Hurrah!
Other than the UK song and the Russian grannies, I’ve literally no clue as to what will be presented to us from Baku this week.
I will set up posts for the two semi-finals (Tuesday and Thursday at 8pm) and the big final on Saturday- I can’t guarantee I’ll be here for them, but I’m interested in your comments.
Also apparently there’s a Kiddy Boyard UK series, well, three I suppose press release incoming. The big news from the French show which starts filming very soon is that the boat for the zipline adventure IS BACK, and for the night editions they’re filming too, although whether it’s going to be used for the same purpose remains to be seen. I will be VERY UPSET if it is not accompanied by Variation No. 1.
Meanwhile, Sandi Toksvig is lined up to front 1001 Things You Should Know.
this Saturday there’ll be a “the 80s” theme episode of Affari Tuoi. just telling.
they’re not done changing the rules of Il Braccio E La Mente yet. 🙁
it looks a bit like this
http://static.blogo.it/tvblog/il-braccio-e-la-mente-le-foto/Schermata20120507a19.00.54.png
(don’t mind the question, that’s from an old ruleset)
in short: two unacquainted contestants play as a team for six rounds. in each, they must decide who’s the “arm” and who’s the “mind”.
the “mind” must answer to a target number of questions before the “arm” fails to keep up with a physical challenge.
questions currently are of the standard Italian lightning round fare “I say X, you say Y” where X/Y are the usual “celeb last name/first name” or “monument/city” or something equally overused.
the HIGHLY INNOVATIVE thing here is that if the answerer screws up, they do not start over again but, hear hear! It merely counts as a -1 on the answers count (which can’t go below zero)
a successful round adds its value to the prize bank. the first five rounds are worth €5k, €10k, €15k, €20k, €50k.
the sixth is the “accumulation round” and it’s… a lightning round! in a game made of lightning rounds! in this round, there is no target and each correct answer is worth €2000 and an incorrect one subtracts that much. thankfully, this round’s value can’t go in the negative.
and finally, when the prize for the night has been determined, the contestants must face off to see who is the one who can claim all the money in the endgame. and this epic duel shall be…
ONE toss-up question -_-‘
the host tells a fairy tale with clues about a famous person. the first to guess it wins! how exciting!
the winner plays the “vocabulary game” because every game show in Italy must have a word game in the end.
two words are given: the contestant has 3 minutes to find any five words that are alphabetically between the given words. for example if the words are “bar” and “bother” legal words would be “beak” “bench” “botch” and so on.
if the contestant can’t come up with all the words, no problem. the prize is halved and the host graciously gives clues about the words that the contestant has missed, and gives him or her another chance to guess those words, one at a time. should the contestant still have no idea, nevermind. the host gives away the answer at the low low price of half the prize again. the only word that really counts is the last one. miss that one and you win nothing.
in theory you could take a 5 minutes nap into the bonus round and then give the last definition to win 1/16th of the prize bank. on an average day that would be no less than a couple thousand eurobucks for a crosswords definition.
that’s all. you can see the episodes here
http://www.video.mediaset.it/programma/il_braccio_e_la_mente/il-braccio-e-la-mente.html
oh, and there’s a guy in a monkey suit
Thanks Cele.
I went to a pub quiz years ago which had that word game as one of the questions – which word comes between two others in the Oxford English Dictionary. It was fun. But it didn’t take ten minutes.
It is a shame there is no apparentl brawn element to the endgame, but I hope to take a look at this when I’ve got a spare evening (and provided it’s not geoblocked)
Meh, looks to be geoblocked. Sounded interesting, at the very least.
1001 Things you should know about.
Reading the Channel 4 presser – the format does smack of something that’s been tried before. It sounds like a crash’n’mash job of Challenge’s last commission (before Blockbusters) ‘It’s Not What You Know’ and Sir Brucie’s ‘Didn’t They Do Well?’
(aside alert – A show I went to see being recorded, which on screen looked worse out the edit than before it went it. Bruce though, was magnificent all the way through and had us in the palm of his hand within seconds of walking into the studio)
I wonder if this show is then going to give away in the same slot to The Bank Job Ver 3.0?
Good question, when *is* this going to go on? Three lengthy studio games in a row is going to feel a bit odd I think.
As a non-European, I’d put my votes for France, Italy, Ireland (provided I close my eyes if I’m watching the video :P), Malta, but Norway’s probably the fav for me. Which means all of the above will bomb horribly as I have horrible taste in music 😀
(Kinda expecting Slovakia to do well, though, as the “It’s different therefore it’s cool” (although it isn’t a bad entry, personally, just has that uniqueness, I think))
And is it just me, or does France’s entry REALLY remind you of Malta’s entry from a couple years ago, Morena – Vodka?
I hope so, I loved Vodka.
Slovakia is probably my favourite entry (behind Iceland). I’d vote for it but I can’t because I’m going to MCM London that day :G
I’ve got a tenner on Romania’s cheerfully cheesy, utterly meaningless “Zaleilah”. I first heard the song on an obscure import dance compilation late last year and have been following its rise for the last few months. I have to say though, my own choreography to it is 6.8×10^45 times better the official dance steps. Even Stephen Hawking’s choreography would be at least 100 times better than the official dance steps.
I got a strange feeling that by the end of this week it will in some way or another end up in my DDR setup.
Any chance you can get me some tat from Ashen’s stall?
I’ll be setting up the Eurovision Semi post this evening before the event. Although I don’t blame you if you stuck to Twitter.
Is it just me, or are a staggeringly large amount of the entries cheesy love ballads?
Not as bad as 2010, fortunately.
That’s the problem with Eurovision in recent years.
Countries tend to pile in like sheep and send a song similar to the winning one the year before, and then everybody votes for the polar opposite (or in the case of a former Russian states – just vote for your next door neighbour, no matter how crap the song actually is or pathetic your vote announcer will look on the night across Europe grandly broadcasting that news).
If Russia get through the semi tonight – a couple of gold coins will be put on them for the win…
..or at least to pick up a 12 from somewhere. Probably the UK based on ironic novelty value.
Everyone in the UK is going to vote for Jedward, sadly.
If anyone’s bothered, American Ninja Warrior has begun its 4th season on G4. The qualifiers of 6 regional heats will compete on a US-built Mount Midoryama in Las Vegas. No mention of anyone going to Japan at any point, which is a bit crap.
Thanks, will try and find it.
There was something else starting I was interested in, and I’ve forgotten what it is.
I know I keep pounding it into your head, but was it this? http://www.npr.org/programs/ask-me-another/
No I’m already listening to that.
From what I understand, they canceled the Japanese show ANW is based on, so this is the only thing they could do…
I take it they mean 300th recording of Pointless for tomorrow as it’s certainly not the 300th regular episode nor the 300th broadcast episode of regulars+celebrities!