Sorry, I’ve been busy Seven-upping my computer today and likely a bit of tomorrow as well so there’s not much to say.
Except that is that The Cube US films tomorrow night with Neil Patrick Harris. Unfortunately I don’t have a ticket, but I know several of you who do so I’ve set aside this post just for you – what did you think?
Also the Saudi version has been filming. Has anyone been to see that?
Apropos of nothing, quiz fans may enjoy ChainSpotter – a new connect-the-links quiz group:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ChainSpotter/264222088245?v=wall&ref=ts
Yes agree, Chainspotter looks interesting
For those of you going, if you wish to see me – I’ll be wearing a silvery shirt in the studio, and a fluffy blue jumper over it in the queue.
I hope the good sort of shiny you’re wearing doesn’t serve as foreshadowing for the filming containing the bad sort of shiny.
Brig, consider this for “bigging up” for our US readers. It’s Wanted: the web site edition.
…and one of the people responsible has been made aware of the UKGS description thereof and Iain’s recaps.
The show may be over, but the game never ended!
Talks have started on Deal or No Deal’s future
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/feb/04/noel-edmonds-deal-no-deal
It goes on about cutting the top prize (as per Daily Mail). If they are insistant to cutting the budget then they are better off cutting the episodes down. I cannot name a single show in the world that is aired 288 episodes per year, not including repeats.
In other news, Simon Cowell is currently off sick to judge the Britian’s Got Talent auditions. He has been replaced by Leprechaun Louis.
Didn’t this story come up late last year? I think we came to the conclusion that Edmonds’ people will try and get as much as possible but that he probably won’t leave, and that the top prize isn’t coming down any time soon, because likely that’s the end of the show.
Has the Aussie version had their new set yet?
It did come up last year. Daily Mail was the only paper was reporting it but nobody was backing the story.
I asked one of my Aussie mates about if they had their overhaul. He didn’t say if they had the new set but he said this.
“I don’t know if this bit was on before this year’s season; I was just watching the end of an episode today, and the contestant had already accepted a $6,000 deal. Then it was to the last 2 briefcases (I think $20 and $5,000). Suddenly there was some sort of “second chance”-type thing where I think if the contestant correctly guessed what they had in their briefcase, then they would win a second chance offer of at least double their deal. Today, the contestant chose not to take the risk, but she would have won the offer if she went ahead.”
Just had another reply. They’re still using the same set as last year.
it took forever for the pilot in the uk,was a bit long winded, did anyone find the same? i was there tonight.
Lost in TV did say it could take around four hours, I assume that was the case.
Four hours or so for three players. They tried getting a fourth on, I didn’t know when the last train home was so had to leave.
Ah, so it still goes on a bit then?
Alex Davis reports on Twitter that the money chain $1,000; $2,000; $10,000; $25,000; $75,000; $200K, then $500K.
What did you think?
That money chain is correct. I’ve just returned home after “Yellow Tie Man” failed to blow up a balloon in between filming (you know who you are, it’s a BB regular….!)
Anyway, pretty much the same as the UK version with the slight money ladder tweak. Nothing really to add to that, although Yellow Tie Man will have made the interesting observation that the harder up the money ladder you go, the harder the tasks become.
For example, the one where they stack long cylinders on top of each other, the number of cylinders you have to stack changes depend on where in the money ladder you are.
So even though tasks can come up at different money ladder levels, I’m happy to note that their difficulty is different dependent on the ladder.
That’s all I have until Yellow Tie Man reports, as I left at the end of the third contestant.
I think I was sucking rather than blowing.
I left after three too, might not have got the last train home otherwise.
Where were you? I’m annoyed I missed seeing you now…
Other things worth reporting:
* NPH did a good job and passed the Edmonds Test for not influencing players, at least on all the non-trivial decisions (he did almost comedically channel Edmonds a bit on trivial ones but nobody’s going to stop at 2k with multiple lives and a Simplify, are they?).
* The game is -weird- to watch with no replays.
* There weren’t many actual technical stopdowns – one for the lighting and one to source the correct target for Cylinder (because there’s both a shorter and a wider one for the Simplify on that, and they got the wrong one).
* However, setting up each game takes quite a while and the pattern for recording each game involves revealing the game (contestant and NPH see it on a small LCD TV wheeled out from backstage, audience either side see it on small monitors hidden in the lighting rig), then setting it up, then reshooting the game / reaction to game chat, then deciding and if appropriate playing.
* Someone I talked to heading to the station was bemused by the idea of ‘same game, different difficulty’. Can’t tell if she was KP-cynical about it…
Same game, different difficulty?
That’s easy to pull off. As every person who’s given videogames more than a passing glance over the past 30 years should be able to see.
Thanks Chaps. RhythmNative has also written his thoughts up here.
THE CUBE US PILOT WAS AWSOME LAST NIGHT . I WOULD OF BEEN MORE INTERESTING IF A CONTESTANT ACTUALLY WON SOME SORT OF MONEY . BUT IT WAS STILL AN AWSOME SHOW. THE WARM UP GUY REMINDED ME OF LEE EVENS LOL LOL . AND ONE PERSON WHO MADE THE EVENING ALL WORTH WHILE (YELLOW TIE MAN ! ! ! ! !) …….GO YELLOW TIE MAN . LOL 😀 . CAN WAIT FOR THE UK TO START FILMING THE SECOND SERIES.
Doh. I posted in the wrong box. Follow that link!
The warm up guy reminded me of Lee Evans too! For KP, I was sitting on the opposite wing, second row from front, a little bit further away from the Cube than you. (a couple of seats down/to the right of Martin)
Glad to see Bothers Bar etc got a shout out courtesy of Yellow Tie man. I thought the warm up guy was soooooo annoying – he made the whole experience very tedious. It did go on for ages – i think they were trying to get a contestant to actually leave with money so they could have someone winning in the pilot. The sandwiches and drinks were very welcome. Interesting to see the 2nd contestant – Michelle – reaching the $75,000 stage and then losing all her money. I thought the pace of the show (even when they edit it down) will be very slow for U.S audiences. I thought technically it went quite well – NPH seemed a bit nervous and frustrated that contestants weren’t winning. Saudi version next week!
All of the contestants kept going for broke? We might have here a cultural difference between the UK and US, and one that might affect how well the show plays.
On Cube UK, it seemed that nearly all of the contestants played very conservatively and took whatever cash they could accumulate without extreme risk. Sounds like the opposite might have happened with the US players.
If almost everybody loses, that won’t be as enjoyable in the long run.
If you’ll pardon the newbie question, do pilot contestants generally keep their winnings (if any), or is it only if the episode eventually airs, or does it vary from show to show? If these contestants had nothing to lose (or gain), and if they really were trying to get a big winner for pilot purposes, maybe they just went all out for the heck of it?
Also, to a certain extent, weren’t some games altered for difficulty/money level on the UK version? For example, didn’t it occur that on the second aired episode (which I never saw, so I could be wrong), the guy who took off his pants to play a certain game (Barrier, I think?) had to go over two hurdles for a higher prize, but a woman in a later episode (who was playing for a lesser amount of money) only had to clear one?
I was about to answer that question myself. I would guess it can vary from show to show, but to get an accurate pilot on a show like The Cube there has to be money at stake IMO.
Yes, some games were, and yet some games weren’t. Make of that what you will.
I have had second-hand reports that some pilots offer a fixed payment only, regardless of results, and I’ve even heard other reports that other pilots still offer a fixed payment only but the prospect of potential return as a contestant for real should the pilot be picked up. Plenty of reason to react as if they had won for real, though.
Unrelated question for all: anyone remember that Dutch game – I think it was played online, rather than on TV, where someone made their way from one side of the NL to the other and there was something like a EUR 3,000 prize offered each day for catching them? If so, what was it called, please?
Tangentally (possibly), when I saw the awful pilot for Don’t Scare the HARE last year the contestants when not off camera suggested that they were indeed playing for the money for real.
It wasn’t so much that the US contstants went for broke. No one made a silly gamble – or one much sillier than we’ve seen on the UK show. I don’t think anyone had less than 4/5 lives going into the game that killed them off.
Re: winnings for pilots. The rubbish answer is ‘It depends’. If it’s a big budget pilot I think the contestants get a percentage of the winnings displayed. Something like 10% sounds about right.
The other cheaper way of doing things is having ‘daily winners’. So; whichever contesntant wins (or gets the furthest in a single player game) on the day of record wins a non changing lump sum.
Michelle had six lives, Mike all nine (yes). I’d have unflinchingly taken both of those on.
The first guy was down to one life and had failed the trial run but that was the 2k/10k leap so again you can hardly blame him.
It’s not often Bother’s Bar has two reports from two shows in a week. I have returned from Birmingham after seeing the latest Britain’s Got Talent. Yes, I did get in after last years disaster. I will post more later but for now I’m saying there were loads of crap acts, a 2009 semi finalist returned and one quote came from this person.
“Hello, my name is Simon Cowell. I am from London. I am here to remove Louis Walsh from the show”
I think fans might have to get used to BGT without Cowell in future years. He isn’t integral to the show in the same way he is to X Factor – and with the US X Factor to do I can see him quitting the BGT panel full time.
The fact that AGT is a huge hit without him will reassure ITV.
I doubt he will quit BGT as US X Factor is set to be an autumn show, BGT is recorded in January and February (for auditions) and the last week in May (live shows).
I wonder how long the post-production takes on each episode and if CBS do green light it for a series whether they could rush the pilot out before the NBC rip-off?
I don’t think it would be ready to time. Minute to Win It airs in NBC in 4 weeks. If CBS wanted to run a full series it would be likely to be the summer.
Big Brother customarily breaks the week after U.S. Independence Day (July 4), so CBS could be looking at The Cube filling the gap between Survivor and BB (last week of May to the end of June). Just a guess.
Britain’s Got Talent
As mentioned, I managed to get in this year. It reverted back to the Hippodrome this year (better theatre and more seating).
Louis Walsh’s name was under the X, replacing Simon’s. “Louis” was done in black, not white. It wasn’t explained but I noticed Simon’s name was still in the light so they used black letters to cover the white lettering. The X’s are now tilted at 45 degrees. I have got this vision if a judge buzzes it fires a red X laser onto the stage zapping the contestants.
Ian Royce continues to be the warm up guy and comedy filler between acts, more on him later. He introduced procedings, when not to take photos etc… he was followed by Richard Holloway (head honcho at Talkback Thames and former executive producer on Fort Boyard) who introduced Ant & Dec. Stephen Mulhern also made an appearance. Then the judges came onto the stage with their unique theme tunes. Piers and Amanda had bombarding music, Louis had something from Riverdance.
Two acts in everybody knew by now that Simon was still sick with man flu and Louis would be taking his role for a third day. Then the third act came on. Some guy, aged in his early 50s, casually walked on, causing a massive erruption and standing ovation from the audience. Then he spoke…
“Hello, my name is Simon Cowell…. I am from London…. I am here to remove Louis Walsh from the show”.
Yep, Simon is back to full health, he certainly looks well so what ever he had worked a charm. Amanda was happy, the other two weren’t (in a jokey kind of way) A brief break saw him exchanging seats with Louis who revert to staying backstage. During this break the three name plates came down together via mechnical rods so Louis was removed from Simon’s nameplate. First day back and he still got that brutal streak. Felt Louis wasn’t that good with the first two acts (the first act Simon would definitely said no) but my opinion could change when he judges the other acts come the transmissions in April.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1248855/Britains-Got-Talent-judge-Simon-Cowell-makes-surprise-return–auditioning-panel-removing-Louis-Walsh.html
Now onto the audition acts. I must confess they were disappointing. There were around 16 acts in total but nothing screamed winner at me but there were about 1-2 who could reach the semi finals for the wrong reaons (crap acts to be booed at). I know one recording session doesn’t give a full picture but the majoriy of the acts were either singing or dancing. No magic, impressionism, or ventriloquism. There was a women who did a comedy sketch but it was very poor. Simon summed it up “the curse continues, it’s a no”. There was one act featuring a horse which resulted the animal to be nervous after the act to do something. To give an idea, think Blue Peter and that elephant. Most of the acts were people aged under 25.
Singing acts involved a barbershop quartet, a 79 year old trying to be Gene Kelly, a choir which had over 60 members on stage, a group of people trying to be The Jackson 5 and Lady Gaga and a few children singers. One trying to outdo Joe McElderry and one child having a second chance after being rejected at Glasgow. Dancing acts mainly had children dance troops, someone in their mid 80s.
The session also had a returning act from last year and a returning semi finalist. Some guy called Philip Farrugia 😉
Going back to Roycie. He was on top form keeping the tempo. Continued to mock Louis (doing an impression of him) and Simon (glow references). The second half was amusing as he was trying to get some single people in the royal boxes to speed date. Calling it “Ian Royce’s speed dating royal box game” with the prize to get laid with Louis. He tried to get Louis to speed date but the production team didn’t allow it as he would be in the shot when recording. Ian kept plugging about the old fashioned sweet shop (Simon loves flying saucers) and recommended people to go at the break but discovered nobody could leave the building at the break, which lead to him speaking to somebody who revealed to owning the sandwich bar a few doors away, saying her shop was better.
To give an idea how long it had taken, I got inside the building at 1.15pm (on time) but didn’t leave until 6.15pm (was meant to finish at 5.30pm). I noticed the last 3-4 acts the judges rushed through their opinions.