Nothing particularly exciting happening, so why don’t you tell me something I don’t know? I may act on the most interesting things. Please try and be relevant. Don’t forget the BotherSOP tonight at 8pm.
This is over for the day, we have watched one of the recommendations (Escape Routes) and will write about it tomorrow.
Couple of things knocking around my brain from the past couple of days, suitable for external consumption.
1) I managed to catch the Spanish version of Duel last week in my hotel room in Cork. Even though it was in Spanish, it was still very watchable and the format they are using is the one which we adopted at the quarter way stage, when someone realised the orignal format could have no-one winning anything during the series.
Set is smaller, the table is more ‘interesting’ to look at and the music cues are different – apart from the accelerator music which is used the the duel winner plays for the money. Nice to see it again. Pity the BBC can’t bring it back for a lottery wraparound instead of the now tired looking In’t to win’t.
2- I saw this on the +1 repeat on Channel 4 early this morning and pondered about it for a while.
Anyone know was is meant in the Countdown credits ‘By Arrangment with Marcel Stellman’?
Was he the original go-between with Armand Jammott and Yorkshire Television? Or did he buy up, so owns the international format rights of the show, and hence the credit?
I think the other problem with the original Duel rules from a production standpoint is as the jackpot got bigger, the buy-outs would get progressively bigger. The jackpot is a fairly fixed cost on a per show basis, but when they start giving out 30-40-50k with no potential end potentially every other game it’s going to get very expensive very quickly.
I was surprised nobody on the production figured that out earlier.
I maintain that if you took the newer rules, divided all the prizes by five, you’d have a very decent afternoon quiz.
Mr. With a Y Not an I asks about Marcel Stellman. He bought up the rights to Des Chiffres et des Lettres for the world outside France, and is (effectively) the format owner for the UK.
Is this in the UKGS article? (attracts the attention of a game goblin.) It will be.
Thanks Iain.
In the current way of ‘format owned and distributed by..’ credits, it’s still strange to read the name of the actual rights holder, and even odder to think given how valuable a sellable format is, that France Televisions haven’t offered to buy them back of him (or his estate if he has not ‘gone upstairs’) and licence the show and format themselves.
So, about this Spanish version of Duel … got a link?
Whee, I found it. Here is last week’s episode, apparently not geoblocked. What a bizarre opening!
http://www.canalsuralacarta.es/television/video/el-duelo—programa-3/21028/29
For those who are not playing poker tonight. The Celebrity Deal or No Deal special with Sarah Millican was recorded a fortnight ago. I was fortunate to sit in the audience and will confess that out of the ten shows I’ve witnessed (including Ms Millican’s). This was the best recording out of the lot.
Watch out for Joe Lycett (that one from Epic Win) who is a box opener tonight.
At least Sarah cannot win ZERO POUNDS.
Sarah takes on the Banker? A Teesside/Tyneside clash could end up pretty ugly.
As always when I go down to Bristol I post some stuff. So, here are some things you didn’t see.
– The recording actually over-ran. I got inside the studio at 11.30am but didn’t leave until 2.10pm. At the start Sarah was with Noel having cakes!
– It took forever for Sarah to decide the 8 box offer. This was because The Banker kept ringing up and changing the offers like a yo-you. I think he phoned a good 6-7 times. He kept reducing the offer because Joe Lycett kept slagging him off. Then he threatened him to kick him out of the studio. Which Sarah replied, “if he goes, I go”. Noel actually pleaded her to take the 8 box offer.
– It also took Sarah ages to decide whether to accept his two box opening offer at the 5 box stage. She asked the audience who agreed in majority to say No Deal. Mark also gave constant advice throughout the show as Noel kept labelling him as the show’s best board reader.
– At the three box stage she did ask whether The Banker would tell her what the offer would be for keeping the £100,000. So he telephoned her to say it will be £36,000. She said the offer wasn’t good enough since it was only a £16,000 increase from the £20,000 she was offered at that stage. She also polled the audience who in the majority said to Deal.
– Joe couldn’t kept saying “hello grandad”.
– Before Mark opened his box he said about smooching Sarah if he revealed if was the £100,000.
– The bit with The Banker predicting the £250,000 actually DID happen. That said, he has done that stunt before but only when they are less than 10 boxes remaining. He is simply a jammy *beep*.
– Mark did both jobs that day, entertaining the crowd and opening his box.
– The ladies in the audience was NOT a stunt. I saw them arrive at the studio as I arrived and they had their parking space reserved as they are classed as disabled. They booked the tickets via the audience team as normal.
– Remember the bald headed guy who had (XXXXXXX)? His name is Steve Day and is the UK’s only deaf comedian. Game show nutters (yes, me) will have remembered him as he appeared on In it to Win It seven years ago. He ended up walking away with £47.500. Noel chatted him after the first break but that wasn’t shown.
– At the warm up Mark asked him to do his Peter Dickson impersonation then asked the audience whether anybody remembered watching him on Epic Win last year. I was the only mug who said yes and “it was a great show”. This made Joe happy as he said “yay, someone has watched my show” and gave a courteous bow to him. Also according to Joe at the recording. Appearing on Deal or No Deal the pinnacle of my *beep* career.
– Some audience members thought The Banker didn’t exist. Did the bombshell by telling them “of course he exists, he tweeted me last night”. This surprised them but afterwards they caught up with me asking me when C4 are showing it.
Sarah also confessed she was going to see the show live as an audience member four years ago but something happened and she never got to Paintworks. Got to live her dream on that recording day.
Oh and to requote
Joe Lycett “Appearing on Deal or No Deal is the pinnacle of my shitting career.”
Travis
It never ceases to amuse me when pilgrims ask whether there’s someone at the end of the phone but then back in 2005, I asked the same question during the old commentaries in the first week.
Hi there,
I’m that guy from Germany who was wondering about your excitement about Schlag den Raab. In Germany no great game shows were announced except one: The Celebrity Chase Germany. Since I’m a big fan of The Chase, I’m really looking forward to this. It will be called “gefragt- gejagt” (“asked- hunted”) which sounds funny when translated but it’s the best German title I could’ve think of. It will be broadcast on NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk), the public broadcaster for Northern Germany. I’m interested in the set in Germany and I wonder about who the chasers will be. I can’t think of well-known German quizzers.
I hope you were able to understand my English 😀
Absolutely fine, thanks Nico!
Tuesday’s episode of El Cubo contains a rare event and some compelling game play, but a couple of production flubs that confuse things for non-Spanish speakers.
Full episode: http://www.mitele.es/programas-tv/el-cubo/temporada-1/programa-45/