I know what you’re wondering this Saturday: whatever happened to Games World Videator and host of TIGS Big Boy Barry? Well wonder no more! He’s head of global PR for Mad Catz videogame accessories, and he’s on Twitter. Altogether now: Amazing.
Paul Ross jigsaw news: only two people got all five answers right, David Bodycombe and a last minute late surge by Andrew Sullivan. I’ve gone to www.random.org and flipped a coin – Heads, David wins, Tails, Andrew wins. It is LITERALLY that exciting. It came up tails! Well done Andrew, your jigsaw will be in the post next week.
Well this is hilarious, technical difficulties on The X Factor. They’ve been olaying audition tapes for 15 minutes. Problem at BT Tower, apparently.
Interesting article posted long before the lines have closed and voting has finished!!
http://programmes.stv.tv/the-x-factor/news/278826-x-factor-return-result-emotional-amelia-lily-voted-back-in/
Great spot!
Possibly the best spot on here since Sequencegate on DoND.
The apparent explanation was that there was a page waiting for every act.
As, indeed, I found later. Although amusingly enough there wasn’t one for 2 Shoes.
It’s amazing that this is standard practice now – something similar happened with the Mail’s website on the Amanda Knox trial verdict and they famously got caught out when they were thrown by the judge initially finding her guilty of a lesser offense, before finding her not guilty of murder.
As part of my university course I am working on an extensive proposal for a brand new television game show. I have written out a proposal for the format of the programme but need to understand which parts work, which parts do not and how original the idea is. Therefore I would be very grateful if you could help me in this stage of my research.
Please read through the proposed format below and then complete the survey linked underneath. If you don’t understand parts of the format then please highlight this in the survey as this project is still very much a work in progress. It shouldn’t take any longer than fifteen minutes to complete.
Many thanks for your help.
THE SABOTEUR
Each episode will feature six contestants, one of whom has previously been selected by the producers to be the saboteur. The saboteur will assume a different identity throughout the course of the programme. Their name, occupation, age and any stories they share during the programme will all have been pre-decided by the producers before the show and it will be down to the saboteur to convince the other contestants that this identity is their true self. None of the contestants will have met prior to the recording of the programme in order to ensure that the true identity of the saboteur is kept secret.
The programme will begin with the presenter welcoming viewers and briefly describing the game’s format. Each of the six contestants will then state their name, age, occupation and where they live. Before the first round begins the presenter will explain that £10,000 will be won at the end of the programme, how big a share of that £10,000 each player will get will depend on the game-play of the saboteur and at least one contestant will walk away with nothing.
The game will consist of three rounds of general knowledge questions. These questions will be of medium difficulty so that they will not be too difficult to answer when under pressure against the clock, but also not easy enough for it to be particularly obvious that the saboteur is purposefully answering questions incorrectly. Each round will last a total of three minutes and thirty seconds.
At the start of the game the prize fund of the regular players as a collective will stand at £5000 and the prize fund of the saboteur as an individual will also stand at £5000. Each time the saboteur or one of the other players incorrectly answers a question or chooses not to answer a question (known as a “pass”), the saboteur’s prize fund will gain £50 from the regular contestants’ prize fund. Each time the saboteur or one of the other players answers a question correctly, the regular contestants’ prize fund will gain £50 from the saboteur’s prize fund. For the second round the amount won or lost per question will increase to £100 and for the third round £200. It will not be revealed to the contestants or the viewers at home how big a share of the £10,000 the saboteur and the others possess until the end of each round. This allows the audience to play along with the show and guess who the saboteur is.
The goal of the regular contestants is to answer as many questions correctly as possible in order to increase their share of the prize fund whilst also observing the other players in order to decipher which of them is the saboteur. Meanwhile, the saboteur’s goal is to answer as many questions incorrectly as possible without the other contestants being able to guess that they are the saboteur. In order to avert suspicions from the other contestants the saboteur may choose to regularly answer questions correctly at the expense of their own prize fund in the hope of winning back that money at the end of the show.
Between each round the presenter will interact with each of the contestants by talking to them about their lives and any interesting stories they have. The players should use this time to observe their fellow contestants as everything the saboteur says during these moments will be completely untrue. There will be no rehearsal of these segments meaning that the saboteur must stay in character and convincingly improvise their answers to the host’s questions in order to overt suspicions from the other contestants.
After all three rounds have taken place the final shares for the saboteur’s prize fund the regular players’ prize fund will be announced. Following this a vote will occur. Now each of the players must individually announce which contestant they believe to be the saboteur. They will do this by writing the name of the contestant on a board. Once all contestants have written the names the presenter will ask each of them to hold up their board and explain why they believe this contestant is the saboteur. The saboteur will also take part in this segment and will accuse another player of being the saboteur.
The presenter will then announce the real occupation, name and age (in that order) of the saboteur and then announce the fake name that the saboteur had been using throughout the game. The presenter will then gauge brief reactions from the other contestants and the saboteur and will announce who will be walking home with the prize fund.
The regular players’ prize fund will be divided into equal shares for each of the five regular contestants. This will be the amount of money that each of them will take home assuming they have correctly identified the saboteur. The saboteur is guaranteed to take home their entire share of the prize money if at least one of the other players does not guess that they are the saboteur. Indeed, if a regular player does not correctly identify the saboteur then they will lose their share of the money and it will go straight to the saboteur.
If all regular players incorrectly accuse each other of being the saboteur then the saboteur’s mission has been completely fulfilled and he will win the full £10,000 leaving the other players with nothing. Alternatively, if all regular players correctly guess his identity then he will lose his entire share of the prize money meaning the regular contestants’ prize fund will reach the full £10,000. Therefore each of the five regular players will receive £2000 while the saboteur will go home empty-handed.
For example if by the end of the game the regular players’ share of the £10,000 was £6,350 then this would be divided equally amongst the five regular contestants to become £1,270. Each regular contestant will take home £1,270 if they correctly guess which person is the saboteur. Meanwhile the saboteur’s share would be £3,650. If one of the regular players incorrectly guesses the identity of the saboteur they will lose their £1,270 and it will be added onto the saboteur’s prize fund, in this case it will increase to £4,920. If another were to incorrectly guess their identity then the saboteur’s prize fund would increase by another £1,270 to become £6,190 etc.
It is guaranteed that at least one player will walk away with nothing. Depending on the game play of the saboteur it could be as many as five people going home empty-handed which adds to the excitement and tension of the game.
Now please complete the survey:
http://www.kwiksurveys.com?s=OONOIO_52ba9b3c
I’ll be answering a question in your survey out loud here, but this bears pretty distinct similarities to The Enemy Within. Not a bad show by any means (and, in truth, a show whose name I had forgotten; in my mind it’s “that show with Nigel Lythgoe”) but as you’re asking about originality then I fear it may not be as high as you would like. Sorry! 🙁
Mmm, The Enemy Within crossed with Chris Tarrant’s The Great Pretender, really.
Without having time to complete the survey, the main thing I’d note here (other than the similarity issue Chris points out) is that there really isn’t enough of a mathematical incentive for the saboteur to stick his neck out.
If there are five other players then the likelihood is that your prize fund won’t be that affected by you just playing the game straight and getting as many as you can right – the other players’ ability (or lack of it) will always dilute whatever contribution you are making to/from your own fund.
Perhaps do a sort-of reverse Weakest Link and take escalating amounts off the good guys’ fund for chains of wrong answers? So £50 for the first wrong answer, £100 for the next, £200 for the next, £500 for the next…
Or alternatively just have four players – you’ll get a healthier balance of saboteur:non-saboteur wins then, for starters.
Fantasy X Factor results not coming out until after I’m a Celeb. Sorry if you are waiting.
Million Dollar Mind Game on now:
http://tvpc.tv/Channel.php?ChannelID=6094
Looks like I’ve missed it in favour of some sort of Dancing With the Stars recap 🙁
You could try catching a West Coast feed in an hour or two.
Oh, wow! I come back from a long weekend with my dad, and I win the Paul Ross jigsaw! Excellent!