Excitement!
- Only Connect (BBC4, Monday, 8:30pm) – it’s Neuroscientists vs Rugby Fans.
- The Krypton Factor (ITV1, Tuesday, 7:30pm)
- The Cube US (London, Thursday night) – we couldn’t get a ticket for this, so I’m expecting lots of comment from people who do go.
- Solitary 4.0 (Saturday, Fox Reality) – thought the first episode was a mite disappointing, I’m not entirely sure I agree with the first elimination like that, and it’s too early to have an unappetizing drinks competition surely? Still, the rest of it looks intriguing, so bring it on. I’ve managed to be very vague to avoid spoilers.
- Accumulate: The Final (Ruon, RIGHT NOW) – WHO WILL WIN DAN PEAKE’S NINETY POUNDS?
And don’t forget that next Sunday is the first event of the Bother Series of Poker 2010.
I’ve updated the Specials Board for your delectation and delight with Alta Tensione, Blokken and what represented your best chance of watching Solitary years ago.
Anybody know anything more about this, which is being filmed in Covent Garden on Monday 15th?
“Cat Deeley’s Treasure Tag
This exciting new prime time show sees a team of two solve a series of clues around London whilst trying to bank as much cash as they can along the way. They then have the chance to win all the cash live in the studio. “
Good spot, may go and see this.
Also, I’m sure this very show was bandied around several years ago and never made it to air – anyway, an audience call for…
“Bank It or Bin It
The exciting new gameshow in which two teams go head to head to win big cash prizes.
We present our teams with two objects. All they have to do is bank the item they think is worth the most. If they bank the correct item they’ll win the difference in value between the two, but if they bin the wrong item, their scores will be dipping into the red.”
Minor niggle – With gameplay like that, suely it would make more sense to win or lose half the difference? With winning or losing the difference you’re essentially double-counting everything, aren’t you?
The other glitch is that easier decisions are worth more than hard ones. It also sounds rather like one of David Jacobs’ flops.
It sounds just a little bit like a competitive version of Priceless with Jamie Theakston, look at 10th February 2008 in the Cellar.
Priceless is what I was thinking of, yes – thanks Brig.
It’s also a little bit like a format that was doing the rounds a while ago called Take It or Leave It (different to any TIoLIs you may have seen in the past) – contestant comes out and offered two prizes, some of which may be dream prizes. Pick one to keep and one to leave. If the value of the five kept prizes exceeds the value of the five left prizes, you win your prizes. Had a series in Italy.
Also this week, it’s the trial of the century! Or more likely, the adjournment or dismissal of charges as a bit silly of the century. Gino D’Campo and Stuart Manning are due in court in Aussieland on Wednesday, or very late Tuesday night GMT. In the unlikely event that they get banged up, I think we can guess what the tabloid headlines are going to say.
Looks like they’ve got away with nothing more than slapped wrists, which I think is fair enough considering:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mediamonkeyblog/2010/feb/02/im-celebrity-rat-killing
Since Ratings Bear is in hibernation here are last night’s ratings with their respective overall ranking.
1: TV Burp – 6.6m (28.6%)
2: In It to Win It – 5.9m (25.3%)
4: All Star Mr and Mrs – 4.8m (19.8%)
5: So You Think You Can Dance Results – 4.7m (20.0%)
6: Total Wipeout – 4.6m (23.5%)
7: So You Think You Can Dance – 4.6m (20.7%)
8: Take Me Out – 4.6m (19.7%)
9: QI: XL – 2m (9.6%)
Why haven’t you included You’ve Been Framed which got over 5 million viewers??
In 3, and not a gameshow.
Although I’d guess TV Burp’s inclusion is just because it’s No.1.
Casualty was 3rd but forgot about You’ve Been Framed. So Mr & Mrs is 5th and so on.
The Finnish Melodi Grand Prix or whatever they have’s over, and they have a Finnish ESC entry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG_tL5Agut4&feature=related
Semi-final languisher, I’d guess.
Eläkeläiset were robbed!
Now subtitled for sing along fun:
I’m starting to get concerned about the lack of Solitary up on Hulu. It aired on Friday with the official launch date of Saturday, shouldn’t that mean that normally it’d be up on Sunday?
I mean, not that I’ve been able to resist the spoilers anyway, but still…
A review of a new poker tome by everyone’s favourite Only Connect host…
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-for-richer-for-poorer-by-victoria-coren/article1449136/
I’ve read the book and can throughly recommend it for anyone remotely interested in Poker.
HOLD YOUR HORSES!
CONTAIN YOURSELVES!
SHOW SOME RESTRAINT!
Or not, as the FINAL of Accumulate! is now up and ready for viewing at http://www.ruon.tv . One team will win £90 – which is weird as the budget was only £60. So that money that you see me waving around is mine, all mine. Or it was, in any case.
Enjoy the show!
This week’s OC may well be the easiest one ever, so tune in if you’ve never got a question right.
I see what you mean. Getting quite a few right tonight and some of the Wall links as well.
I was completely beaten by the walls this evening, pretty much.
Was there genuinely a rude Welsh word in the missing vowels?
Brig, what do you think?…
Realised some of the links but couldn’t find the actual connections from them on the walls.
That and I was trying to do one of a previous year’s wall’s connections and make Blue ____ out of Bottle and Joke while searching for two more, aheh.
My reaction to the closing gag: “…What? *beat* Oh. *splutter*”
I was going for Bluebottle and Blue Joke, too, It’s almost as if it had been intended!
Curious to know what Victoria’s closing remarks actually translated to. In the absence of anything else, I hope they translated to “gullible English” or somesuch.
On a quiz that’s more my level, Challenge? repeated an edition of new Dale’s Supermarket Sweep with celebrity contestants: Chris Moyles and a sidekick, Fiona might-have-been-Phillips and Someone Out Of Boyzone I Think. Given that the winners were playing for charidee, their Super Sweep was – inevitably – rather favourably edited.
Didn’t appear that way from Thornaby. 🙂
(Meg did get the Dewey root question as eatly as you would expect from a librarian, though!)
I was reaching around it… I’m more familiar with the 000’s, having been a computer science student, and would have been able to predict the third item on the list… At which point I forgot they split science into 300s for social sciences and… Is it 400s for the physical sciences and mathematics?
I have heard reports of several people getting 5 out of 6 right on the first board.
Not to brag – but I was able to manage six for six on the first board, thanks to a complete guess on “moon”, and yelling “monocles!” very loudly with a second to go. Quite proud of that.
Actually, sorry, that totally is bragging. I almost completely struck out on the walls, though.
No change there, then.
*runs*
I got the Punch and Judy and the jug connections from the wall and quite a few of the first round questions.
Set myself up for that one, didn’t I?
Yeah, monocles became obvious to me from Patrick Moore and The Penguin…
BBC2 are airing Panic Attack series 2 from today weekdays at 1pm. I guess this explains the sudden influx of contestents from England.
Mmm, I always thought that Panic Attack was (whisper it) not all that good, and the new endgame is genuinely rubbish.
I have to say I found the second series underwhelming. The lighting scheme wasn’t as good, the rollover contestants reduced the tension. Using trivia questions instead of survey questions was less fun and played straight into the hands of pub quizzers. Overall, I wasn’t surprised that the BBC didn’t use it for the Weakest Link slot as intended.
I’m disappointed that there’s still only one clip of the show on YouTube, yet by your guys’es reactions, I really shouldn’t be surprised. The first season sounded interesting, and the short second season clip really doesn’t do the show justice.
Also, I’m unhappy although again not surprised that there are literally no OC clips on YouTube. Geoblocking makes me sad.
I think returning contestants helped the game to flow, it built up a sense of continuity between days, and gave viewers (well, gave me) someone to root for. That said, if the endgame were different, this wouldn’t be such an advantage. The final eliminator round is a stroke of genius, and probably the best thing about the show. Yes, the endgame was better in the original, even though the bail-out button was singularly useless.
Trivia questions were inferior to survey questions, and both were inferior to the “what does your wife / mother / best friend say” questions posed to celebs on the Christmas edition. Should the Beeb have put this series out in place of Link? I say yes, if only to demonstrate how quietly good la Robinson’s show is.
I think returning contestants helped the game to flow, it built up a sense of continuity between days, and gave viewers (well, gave me) someone to root for.
Mmm… but I can’t help but think that the rest of the show is a bit of a waste of time if everyone has a really good chance of being used in the final anyway as the show winner or as help across their six episodes. Does anyone have any stats on how many people did and did not get a chance to earn some cash?
I think it was around 60-70% of players. There were about 16-18 players for 10 days.
I say yes, if only to demonstrate how quietly good la Robinson’s show is.
!?, as is the chess notation for an interesting (but not dubious) move.
I thought ! was interesting while ? was ‘what the…?’ and they were stackable with each other as well as themselves, but… I’m not all that hot with chess notation.
My opponent once noted something like !!!??? for a move I made. The only reason we were using notation is that we were playing Wand Chess (Think “Chess with the wands from Nethack”), which has enough trackables to require notating.
…I forget if it was the game I wound up with a Knight with a Wand of Death or not…
! means an good move (!! for brilliant move)
? means a bad move (?? for a blunder)
!? means an interesting move
?! means an dubious move
They’re basically the Pitman version of smilies.
Some time back in the thread, CMD wrote,
!?
To respond in cliché: A change is as good as a rest, familiarity breeds contempt, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Etc. Link has been running for nine years without a prolonged break, and it’s too easy for it to become part of the schedule furniture, something that isn’t valued because it’s always there. Take it off for a short while, see if people notice and clamour for more insults from the woman in black, or if they have the guts to ask for more Nolan.
I might still watch Link if it wasn’t for the fact it’s been on every weekday for just under (over?) a decade.
I THINK it started in 1999. As is often the case when I use my memory, I could be wrong.
It started on 14 August 2000.
See what I mean?
Entirely off topic musing:
You know – Sega revealing that Project Needlemouse, instead of simply being a 2d sonic game, which would have had a reasonable chance of actually being good rather than the tolerable-but-subpar the best of the 3d sonics have been,* is actually Sonic 4 (i.e. ‘canonical sequel to Sonic 3 & Knuckles’) has made me both incredibly excited about it and utterly terrified about how this is going to affect the legacy of the original mainline sonic series should they cock it up like Sonic Team seems great at doing these days.
OK, so Unleashed is a bit of an exception there, and Adventure and Adventure 2 were on par when they were released.
Unleashed was brilliant, in the rare moments where you don’t turn into a werewolf. Even if it doesn’t work out, you’ve got to admit Sonic Team for giving it a try.
Admire, evidently.
The 2d bits were very good, yes, although I don’t think quite as good as Sonic 1-3&Knuckles (On par with the Advanced series, probably)… The 3d hedgehog bits were… Well, better than the previous couple of Sonic games. Linear improvement over Adventure 2, basically, where it needed an order of magnitude improvement in order to catch up to where 3d gaming had moved in the intervening 7-8 years.
And now let’s pretend that Sonic Heroes didn’t exist.
Not nearly as much as we should pretend Sonic 2006 didn’t exist.
Heroes is, at least, playable. And the Bingo Pinball section was rather cute.
Yeah, the high points of Sonic Heroes (Casion Palace/Bingo Highway) are really, really good. Shame we have to suffer the rest of the game.
Hey, I just noticed I’m wearing my Sonic T-shirt during this conversation. NICE.