4:30pm Weekdays,
Channel 4
First there was the briefly popular Zynga app Draw Something, then about six months to a year later they filmed this new show based loosely on it, and now a year later it’s finally getting an airing. Channel 4 riding the zeitgeist as ever.
Still it’s got some good people behind it and at half an hour probably won’t outstay its welcome. There are some really good guests coming up on it as well (Terry Wogan! Tim Vine!), so we’ll see.
Bonolis makes a cameo on AUA! (Luca Laurenti says that he came to collect rent!)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1t1j8m_avanti-un-altro-04-05-14-arriva-bonolis_shortfilms
I came in only for the last round and bonus so take this comment with a grain of salt, but compared to other drawing game shows I’ve seen (US Win, Lose or Draw, Pictionary), the drawing speed seemed way slower. On other shows, they grab a marker and start ripping into the paper like their lives depended on it, even if their first drafts were wild squiggles. Here, it seems like it takes them a couple seconds to start drawing, then they draw a line… and then another line… and then another shape… and it still sometimes just looks like wild squiggles. I don’t know if the technology they’re using inhibits fast drawing, or if the players just weren’t the frenzied drawing type, but what little I saw just looked sluggish. Not necessarily bad, just sluggish.
Also, I couldn’t not think of that one scene from Spaceballs every time Mel did running commentary of the drawing. “They’ve gone to plaid!”
Not only that, but they seemed compelled to add background colours when it wasn’t necessary. What about a cucumber requires a yellow background?
So, how does the second of 2 new game shows work?
2 MOTPs and 2 celebs (today’s were Nadia Sawahla and Anton Du Beke) play 3 rounds of drawing and guessing in order to win as much money as possible. The winning team plays a final round in order to keep what they’ve banked and the 2 best scorers over the week go through to BMF – Big Money Friday.
Before the game starts proper, we are shown an example of each MOTP’s drawing skills.
Round 1, called ‘Contestant Quick Draw’ has the MOTPs draw 3 words with a 30-second time limit for each: an easy one for £100, a medium one for £200 and a hard one for £300. The celeb can push a big blue button on their desk to activate the Word Jumble, the letters of the word in an anagram format, but this halves the money on offer for the word.
Round 2 is ‘Quick on the Draw’ which is played on the buzzer, and all of the drawings have been submitted by users of the Draw Something app. As with the first round, there is a 30-second time limit and the drawing is shown gradually. Each correct answer is worth £200, but an incorrect guess locks you out of the rest of the drawing. When there’s 10 seconds left, the Word Jumble appears, again halving the money on offer. To take us into the break, there’s a drawing that stops half-way through for viewers at home to play along with.
Round 3 is ‘Celebrity Quick Draw’, and this time the celebs are the ones that are drawing. Each celeb is given 1:30 to draw as many words as they can with each correctly guessed word worth £300. After a short period of time, the buzzer on the desk lights up for the contestant to activate the Word Jumble if they need it, yet again halving the money to £150.
The runner-up receives a…Draw It t-shirt for their trouble. The winner, however, gets to play for the money they have accrued over the course of the show. The final, named ‘Draw To Win’, is similar to Round 1 but with a 60-second time limit to get all 3 words and only 1 Word Jumble to use with no penalty for using it. The MOTP chooses whether they want to draw or guess.
The set looks rather nice, it has an ‘art gallery’ feel to it with various paintings dotted about the back walls. My only gripes (and they’re VERY minor ones) are that using a stylus on a touchscreen isn’t as efficient at drawing things like you would with a marker and paper (a la Win Lose or Draw), but like we saw in Round 2, the results can be really good! My other gripe is that with only 30 minutes run time, it does go rather quickly. Maybe THAT’S why so many shows are 45 minutes to an hour long these days, who knows?
In the final they play for the money they’ve banked, but they can double their money it if they get through the endgame without using the word jumble.
Yes, you’re right. I was eating my tea when the final was on, so I didn’t hear that bit and I skipped over it when watching the show back after taping it.
How to brighten up a bank holiday in one easy step.
Mel is suitably light and fluffy. The show is suitably light and fluffy. Nick Foster and Ken Bolam’s music, that’s also light and fluffy. The whole combination is entirely moreish.
It’s the first First Episode since where I’ve actively wanted to see the next show, and somehow I think will leave something in the bag for show three.
Looking forward to Terry Wogan in week 2.
Seems there is a new version of Win, Lose or Draw on the Disney Channel going head to head with it this week – American I assume.
Completely inoffensive with all the positive and negative connotations that come with it. I think I was hoping it would be funnier, and the set and music are a bit full on for my taste (not Foster and Bolam’s best work I think it safe to say) but the game is basically pacey and works fine, although in the ideal world it’d drop the Draw Something round two and have more player drawing.
Giedroyc was jovial, but having been bought up on Win Lose or Draw, I wish it was somebody a bit more piss-takey like Lisa Tarbuck.
Not a must watch by any means, but against a new show on ITV and not being awful it does at least have a glimmer of a chance.
Pointless 4.19m. (25.5%)
The Link 1.48m (17.8%)
Come Dine With Me 0.98m (6.6%)
Ejector Seat 0.79m (7.0%)
Four in a Bed 0.70m (5.2%)
Draw It 0.58m (4.9%)
Deal or No Deal 0.53m (5.8%)
Countdown 0.39m (4.2%)
Paul O’Grady 1.61m. (11.3%)
All include HD and +1 where appropriate.
Cheers, that looks like a good number for The Link.
The snooker’s finished now, so Ejector Seat’s got no excuses from hereonin.
There’s not much in it, meaning there’s not much to dislike, but not much to like either.
Mel is fine, but not as funny as you’d hope (although maybe it’s a role she can grow into, Xander wasn’t very funny for about the first six seasons of Pointless). Her constant colour references were quite annoying. The set isn’t my cup of tea, and the music is dated but neither of those things bother me particularly. Anton du Beke is very much the opposite of my cup of team, but sure there’ll be other bookings that appeal more.
Round Two is a bit of a problem. Since the people drawing were under no time pressure there’s no urgency to the reveal. On a couple of occasions the first 15-20 seconds were completely redundant (the hammock for “Hammock” didn’t start to appear until 16 seconds in). It’s like a very, very dull Catchphrase.
Also, the word jumble felt like a bit of a cop out, turning a drawing game into an anagram game – particularly when used often. I would have limited the number of potential uses per person in Round Three, although understand why they didn’t.
I like the “Big Money Friday” idea, though.
Overall it’s less fun than Win, Lose or Draw, and less fun and less clever than the drawing round of Copycats. Still better than Fifteen to One, though.
I agree with a lot of what has been said, far far better than the 15 to 1 reboot and is something that flows quite well leaving me wanting more.
I would suggest the final needs work, i would much prefer something akin to the final of Win Lose or Draw. Makes you wonder why it was left “on the shelf” for so long as in my opinion it is perfect for that slot.
I can imagine this show is going to be better/worse depending on who the celebs are. Tim Vine is a very good choice for a show like this.
A big thumbs up for Big Money Friday
I think it’s a nice alternative to the usual Q&A shows.
Would be interesting to watch back an ep of WLD as I bet it isn’t as good as we all remember – they never are. (I always loved Tomorrow’s World, but watching it back now is so dull).
STV actually put up the lot on Youtube a few years ago (although I don’t think they’re there any more). I miss Bob Mills’ contempt during the viewer competition, “and if you’re STILL stuck… THERE’S AN EXTRA CLUE ON THE LINE.”
I think it’s a shame Draw It! shies away from phrases and titles and plays the whole thing out as single/double-word items, but I suppose that’s one big point of differentiation.
With the warnings that a) I’ve not watched these episodes, I’m just going on the titles; and 2) spamtrap!
This claims to be a 1997 episode, featuring Joe Pasquale and Davina.
This one purports to be a Teen Win Lose or Draw from 1992-3, pitting Coronation Street against Press Gang.
Posting ratings here so as not to distract from Eurovision…
Pointless 3.46m (29.1%)
Eggheads 1.01m. (6.9%)
The Link 0.97m (18.4%)
Ejector Seat 0. 95m (12.5%)
Come Dine With Me 0.78m (6.2%)
Four in a Bed 0.62m (6.1%)
Deal or No Deal 0.58m (8.9%)
Draw It 0.45m (5.5%)
Countdown 0.36m (6.7%)
Paul O’Grady 1.55m (13.7%)
All include HD and +1 where appropriate.
That share for a repeat of Pointless is astonishing. The Link holding its own in the Perfection slot for now. Draw It! slipping.
Mmm, so many new shows, but so much ennui. Ejector Seat’s not really doing the business, although it’s getting about what other non-Tipping Point stuff gets so it’s not a complete disaster. I’m not hugely hopeful for The 21st Question when it comes along either, so ITV might be looking at a rather poor Summer.
Would you know what the 15-1 Final got last week, Paul?
Final got 0.61m (5.8%)making it the 4th highest rated ep of the series, by my reckoning, behind the first two and the one on Good Friday. The repeat of the celebrity edition on Friday got 0.59m (5.7%).
Is the Link down half a million from Monday?
Not terribly surprising given it was a Bank Holiday.
Also in a less favourable slot.
Bring back Turnabout i say 😀
Is that a record high share for Pointless? For a repeat as well. 🙂
What is interesting/concerning is that when Tipping Point isn’t on, Deal usually rallies a bit. This doesn’t seem to be happening this time…
MasterChef 4.94m (22.7%)
Pointless 3.72m (28.2%)
Big Star’s Little Star 3.56m (16.4%)
Eggheads 1.07m (6.6%)
The Link 1.01m (16.7%)
Ejector Seat 0.99m (11.6%)
Come Dine With Me 0.88m (6.3%)
Four in a Bed 0.71m (6.3%)
Deal or No Deal 0.67m (9.0%)
Draw It 0.58m (6.3%)
Paul O’Grady 1.85m (14.7%)
All include HD and +1 where appropriate.
Ta!
The Link seems to be doing steady – is this on a par with Perfection?
Ejector seat settled around the million mark – itv will should be happy with that…
The viewing figures for The Link are a bit lower than Perfection but the share is the same.
Big Money Friday – double the cash during the rounds, getting all three in the final without using the word jumble multiples the lot by ten. And it’s winnable!
I like the way this rounds off the week.
and it looks really winnable.