So this is quite interesting, there was a call out for contestants for this on UKGameshows.com last week (you’ve got to the end of the week to apply), today it’s been revealed that Jeff Stelling will be fronting a revival of Andrew O Connor’s The Alphabet Game (originally on BBC daytime years ago) to be called Alphabetical for ITV Daytimes, 10×60′ (so sounds like a summer Chase replacement).
Taking elements of international versions of the original ITV Studios format, Alphabetical will be “less like the comedic parlour game” and take the form of a straight general knowledge quiz, with three contestants battling against each other for the chance to take on the returning champion.
i.e. it’s going to be more like Pasapalabra, the international version of the show with its famously tough endgame with its famously massively large rollover jackpots – over €2.1m at one point. It’s also going to have returning champions which is unusual these days.
The show is going to be made by Gameface Productions, part of Andrew O Connor’s ITV-owned indie group Cats on the Roof Media.
Edit: Probably worth acknowledging that it won’t necessarily be a straight adaption and it would be trivially easy to change things whilst being in keeping with the international format, probably won’t be getting multi-million pound jackpots just yet. It’s being sold on having lots of questions right now.
No (incompetent) celebs?
Meanwhile on Pasapalabra Jero has his 114th attempt to win the jackpot today. He has benefitted greatly from the introduction of the Blue Chair Battle in which the beaten finalist from the previous episode takes on the newbie. The winner becomes the challenger and the loser goes home.
What’s the jackpot at the moment?
A meh €918.000.
Absolutely thrilled to see Jeff Stelling return to game show hosting I,m a big fan of his and think he more than proved his worth during his Countdown stint
So this is the first summer Chase replacement I,ve REALLY got my fingers crossed for
Off topic but of note is the fact that a new Judge Rinder crime documentary series is one of the other two new Daytime commissions
I was at a recording of Scrabble- the new itv game show- today. Jeff Stelling is also hosting that. How strange
I wonder if they’d take the endgame from the French version of the show instead of the Spanish one:
https://youtu.be/kowlERucpgw
Quite possible. Probably not much else though, the contestant call suggests ‘no word games’ and my understanding of the French show is that it was almost entirely word games.
That guy was the biggest ever winner on a public service network at the time apparently, racking up 73 appearances. €100 a point.
I wish Stelling would just shut up. He talks all the time and all he does is to state the bleeding’ obvious.
Who are they trying to kid? There’s no audience there.