It’s that time of year again, the time where we get asked to put up a contestant call for Only Connect:
The quiz where, as in life itself, knowledge will only take you so far: patience and lateral thinking are also vital. It’s all about making connections between things which may appear, at first glance, not to be connected at all.
We’re looking for teams of three players who share a common passion, ability or profession, to pool their combined wits to solve fiendish conundrums and vexing puzzles.
To request an application please email onlyconnect@parasolmedia.co.uk including a contact name and number. The closing date for applications is Friday 25th January 2013, so get them in as soon as possible.
If you applied for a previous series, but were unsuccessful, you are welcome to apply again for the new series. Auditions will be held in regional centres across the UK. All applicants must be aged 18+ and U.K. Residents.
Also! Don’t forget that the Old-skool CITV weekend is this weekend, and that there will be posts for Splash! and Britain’s Brightest in due course.
I didn’t tell you about “Alle auf den Kleinen” (everyone against the small one), a new game show in which Oliver Pocher (bad German comedian who didn’t get good ratings with all his shows for some years now aand German “Gameshow Marathon” host) has to defeat several contestants in 15 games. Otherwise the contestants will win 100.000€. Yes, it sounds familiar and it seems to be a try of a Schlag den Raab clone. The show has started 5 minutes ago and looks horrible. Host is Sonja Zietlow (I’m a celebrity Germany- host), commentary is given by Heiko Wasser, great formula one expert and really funny guy, and Oliver Pocher’s wife Allessandra/Sandy. It’s shown on RTL.
It really is a horribly bad team version of Schlag den Raab.
Do you have a live stream? The one I was watching went down.
No, I actually live in Germany 😀
Sorry. What do you think of it so far? I have to say, whilst it’s not SdR, it’s not overly bad. Better than most things in Britain of late. Games look pretty good, a hybrid between SdR and Elton vs Simon: Die Live Show.
I think the studio is horrible (especially because the audience doesn’t seem excited enough for this size). On the other hand I habe to say that it’s not such a clone as I expected! I really like this “three duels (especially with this voting twist) and then one team game” thing, but I think the games are mostly a bit boring, you have seen them before (mostly on “Extreme Activity”). Those drawn bits in between the games are a great idea, but the humor just doesn’t work somehow. All in all: I still watch it, because there’s nothing better anywhere, but I won’t be a big fan of it. It’s a 7 out of 10… What do you think? (btw: you can watch it tomorrow on rtlnow.de with a proxy server.)
Got to agree, the studio set up is wrong. It’s okay but it’s not a patch what Pro7 produce with Schlag den Raab, Schlag den Star and Elton vs Simon.
I gather this is a one-off as wer wird millionär is back in their 8.15pm slot next week.
Did Schlag den Raab get a mention?
I agree about the studio. The set seems a little dark and 2 dimensional. One good thing about the SdR set is that the audience are enclosing the game-play area, which gives SdR a better atmosphere.
The games are pretty good. They have the feel of Elton vs Simon with the look and attention-to-detail of the tasks on Wetten Dass. The animated bits are great (even though I understand basic German). Sonja Zietlow is good, but needs to be a bit more enthusiastic. Oliver Pocher, is well, Oliver Pocher! The three duels and then the team game, is an excellent idea.
I think if they fixed a few things, including set changes and better games, then the show could become a serious competitor to Raab’s. Also noting, that this is made by Gunther Jauch’s i&u TV. What do you think of 5 gegen Jauch, and what are the rules?
I kind of like 5 gegen Jauch, but mainly because it is Günther Jauch, he is just great! I liked the show in the beginning better, when there were five individuals fighting against Jauch and he had to defeat their five questions chosen out of a question pool before the filming. Nowadays I don’t like the way the amounts that can be won are getting bigger, it seems randomly chosen. Choosing just to play with celebrities in the last couple of episodes was a good decision in my opinion, the “normal” people were often too loud and annoying (like the people on “Take it all”). I like it! The rules nowadays are simple: 5 somehow related people (even the celebrities are related, e.g. all celebrity chefs) answer a number of multiple choice questions each worth more money. Jauch answers the same questions afterwards (he couldn’t see or hear the other people discussing the question) and the accumulated money is then at stake in a finale question. The team and Jauch bet their money on the final question while answering it and the one side that has the most money in the end is the winner and can keep all the winnimgs (or has to give it to charity).
Sounds great. Wish someone would bring 5 gegen Jauch over here.
I think it would work quite well with Noel Edmunds.
I agree about Gunther Jauch. The man is a legend. I think that he would be better than Sonja at presenting Alle auf den Kleinen.
By any chance is it the same Sonja that did Fort Boyard when it was on Pro7?
Alex, the Sonja presenting Alle auf den Kleinen is Sonja Zietlow (I’m A Celebrity German version). The Fort Boyard presenter was Sonya Kraus.
Thanks guys, I think there might be a reasonable chance it might turn up as a naughty download, in which case I’ll grab it.
I really like the “5 vs. Noel Edmunds” idea! And Günther Jauch would have been better as a host. Another idea I had was to take away Oliver Pocher’s wife and her commentary and replace her with some people who hate him (there are many people who can’t stand him!). Thsi would fit the title and add a lot of comedy as Heiko Wasser was too nice in the end. And i have to say: In the end I was well entertained and would watch it again (well I wouldn’t watch the entire episode if there were no changes, but anyway)!
Agreed. Heiko Wasser was a little to kind to Pocher. I think it would be a little harsh to put people who hate him in the commentary box, but maybe people who don’t find him that funny. I really enjoyed it in the end. They should definitely reduce the duration of the show and bring in Jauch as host. Then they’ll have a hit on their hands.
Just turned over to RTL. Looks like one of the games is basically the wrestler game from Distraction. Answering questions while you’re being wrestled and body slammed.
The reason why Schlag den Raab works so well is because they mix the occasional absurd games (the toaster), with some serious ones (volleyball).
Watching Alle auf den Kleinen for the last half hour and the games wouldn’t go out of place on Elton vs Simon.
Alle auf den Kleinen was not that bad. Pocher was beaten in the end, but overall a good show. With the right improvements, it could do very well. Will be interesting to see the ratings in the morning.
Shameless plug here, but especially dont miss the episodes I chose for Old Skool Weekend on CITV as it’s the first time I’ve ever been given free reign over programme, series and episode… and don’t hate me if it’s not your favourite.
The last two episodes of series seven of Knightmare, today and tomorrow at 1400. Which our compliance team had great fun with, it’s the only time I’ll ever hear ‘As long as it’s a troll it’s OK’ in my line of work.
So Thomas Scottas, occasionally of this parish, is in a “posting a new thought-provoking, fun, futuristic video” not-shock. He also posted this video last year which is funny and features a brilliant throwaway gag in the last 20 seconds or so; I’ll not spoil it other than to suggest it’s relevant to this thread.
I think an episode of No 73 or similar this morning might have been a good call but otherwise enjoying so far 🙂
2.23 million 14 – 49 year olds (21.1%) were watching Alle auf den Kleinen, 3.95 million (13.9%) people were watching it overall. So it was a success (there weren’t half as many young people watching any other channel in this time slot yesterday) which had about the numbers Schlag den Raab has normally.
Alle auf den Kleinen Ratings
3.95m (13.9%) in overall audience. 2.23m (21.1%) in the 14-49 key demo.
Good start, and whilst there are some criticisms, it seems to have been well received.
Great to see Finders Keepers and Fun House again today, though still don’t really get the fuss about Knightmare. It may be a classic but today just reminded me how dull it really was.
Well that’s good fighting talk if nothing else.
A slow burner, perhaps, and the eye-shield sections were horribly uninteractive and thus a waste of frames. However, these series 7 episodes show that they had been trimmed down to size towards the end of the show… and not before time. One of my criticisms of some of the middle series were that trips through the dungeon sometimes were rather too similar to each other, which was not the case in the first three series, and I don’t know whether it remained the case for the final series. However, these two episodes had just about the lot: cute improvisation, tense physical challenges, satisfying gently silly comedy and an attempt at a moral dilemma. There is the tiniest whiff of slightly generous judgment in order to provide a satisfactory conclusion, though the last quest of the series often had some sort of unusual conclusion, but dullness is in the eye of the beholder.
Yeah, I loved it. 🙂 (Unrelatedly: why is availability of the weekend so patchy on Virgin’s catch-up version of ITV Player? For whatever reason, only about one third of the shows are available, so no Finders Keepers. Maybe it’s available on the web site version; I haven’t looked yet.)
CITV had it’s beet rated weekend ever last weekend, we broke the single episode ratings record by a about 40% so thanks everyone for watching! Lots of the programmes shown were delivered to ITV very late in the process so it’s taken a while for everything to be added to catch up. Knightmare was going through compliance checks on Friday afternoon for example. As far as I know we have the rights for most, if not all of it to go up. No idea if Virgin only takes a limited selection mind you.
I picked Barry’s Quest from Series Seven for three reasons. 1, I wanted there to be a winner in the course of the two episodes. 2. I didn’t want to finish part way through a quest. 3. I wanted there to be a story arc progressing.
I also had in the back of my mind that anything before series 6 would probably look a bit more dated that we could manage for the weekend. Of course I was quite please when I realised Barry’s quest fit the bill, he was a brilliant dungeoneer!
I’m surprised “looking dated” was that much of a concern on retro weekend! Well done though.
FWIW, Finders Keepers is indeed now available on Virgin in all its Buchanantastic goodness. He’s just smacked himself over the head with a frying pan!
Good logic behind your choice, BTW!