Series won’t see the light of day. What a waste! I hope the winners still got paid.
I heard mumblings that this was the case for a while. Don’t know why the story suggests just the pilot filmed, it was definitely a series. We went and saw an episode being filmed and thought whilst it wasn’t amazing or anything it was not really much worse than a lot of weekend evening fluff. Surely you might as well put it out in the Summer when no-one’s watching anyway?
Maybe it suffered from the bane of all shows that take 4 hours plus to film in that most of the audience had left towards the end, and as they were in shot for much of it it made it much more difficult to edit. Lesson there, programme makers!
Of course this isn’t the only show to be filmed and go AWOL. We’ve heard similar mutterings on the grapevine regarding Prize Island, and Reflex was meant to be taking Doctor Who‘s The Voice lead-in slot on Saturday nights, but evidently something’s happened there. Are commissioners really lousy at spotting issues from pilots or something? Edit: Richard Osman suggests both shows are in the can and ready to go.
Just canned like that? That’s a lot of money to chuck away – they could have least gave it the tv equivanlent of a slow death..
..Or Sunday nights at 11.30pm on ITV2 as it’s better known.
I wasn’t expecting Reflex to be out just yet. Post Prod on in must take ages. Isn’t each series of The Cube in post for a good few weeks editing in the timeslicing and super slo-mos?
But talking about missing presumed edited and waiting – what about that Gabby Logan fronted Talpa show for Saturday night BBC One filmed up at Pinewood just before Christmas?
It was rumoured for weeks it may never see the light of day. It started with Paul Brassey hinting on twitter that ITV decided to recommission more episodes of The Cube because on what they could’ve showed was rubbish.
As for BBC One’s schedule. Once they get The Voice out of the way then we will probably see I Love My Country.
Given there are no football and no Olympics this year. BBC One have got plenty of Saturday nights. We’re suppose to see a full series of Superstars this summer.
I know it’s Summer, but I’ve just seen these C4 daytime figs: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showpost.php?p=66259532&postcount=2059
Uh oh. And are they pushing with DoND right through the summer again without a break? It needs a long rest more than ever, and no, not a summer full of Hall of Fame repeats.
I would say some more Live shows to try and spice it up as I enjoyed those, but I fear the time may have passed?
And it appears my fears were true: Nick Hewer is killing Countdown.
They are indeed doing exactly that.
Channel 4 daytime is in a gargantuan hole. I’m absolutely staggered at how far and fast it’s declined. Can DoND be kept on as the best of a bad bunch at this level? Or is this finally what encourages Channel 4 to try something completely different, perhaps an all-US-repeats lineup?
Thus far (and to their credit) the commissioners have been very clear that they still want to try new formats, and get back on a level footing with the BBC and ITV. They’re still looking at new quizzes as of today. How long they persevere, who knows?
I reckon that a new format that captures the imagination could absolutely compete with Pointless and The Chase. Given the state the current schedule’s in I reckon it might take a bit of time and patience to grow one into a hit, but it’s not a lost cause.
Really sad to see Deal fading. One of my all-time favourites.
It’d be a shame to lose Countdown and even Deal.
Maybe there’s mileage in filling some time with the US imports and in turn cutting the commission of Countdown and DoND down, running them alternately for a few months at a time in the same slot (maybe 3:45 or 4:15?)? This would allow the ‘Countdown is on too early’ brigade to put their money where their mouth is, and it’d be nice to have the rotation you used to get with Countdown and 15-to-1.
Yeah either that or find something new 😛
I still worry about Nick Hewer and Countdown. Pretty much everyone I know who used to watch Countdown has stopped watching since he took over. He has grown on me slightly, but I’m still not sure he’s the most suitable man for the job and can be horribly awkward, and not in an endearing Richard Whiteley way either.