So a few new things that have come to light in the last few days.
First of all, TV’s David J Bodycombe has a new blog about techniques used to win games called Playcheatwin. The first post is about how to win at Rock Paper Scissors, take a look.
Secondly I discovered Cory Anotado’s Game Show Gauntlet on Sunday night, a live show via Google Hangouts where two people compete playing mini versions of US and UK gameshows past and present, and whilst the idea of “mini versions of gameshows” might make it sound a bit light, they’re actually thoughtfully chosen so that the essence comes through very well. It’s all done in a very loose style (i.e. there’s drinking and swearing), but it’s a really fun idea, and the graphics are really well done. If I had criticisms it’s that minigame fatigue tends to set in and you hope they come up with even more ideas, also it’s a shame there are no real head to head moments, and at first to $5k it can go on a bit, but these are all fixable elements (in fact fixing point two would likely fix point three) and there have only been four episodes so far. As it is it’s definitely worth a watch, so here’s the first one I saw which is episode three featuring Buzzerblog‘s Alex Davis and The Chase USA researcher Stad St Fleur. Associate Bob Hagh also has a role to play, AS YOU WILL SEE.
The shows go out live on Sunday nights UK time on Youtube so check Cory’s Twitter for details. The other three eps are on Youtube, Ep2 is the weakest mainly because you can’t hear the host very well.
Finally, as well as the standard Wie is De Mol? in the Netherlands next year, they’re doing another junior series.
Speaking of junior series, I’m kind of surprised you haven’t mentioned Junior Just A Minute yet -http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23404815.
On the other hand, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised – you don’t talk about comedy panel game shows much…
I’m not massively into Just a Minute, but by all means knock yourselves out.
Channel 4 are having a 1980s weekend, and Fifteen to One is making a comeback. With Adam Hills.
Details here – http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/fifteen-one-channel-4-comeback-2163383
Oooh, two WIDMs? Nice. Thinking out loud regarding possible locations, we can probably rule out all of the Spanish-speaking world (Argentina, Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Spain within the last eight seasons) and anywhere in Africa (they don’t like repeating continents two years in a row), and aside from Australia as a deliberate link to the non-celebrity version for the first reboot season they’ve never repeated a country. I can’t see them doing a tiny island country on a public-broadcaster budget, which basically narrows it down to the US, New Zealand, Asia, and Europe. They’ll probably do somewhere in Europe for the Junior version, but not too far away from the Netherlands itself, so probably Belgium, Denmark, or Germany if not also a domestic season as the first was. Looking at the selection of countries in Asia that still haven’t appeared, and taking out the ones that are too similar to recent countries, my prediction is either Malaysia on its own or Malaysia and Singapore as a double act for the main version.
Junior version will definitely not be outside of NL, because of regulations when children participate in Dutch TV shows. It will also be aired in a ‘youth’ timeslot, rather then the big prime-time normal timeslot. Although the host did say it would be very watchable for parents to watch it as well.
Regarding the normal edition – normally we would have already some hints, but as of now there hasn’t be any news whatsoever yet.
Ah, I didn’t know about the ‘no international travel with kids’ restriction (although I thought Junior Masterchef NL did a challenge in Belgium one time?). Probably an area along the lines of Gouda then – not as easy to spoil as Amsterdam, but also not too small for a variety of challenges.
That also makes eastern Europe more plausible as a destination for the main series, although I still doubt it.
Hooked on Game Show Gauntlet now, it’s like a lovely quiz show buffet. Needs a bit of tweaking, maybe a bit of speeding up, but otherwise it’s very promising.