Weekdays 8pm
Challenge TV
Well it’s been what THE NATION has been crying out for, a return to good old classic quizzes based around letters of the alphabet that’s already been bought back twice previously. I can’t say I’m that excited to be honest, although we like Simon Mayo so you never know.
I don’t know what sort of numbers it’s going to attract and how much it’s going to need to be a decent term viable proposition although they’ve advertised the hell out of it which is likely to help. 40 episodes have been filmed originally intended to go as two runs of twenty, although despite being originally informed as being an hour long look in fact to be a much more sensible half an hour. Maybe they’ve got two episodes out of each one with the magic of the edit suite. It will definitely be interesting to see how the numbers trend throughout the first week.
I’ll be watching this on catch-up because I’m working but don’t be afraid to discuss in as much detail as you’d like.
The online game has been launched over at challenge.co.uk, and I’ve had a quick go. First off, you need to register, but you can log in through the Book of Faces. You then create your avatar with a pretty basic character creator. When you click Play, I think you’ll be randomly either on your own on the white side or with another player on the blue side (I was on the white side). The rules are the same as always, with a letter being randomly chosen to start the game, and a question is shown at the top of the screen. If you want to answer, you click the large ANSWER hexagon shown over the board and you pick from 6 options. When you win 2 out of 3 games, you do a Gold Run and make your way across the board with each question presenting you with 4 options this time. Make it across the board and you get bonus points for how much time you have left. After my first game, I got a total of 377 points and my opponents didn’t even put up a challenge! I romped both rounds!
Having a quick play, I’m pretty sure that at the moment you aren’t playing against another human opponent. It’s a nice interactive version though.
Overall good, but it seems like the computer can buzz in before the answer button even appears. I lost once just because the computer got five questions without me even getting a chance to buzz.
Money is the same as always, £5 per hex. Lots of nice little visual effects going on with the board as it comes in, letters revolve on the board to reveal the colour when won which is nice. The end of the game still has the board flashing in completely non-random colours, I’m not sure if it’s the same pattern from the Holness days but it’s a nice detail if it is. Other than that it’s Blockbusters. No rule changes, everything moves at a brisk pace, Mayo is the kind of good host who knows the game is what’s most important. Set is rather lovely as we’ve all seen, though I could do without every flat surface flashing at the beginning and end of each game.
Consolation prize is a Blockbusters E-Reader, which is kinda cool as a nod to it remaining slightly academic.
Also since Challenge are clearly expecting more people than usual to be watching they have a nice little channel manifesto ad playing showing pretty much their entire show repertoire.
My nice little detail of the show is these Blockbusters mugs they seem to have hanging around the contestants podium. They look quite nice, I wouldn’t mind one of those.
No mascots though 🙁
Loving this revival 🙂 The graphics are really modern and up-to-date, Simon’s a very competent host and the set is really nice.
I am REALLY kicking myself that I didn’t follow-up an audition for this as I would have really enjoyed being on it.
Also, a nice little tribute to Bob at the end, dedicating it to his memory.
First episode dedicated to the memory of Bob Holness. That pretty much crowns what is a perfect revival in my opinion.
It’s entirely competent. You can pick tiny holes but they’ve done nothing major wrong. That’ll definitely do.
I reckon the questions are fractionally harder than they used to be in the student days, befitting the (in this case, by happenstance, only slightly!) older players.
Basically this, Mayo lifts it immeasurably.
That sting is going to get quickly tiresome.
The only thing that bothered me was the front of desk score hex’s. As the game went on, the cut out hole was going to be far to small to display a three digit score. But then with the couples score at 95 quid, the game ended (sorry for the spoiler). Ahh – so the between show gap in recording will be when they fit wider hex windows to the desk to show a score above one hundred pounds. A very minor thing but there you go. Great job. Good revival. Can’t wait to see the repeat on another sky owned channel in HD!
I fully agree with what has been said, i enjoyed it.
Great fun, it was. Loved the American version when GSN aired it, so seeing any version return is a treat. Wish the opening was a bit longer, but besides that it’s brilliant.
I do wish they had made the opening titles slightly longer as the updated tune is excellent!
Also remove the audience clapping during the titles and have the “It’s Blockbusters – with Simon Mayo!” then fade in the audience.
Enjoyed it as well; any news on ratings?
Interview with ten time Blockbusters champ Claire Scott here:
She might be back in this series – it isn’t clear amongst the Maggie and posh people bashing.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/editors-choice/2012/05/10/blockbusters-returns-to-tv-screens-as-scots-champions-prepares-for-third-gold-run-86908-23853525
Ratings: 247k + 18k (+1) according to Broadcast.
A very good figure for Challenge, top ratings recently around 175k so if it settles around there it’s doing very well.
Did the contestants in the original Blockbusters change clothes to keep the ‘next day’ illusion going, when we all know they were back on set within 5 mins of saying goodbye from the previous recording?
Cus if they didn’t – it’s one nil to the 2012 version…
If we get applause every time someone asks for a P, I will punch someone.
I have a horrible feeling this will be the case, especially if they’re changing audiences every 2 shows.
Also 5 Gold Runs for the jackpot, which makes me very curious how big the final prize is going to be.
An Elonex COLOUR e-book reader.
Baddum-dusshh! Good one. I suspect the real top prizes will have some link back to a Sky splinter group. I’m thinking a trip to Hollywood with thanks to Sky Movies HD or to a F1 race/bonfire with the F1 channel. It’s bound to be something along those lines.
So a five-match winner with five winning Gold Runs would win what- three grand or so? (Say the Gold Run prizes go up in value 100-200-300-600-1200 or thereabouts, and 300-400 in question money assuming 6-7 questions correct per game and 10-13 games played out out of 15 max). For a small channel, that’s not bad..
229k for episode two, I’m told.
I finally managed to watch a full episode tonight. Amazed how fast the 30 minutes went, I was hoping they would manage to squeeze the second Gold Run in at the end!
On a related but off topic note : Have Challenge ever shown the Simon Mayo episodes of Winning Lines?
You may have noticed a familiar name on top of the online game leaderboard now 🙂 I’ve broken the 10,000 point barrier!
After you do a 5th Gold Run, I’m assuming the game should end there as in the show, but I managed to beat the next pair of computer players and do a 6th Gold Run. I finished it with 47 seconds to go, but it gave me 0 bonus points, nor did it credit me with the 100 points I got for answering the questions in the main game and the Gold Run questions.
Here’s a Twitpic if you need proof… http://twitpic.com/9m2fl9
The prizes as the Gold Runs mount up actually seem to be getting WORSE!
1 Gold Run – HD TV (Decent)
2 Gold Runs – Experience Day In Fast Car (Meh)
3 Gold Runs – Unless I misheard, a single NIGHT somewhere posh. (Hang on – The runner up on Winning Lines got a weekend break!)