And we (should!) be back commentating from 7:15pm UK time.
It’s the first of the new style Schlag den Stars – live and hosted by Elton (with Frank Buschmann commentating), so we’re likely to be bluffing our way through initially, but it sounds like it’s basically the exact same format as Schlag den Raab except with two celebs battling it out over 15 games for €100,000. This week the battle of the giants as Olympic weightlifter (and strongest man in the world, it says here) Matthais Steiner takes on actor Henning Baum. No idea if there are musical guests.
Join us!
Great news for fans of lousy quiz setting! The Link is being repeated on Challenge from tonight at 7pm.
We’re having a chat about Das Spiel Beginnt in the comments here.
If you ever wanted to play a real-life Myst-like game, go to New Mexico…
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/04/inside-meow-wolf-the-amusement-park-for-people-who-want-a-weirder-disneyland/
With thanks to David B for the link, here’s the recent episode of grown ups vs kids playing giant versions of board games Das Spiel Beginnt:
http://www.zdf.de/das-spiel-beginnt/das-spiel-beginnt-37230546.html
We talked about this last year here: https://www.bothersbar.co.uk/?p=8497
This is definitely quite an interesting thing, although I remain unconvinced it’s quite an interesting *good* thing, it’s actually a pretty dull way to pass three hours with games that look like really fun ideas but outstay their welcome and look like they’re never going to finish (Hamster Wheel and Funny Bunny, in the main). I was itching for Labyrinth to be on the clock. I did like the “fit the zoo animals on the raft” game though.
At least some of the set ups are still quite nice, and I think only Loopin’ Louie and Memory were in the one I saw last year.
That must take bloody ages to film though, at least six or seven hours I reckon, which is quite tough work with all the kids on set and in the audience.
I *love* how embarrassed the celebs are at the end by the result.
They try to sell the format at MIP right now, called The Game Begins (very creative). But I don’t see why you would buy it. It’s just a nice little show but there are so few original things about it, it should be easy to come up with an original format that includes the “recipe” of this show while avoiding format fees. And my family asked me, why they don’t have to show a sign reading “Dauerwerbesendung” (long advertising show) like Raab had to in his events since it seems to be advertising quite a lot of boardgames.
Actually, that makes me think of something; how did the likes of Mouse Trap (the Saturday morning gameshow) not get dinged as product placement? I can understand Cluedo and the various versions of Trivial Pursuit being sufficiently just ‘inspired’ by the game in question, but Mouse Trap had the big central selling-point of the game being a big central feature of the show.
MIP news…TF1’s ordered a pilot of this:
They love a gimmick, don’t they? Not even a very good one in this case.
It’s quite visual, but it’s going to fail under the patented Brig Bother Bell Curves Are Boring rule.
Most likely to join the quickly expanding graveyard of failed gameshow pilots for TF1. Many people conplained online about “burning money” even it the pilot vid shows that’s quite virtual.
TF1 is currently still locked with Money Drop in the 7pm timeslot and no other choices available. It’s so bad that it’s currently on life support, multiplying the special celebrity editions with no real success. (It’s averaging 15% share on targets, which would have been bad enough to axe already months ago)
Just read about this format and I like the idea. Warning, it’s no game show, but some kind of factual entertainment show with Davina McCall: http://www.twofour.co.uk/work/this-time-next-year/
It sounds a bit like the finale episode of Biggest Loser without the (boring) season before it. In germany the ratings for Biggest Loser have been good, but not overwhelming, in the last years, but the finale has always been a success, so this idea might be a good choice.