Saturday, 18:45
BBC1
This is slightly unusual because I’ve actually already been to an audience screening and seen two episodes.
If you want to read the full report it’s right here.
Basically it’s entertaining, but the ad-libbing is rather funnier than the behind the scenes scripted stuff and unfortunately the behind-the-scenes scripted stuff is about 40% of the show. If you haven’t decided it’s not for you in the first few minutes you’ll probably stick with it – some of the games are quite clever. I don’t get why they need to point out it’s for charity every few minutes.
I think puppets are a hard sell to a general audience and it has zero lead-in for the first episode. But what it isn’t, and I must stress this, is as bad as Don’t Scare the Hare. Not by a long shot. But I have little doubt that’s the show people are already comparing it to before they’ve even seen it.
The first episode is Jonathan Ross vs Katherine Jenkins and might be a blinder. Let us know your thoughts.
I liked Don’t Scare the Hare…why does everyone use it as a “rubbish BBC One show” benchmark. 😛
Really looking forward to this, hope people give it a chance. But looking on Digital Spy threads etc, a lot have written it off before even watching the first episode.
Basically, people go “BBC’s great saturday night game show hope? It’s going to be the same quality as DSTH” I think.
Also, puppets. Yes, Henson puppets, but again people just see puppets and dismiss it.
I gave the show a chance, and I actually liked it. I found it much more entertaining than the usual reality crap that gets peddled out on Saturday evenings. I would much rather it have members of the public rather than celebs as there seems to be an over-saturation of shows with celebs on at the moment
I enjoyed it! And I absolutely agree that it’s much, much better than “Don’t Scare the Hare”.
My favourite game was Life’s A Speech (though I do wish they would reveal all the correct answers, rather than just the embarrassing misses). On the other hand, the Nosey Neighbours questions were extremely hard to play along with. Punch Your Lights Out was amusing but I don’t think I’d enjoy watching it a second time. Will be interesting to see how much variation there is in the games, as the series continues.
I also liked the backstage sketches; I agree that the improvised stuff was usually funnier, but the final punchline genuinely made me laugh out loud. Will likely tune in again!
2.5m apparently, precisely what I said it would get on Twitter beforehand.
I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The games were all quite good, though I wouldn’t have put the singing sausages first.
The bit where he was going on about running another puppet game show at the same time was in fact a clip of the unbroadcast pilot and that was the original host puppet and studio. Its original name was “Games Inc.” which I prefer although I can see why they changed it.
Still don’t really get why the host has been modeled on Vernon Kay given that he plays no part in the programme (despite the publicity with him a few weeks back), isn’t exactly a legendary host and isn’t BBC talent.
The interesting thing is I thought the singing sausages was actually a fairly strong, funny start. Life’s A Speech is my favourite game but I don’t think I’d open with it.
Next week is the Lineker Flintoff episode apparently which begins with Punch Your Lights Out. It was also the weaker of the two episodes I’ve seen – if they want to make the most of the Pointless lead-in, I’d recommend going for a funnier one.
Short of dropping the backstage stuff, which is one of the show’s big USPs, I’m not sure what can be done to save it.
Confession. I have a very soft spot for pretty much everything Henson (with the possible exception of ), and this was everything I’d expected, both positive and negative.
Yes to the singing sausages, yes to the fill-in-the-blanks quiz, yes to the recurring minor characters. Not really to the lights out game, but major yes when they cut away to the “viewers” asking what would Reith think.
The backstage banter makes sure we know the humans are guests, and the muppets are the stars. Very Henson-by-numbers, a bit sickly-sweet and feelgood, some tremendous one-liners.
Interesting to note that there’s a late-night repeat after , perhaps the one night when no-one’s going to be watching television while slightly tipsy. Also that there’s no repeat anywhere on the CBBC channel.
I suspect this will be renewed if it takes off (and 2.5m overnights isn’t brilliant, but nor is it rubbish), or if the BBC has some stake in the format, because it feels like it could sell.
I really enjoyed the show, like I thought I would – mainly because I love anything with puppets in!
Some of the backstage stuff does feel forced in, but it’s nice to have a little sitcom type story running alongside the gameshow. As someone mentioned above, it was a great little nugget having the “Games Inc.” mention and clip as that was the pilot.
Even if people think the format/puppets are naff, you’ve got to agree that the games are fab. Lots of different types and they’re good fun for all the family. Really enjoyed “Life’s A Speech”, so simple but brilliant.
I hope the ratings pick up a bit (and should really, as we get closer to September) as this show deserves it. A lot of work has clearly gone into this.
I also really think it deserves a second series, even if just for them to do some tweaks to the format to see how it improves.
With things like “Total Wipeout” and “Merlin” getting regular repeats on the CBBC channel, I’d expect to see this given a repeat run before the end of the year.
Jonathan Ross was good value, but – a few decent one-liners aside – I think the gags will rely on the guests really throwing themselves into it. I’m always in favour of the BBC taking big swings; at worst, this is a distinctive swing and a miss.
Crazy credit: I did enjoy learning that one of the writers is one Daniel Peak (sic) – turns out he’s quite prolific…
Ha ha, I almost pointed out the Daniel Peak thing.
For obvious reasons, I’ve known about him for quite a few years. We aren’t the same person. For starters, he’s successful and writes funny lines in comedies…
You need a stage name!
Interesting edit spotting, if you like this sort of thing – they’ve taken out references to it being for charity before every game, but also interestingly there’s evidently a running gag through the series about Colon and the celebrity guests having met in former careers which they dropped from this episode.
Well this is apparently moving to 5:15pm from August 31st. Looks like ‘it won’t be a hit but it won’t be a DSTH style flop’ was only half right.
Format sounds like its Hollywood Game Night … with puppets!
And a lot more variety too (rather than just rounds of Password and Name That Tune with the serial numbers filed off)