Isn’t it the Dutch that have a word for that period between Christmas and New Year? Anyway it’s the Saturday of it, and it turns out there’s loads on. I’m not qute sure what my strategy for all of this is going to be yet.
- 30 Years of CITV – I was always more of a CITV person than a CBBC one to be honest – Cosgrove Hall animation, Knightmare, Funhouse, Finders Keepers, Art Attack etc. Blue Peter? Get outta town. So here’s a documentary on 30 years of CITV. (6:30pm, ITV1) Next weekend it’s the old-skool weekend.
Superstars 2012 – Haven’t decided if this is going to get a seperate post or not. Anyway it’s back for the nth time, but this time round they’ve got relevant sporting stars which is interesting. I wonder how much it would cost to get David Beckham in. (6:45pm, BBC1)- Fort Boyard New Year Special: It’s a real shame that these night time seasonal specials haven’t rated well because they’ve been very entertaining and they’ve put a ton of effort into them, sprucing up the Fort and creating games used once for them and never seen again (although it would be nice if next year there was a bit less “putting a snake in it” in their new games when it could be “being a bit more ingenious”. And cut out a segment and became 90 minutes). Anyway, here’s the New Year’s Special, which we know involves a game where contestants must shake up bottles of “champagne” and then pop the cork to hit a target. Clever. (7:45pm UK time, France 2 and inevitably Youtube before the night has ended)
- National Lottery Secret Fortune – Not much more of this left. (8:15pm, BBC1)
- Dale’s Great Getaway – We were at the recording of this, you can read about that here. You might want to direct your discussion of the show there as well. (8:45pm, ITV1)
I hope they’re not going to have dance music all Superstars long. The context is all wrong. Interesting to see whether the not-quite-trad. scoring system continues too.
Is that Greggles Scottles in the background of the post-archery interview there? Guess they could do with a warm-up, and why not the Gregularity
Likely, he did indeed do the warm up.
Enjoyed Superstars all told, though the dance music and intro graphics grated a shade. The show didn’t drag and the interlacing of men’s and women’s events worked well, though having to follow 16 contestants and remember their sports rather than 8 was a bit much; I’m not sure that having two 45- (or, practically, 50- to 60-) minute episodes, one per gender, wouldn’t have been better. Iwan Thomas was a bit much at times. Liked the nods to the past and the swimming shenanigans, though, and the atmosphere was good.
The selection of sports was good rather than great; I reckon the contestants could have been better-prepared. Picking six events from eight is a shade on the light side, but not disastrous; the older versions of the show were quite austere in their presentation to fit more in, often really jam-packing an event in to fit.
Definitely not disastrous and I hope the show has done enough to get another run out in the future. The Channel 5 revival doesn’t even appear on the Wikipedia page; I’m glad it won’t represent the end of the Superstars story in this country…
I also liked it and, although there was a slight air of “We’ll cobble that together in the edit”, generally the end product was pretty good.
I agree 6×2 competitors would have been far more manageable, and I’m not sure I’d have finished on the Gym Test personally.
Did i miss an episode of Fort Boyard: Ultimate Challenge between this weekend and last?
I was away for Xmas, my Tivo series link did not record anything and no sign of anything on ITV player on Tivo or PC, just this mornings episode, which my Tivo did record (Twice), and some earlier ones.
They’ve been on daily since Boxing Day I think.
Was on boxing day and on Thursday
Fort Boyard New year got better ratings. 2.8 Million and in 3rd place. Which looking at the ratings beat any of the shows on ITV yestaday night
episode link here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOBliBXXDOo
Looks like France 2 uploading them as well
Oliver minne on twitter announced a few days ago that there will be no more speical fort boyard episodes. because of the low ratings
1.5m for Dale. I am actually a bit speechless at that.
Almost 6m for Superstars, great rating, although ifitngets a series will they be able to attract relevant sportspeople?
OOf, that’s really harsh. It didn’t deserve that. I thought they’d done a fairly decent job of the main principle, and Dale earned his money turning something average into quite a jolly show.
The Sporting Superstars MMXII, then. I don’t know where the fetish for playing random contemporary music during the events has come from, but I hope the BBC has kept the receipt and can swap it for something that fits better.
Broadly, I agree with Messrs. Dickson and Bodycombe: the editing, particularly on the cycling, left a chunk to be desired, and sixteen contestants a few too many, but they didn’t distract from a decent spectacle.
Personally, I’d rather see one long, mixed show than separate men’s and women’s tourneys, because we just know that one of them will be more popular than the other.
As for Dale, what’s wrong with 1.5 million viewers? That’s almost half of The Chase! [exits, pursued by Ratings Bear.]
Thinking about it some more, I wonder whether it might have worked to have all the {women’s|men’s} events first, followed by all the {men’s|women’s} events? This would enable all the presentation and atmosphere first time and then just down to pure action second time around, and people would only have to remember half the competitors and what they do at once.
Yes, thought the editing seemed off. Didn’t like the videogamey presentation, proportion of clock graphic irritated me. Whoever was making the decisions re: being pulled out of events made some poor ones I think (just three people for the swimming? This was rarely an issue in the Vaughan/Perry era and that had fewer competitors IIRC. And if you’re going to have triatheletes, stuck them in the swimming as it’s the one event that’s over quickly).
Despite all that, thought it was OK. Who’d have thought men would have so much trouble with the javelin?
So, I watched it and yet again another Gabby Logan fronted show where she goes missing in action for most of it – just like her Five Live lunchtime show, where towards the end she was taking so much time off, when she did present it is sounded like she was a guest on it.
But, you know what? As much as I like Superstars, I still think it would have been funnier to have done an Olympic ‘International King Of Sports’.
Seeing the great 2012 Team GB medal winners taking part in the polar opposite of the Olympic ideal (Association Bobbage, Headlong dive, International Skids) would really provide an amusing full stop the great summer of sport..
..Even better if it was done in aid of Sport Relief, and I could tollerate the occasional multi-national brand logo pasted on a bit of chipboard appearing fleetingly in the background.
That’s actually a tremendous idea.