreed – she’s got credibility as a singer in a way that Cheryl Cole doesn’t (although of course Cheryl had the experience of going through an ITV talent contest).
Wondering if they’ll follow the convention set by the Lloyd-Webber casting shows by having a vocal coach on the panel.
I have to admit that I like Jessie J a lot – and it’s not just because she’s a good singer… 😳
So, who else? For some reason, I’m thinking this could be a break Alistair Griffin could use. You remember, runner-up in 2003, cheeky chappie, singer, songwriter. And charmingly entertaining in a way that would please the older viewer. The drawback is that Griffin’s been there, done that, and returned to a level of obscurity. He might not be the best advocate for the hype-machine that the sponsoring record label expects.
I don’t know what they’re after on this show. If seeks someone who does a thoroughly adequate job at singing the words of other people’s songs, then they may as well get in a cardboard cutout of Ronan Keating and be done with it.
Viewing figures for Only Connect were over 700k last night. Is that a record for the BBC4 show?
I was told: “718,000 viewers, peaked at 770,000, 2.9% share”
I think we’ve had 707k, 2 or 3 weeks back, so this is our highest ever, yes.
That’s exceptional. Well done 🙂
I do enjoy Only Connect a lot. One of the hidden gems of British TV which doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.
Actually, I think we do get enough recognition in the press. There’s been quite a few nice articles about us in the TV magazines, one of the best being this one:
http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2011-08-15/only-connect-the-best-quiz-on-tv
Also, I can exclusively reveal that SOMETHING VERY EXCITING will happen on the remaining episodes this series. You will almost self-combust with the tension, I know, but maybe more clues later in the week.
Video of Jeremy Kyle talking about High Stakes with a preview: http://www.itv.com/thismorning/showbiz/jeremy-kyle-high-stakes/
He says it’s the first game show in history that the host can help contestants. Is that really true about being the 1st gameshow ever?
Well I’ve just had Kenneth Kendall on the phone, he’d like a word.
Suspect it’s a first for traditional studio quizzes though (and with the format screaming “ten questions, £25,000, and sod whatever else Jeremy says about half a million” – what is it with ITV1 shows having screamingly obvious flaws that make it a bloody obvious strategy to play for £25,000? – there is nothing more to this format than straightforward Q&A, apart from lots and lots of padding).
I can’t think of a modern show that did it, and I suspect the influence of Twenty-One (which got pulled over here over a contestant admitting that he got hints, let’s not forget) will have ensured nobody did it before.
Though I suppose that Chris has come awfully close to genuinely “helping people” with the odd contestant falling apart on the first couple of questions on Millionaire. The one who barely got an opening question to which the answer was “Air on a G-String” springs to mind…
Chris Tarrant was obvivously giving away the answers on the first series. On a few occasions he would say “I don’t know but C sounds good” if a contestant is stuck before securing £1,000. Come the second series he would state that he didn’t see the “correct” answer until the contestant confirms and locks in their answer.
This didn’t stop him in later series as if they were stuck (like Michelle Symonds in 2001). He would speak in a stressed tone if that choice is their final answer or to say final answer quickly to make them move on to the next question.
I’ve had Nick Weir sent me a text message on my mobile. Also expressing the same point.
Is there anyone else who couldn’t help but feel disappointed about the outcome of today’s episode of The Chase?
Yes !
Of course. 😉
If only you’d got that Scrabble question right… 😉
I read on the Digital Spy forums that Steven did apologise to the other challengers afterwards, and they were still happy with £5.5k each.
Not too sure, though, if I’d be able to so easily laugh off losing a few grand as a result of a team-mate accepting a minus amount…
The killer question was the Sydney Opera House question. I honestly thought he said Sydney Harbour Bridge. Get that then I have time to think about the scrabble one.
They all knew they wouldnt have won without the contribution of the Motherwell lad , so all was soon forgiven.
Well, it’s the time of the year when I tell you guys what the next big show is. It was this time last year when I revealed that The Voice would become the new worldwide smash show, which has happened over the last 12 months.
Now, I have discovered that over the next 12 months, a show which will capture the imagination of millions of people around the world will be: “Ransom”
Ransom is a show which aired on Pulso/Aftershare TV in Spain. The premise is: a contestant is “kidnapped” and vanishes for 4 days without telling anyone. With €200,000 and a backpack, he spends this time undergoing various missions and can contact one relative to help solve different problems. Every time he fails or needs help, he loses money. Reactions of his family and friends are followed on a spy cam.
I predict this show will be big over the next couple of years. Watch out for it. 🙂
This does sound very interesting and The Sort Of Thing We Would Like.
BUT! By the sounds of it it feels quite similar to The Phone, which I really liked, sold in a load of places but wasn’t really very successful in many.
The Phone mucked up because Jerry Brookheimer screwed with the format, and tried to fake the real/fiction barrier too far.
Also, with these things, often you have to play it for real and then do it all over again because they’re damn near impossible to film as they’re so ‘guerilla’. So, it might work OK for the US-style markets where confessionals and far too many shots per minute are used in the edit. But, for the Brits with things like Treasure Hunt still in the memory and a more innate sense of fishy retakes, I’m not sure it’ll work.
Again, not sure this is quite fair – I don’t remember Jerry Bruckheimer being involved with the Dutch or Aussie versions I’ve seen. The US version was naturally point-missing.
Crucially the US version was backed by none other than Justin Timberlake, and one of the original creators is Beau van Erwin Dorens who hosted the Dutch daily Deal or No Deal.
Might work in other countries but it wouldn’t capivate the viewers here.
I don’t think that’s true or fair, but I do think this has Channel 4 fifteen years ago written all over it.
And now I’m annoyed they haven’t tried bringing back Wanted again :<