I know it’s only felt like days since the last series of University Challenge finished, but both Uni Chall and Only Connect return for brand new series from 8pm next Monday night on BBC2, until inevitably some cooking show rudely bumps Only Connect down to 7:30pm for a bit in a few months time.
In the opening matches the University of Sheffield takes on Bristol University and some fans of the London Underground take on some Bardophiles. I will let you work out which match ups are for which shows.
Also this Saturday it’s Schlag den Star! We don’t know who the stars are yet, but it sounds like Ron Ringguth is subbing commentary duties for Franck Buschmann, who’s presumably too busy covering Euro 2016.
In other news Top Gear is now being outrated by The Getaway Car.
I really don’t know why they picked this Saturday for Schlag den Star. They should have done a summer break and come back in September. I think Frank Buschmann will be missed. He’s done a great job so far as counterpart to Elton who’s more the quiet type. Ron Ringguth used to do the commentary for Schlag den Raab before Buschi took over and he was rather boring. I hope this episode won’t be a ratings desaster.
When Prosieben announced they were bringing back Schlag den Star, I got the feeling that this was only a test run, to see what the appetite was like for the show to return. This is the last episode of the 3 they announced, so I’m assuming that they will make a decision about future episodes soon (with regards to the Autumn and beyond then).
The reason Frank Buschmann isn’t commentating is because Ninja Warrior Germany is premiering on RTL on Saturday, and he is one of the hosts. He agreed that a conflict of interest wasn’t helpful, so he decided not to do SdS.
The two ‘stars’ this weekend have actually done the show before. Tom Beck was on in 2013, and Daniel Aminati has been on twice (2012 & 2015). Dua Lipa is one of the music guests.
More quizzy mondays ahead: 500 – Die Quiz Arena starts tonight on RTL, so you can watch the ITV set already 😉 An episode is two hours long they are shown weekly, I think (it’s either every monday or every monday and friday, the rhythm Millionaire has) and it’s hosted by Günther Jauch.
Thanks, won’t get home from work until about 20 minutes in, interested to see what they’ve done with it.
Pretty bad reactions on social media for 500 Questions. The rules are too complicated, it feels relatively slow and many questions are way too easy.
I have just watched 10 minutes so far, because I got home late, but my mother (whose reaction is really useful to predict the future of television shows) doesn’t understand the rules and all the graphics are too much for her. In my opinion the show is weirdly paced. Sometimes the questions are just being read out without much chatting in between and then there suddenly is a weird pause where Günther Jauch is just not saying much or talking nonsense (e.g. He asked a challenger whether she’d like the category or not. She then didn’t really know what to say, so Jauch said “Well you have to take what you get, don’t you?” without any smiling, but with a weird melancholic sound that made everything a bit awkward and gave the impression he was a bit frustrated). He seems to be uncomfortable in this setting.
The change of question styles is confusing and the graphics are just okay, there is so much going on, if you know the rules, you like the graphics, if you don’t, you’re overwhelmed by everything.
Question difficulty is ranging between way too easy and tough but doable. Which is perfectly fine for me, it only makes sense to choose your category if there is a bit of luck integrated.
Ratings are in and I think they must be worse after the second episode, becaus they have been pretty great last night: 4.48 million viewers and 15.8% market share. 1.59 million viewers in the target audience and a share of 16.6% there.
Didn’t it have just a few more people watching in the US, a country that’s about four times the size?
The first season of 500 Questions averaged a 1.04 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 4.79 million total viewers. The second season of 500 Questions averaged a 0.75 rating in the 18-49 demographic with 4.243 million total viewers.
Which is not bad actually compared to the other networks; yes, there are many more people in the us, but infrastructure and scope of available shows differs as well ofcourse… The Voice and DWTS are the only non-scripted shows getting double digits in mln viewers.
The rules really are too complicated. I was trying to work them out as I went along, and counter-intuitively decided it would be nice if they explained at frequent intervals to the poor audience. I mean, if they can explain the rules to Pointless every episode, this game could certainly do with some straight to camera explanation.
In particular, it wasn’t clear to me what triggered the special rounds – were they random? Always the final question of each category? Do you lose if you get three in a row wrong, or also if you fail an entire category?
The pacing was, as you say, all over the place. When Jauch has a focused conversation with a contestant it can be good, but sometimes it felt forced, and other times there was just nothing happening. It very much depended on the contestant and challenger. The woman who challenged later in the show barely said a thing, for instance.
But as games go, it’s not bad. It needs some development. It needs to be completely transparent what the contestant is trying to achieve, and what the point of the challenger is. It wouldn’t hurt to pick up the pace at the start of a board too – just have the first question of each category answered in order, then we know which categories carry risk. Make the last one in each category act as the special round, and drop the bits that link with how far you are through the round as a whole because although it’s strategically interesting, it’s hard to follow. Maybe graphics would help for that? A track that shows you when something exciting is coming up? If it’s random, drop the randomness so there’s consistent pacing.
Assuming the American rule-set is the same:
1) You’re right, the rules are too complicated.
2) Special rounds are triggered at random, yes.
3) It’s bad in America as well. We have a Twitter feed that mockingly tracks how many questions they ask. In both seasons, they failed to reach 500 questions, even with a speed round in Season 2.
4) They’ve had two seasons to work on stuff. They need to develop this better/faster.
From what I saw, it’s using a mish-mash of both American seasons. They’re using the 30-question structure of Season 2, but with all the special question types of Season 1 (Battle (Duell), Top Ten Challenge (Liste), but I’ve not seen a Triple Threat yet). In the centre of the arches where the categories are, there’s 2 icons of a number 10 with a circle around them, which are Temporunde, which I believe are lightning rounds, but I have no idea when they’re triggered.
I think the Temporunde is triggered at random. It seemed like you couldn’t actively choose it, although it looked like it on the arches.
Trying to work out the logistics of how this series of Only Connect is 37 episodes. The last one was only 27 episodes so not sure what the new format is.
Well, Uni Chal has had a 37-episode format since the 2009/10 series… 😉
I can see why having series the same length can be beneficial but the UC format is so convoluted
Also, doesn’t that 37 episode run include two celebrity specials? So the Uni Chal format won’t map properly to OC, there are 35 episodes to consider.
Hopefully this means the return of the 3rd place play-off episode (which usually had the most difficult questions of the series), champion of champions and champions vs. contenders from another quiz show.
No celebrity episodes this series
If memory serves me correctly, last year there were two celebrity Only Connects (possibly one Sport Relief, one Comic Relief) and of the ten celebrity University Challenges aired at Christmas, two aired on Mondays adjacent to civilian Only Connects. Both celebrity Only Connects had Hugh Dennis on, which makes me think of Mock the Week Does Only Connect.
The celebrity specials would have been Comic Relief and Children in Need?
If they’re working on the same “the format is impossible to understand” (except it isn’t) shtick, then you can just about get to 37 matches by having double-elimination separately in each of the first three rounds and cheating ever so slightly:
FIRST PHASE (20 matches)
8 matches between 0-0 teams
8 teams 1-0, 8 teams 0-1
4 matches between 0-1 teams
8 teams 1-0, 4 teams 1-1, 4 teams 0-2 (eliminated)
4 matches between 1-0 teams
4 teams 2-0, 8 teams 1-1, 4 teams 0-2 (eliminated)
4 matches between 1-1 teams
4 teams 2-0, 4 teams 2-1, 4 teams 1-2 (eliminated), 4 teams 0-2 (eliminated)
QUARTER FINALS, STANDINGS RESET (10 matches)
4 matches between 0-0 teams
4 teams 1-0, 4 teams 0-1
2 matches between 0-1 teams
4 teams 1-0, 2 teams 1-1, 2 teams 0-2 (eliminated)
2 matches between 1-0 teams
2 teams 2-0, 4 teams 1-1, 2 teams 0-2 (eliminated)
2 matches between 1-1 teams
2 teams 2-0, 2 teams 2-1, 2 teams 1-2 (eliminated), 2 teams 0-2 (eliminated)
SEMI FINALS, STANDINGS RESET (5 matches)
2 matches between 0-0 teams
2 teams 1-0, 2 teams 0-1
1 match between 0-1 teams
2 teams 1-0, 1 team 1-1, 1 team 0-2 (eliminated)
1 match between 1-0 teams
1 team 2-0, 2 teams 1-1, 1 team 0-2 (eliminated)
1 match between 1-1 teams
1 team 2-0, 1 team 2-1, 1 team 1-2 (eliminated), 1 team 0-2 (eliminated)
GRAND FINAL (1 match)
1 match between 0-0 teams
WINNERS vs. CROSSWORDERS (1 match)
It’s a guess. It’s a ridiculous guess, but it’s at least somewhat plausible, if they’re trying to be ridiculous.
Or you could just copy UC’s tournament structure to match…
‘snot really the Only Connect way – they seem to prefer not to have to recruit too many teams, and they seem to like to give people more than one match. Here’s a wacky 37-show line-up that’s somewhat UC-esque:
22 (!!) teams start
11 matches between 0-0 teams
11 teams 1-0, 11 teams 0-1
11 winning teams qualify for round two, worst losing team eliminated
10 matches between 0-1 teams
5 teams 1-1, 5 teams 0-2 (eliminated)
Second round:
8 matches between qualifying teams, losing teams eliminated
This makes 24 matches and leaves 8 teams, so finish with the standard 13-episode 8-team format (10 matches of double elimination to reduce from eight teams to four, then straight semi-finals and final) from earlier series.
Or here’s another, even wackier, 22-team 37-match format:
1-11 one-eleventh finals
(Eleven matches, winners advance, five worst losers eliminated)
12-14 one-eleventh finals repechage
(six best losers play for three last spots)
15-21 one-seventh finals
(Seven matches, winners advance, worst losers eliminated)
22-24 one-seventh finals repechage
(six best losers play for three last spots)
25-29 one-fifth finals
(Five matches, winners advance, three worst losers eliminated)
30 one-fifth finals repechage
(two best losers play for last spot)
31-33 one-third finals
(Three matches, winners advance, worst loser eliminated)
34 one-third finals repechage
(two best losers play for semi-final spot)
35-36 semi-finals
37 final
…and I’ll stop now.
Or I’d ridiculous is the aim, what about eighteen teams, split into three groups of six teams.
Each group is split into two ‘halves’ of three teams each, where each team plays the three teams in the OTHER ‘half’ (but not each other).
I.e. Team A1 v B1; A1 v B2; A1 v B3;
A2 v B1; A2 v B2; A2 v B3;
A3 v B1; A3 v B2; A3 v B3;
That makes nine matches per group; repeat twice more for the other groups (so 27 heats)
The six ‘half’ winners (most wins, then points) go through to the ‘second round’ then split into two new ‘halves’ and play over nine more matches as each first round group
The winners of ‘second round’ half then compete against each other in the final. (so 27 heats + 9 second round matches + final)
I’m sure Only Connect only aired at 7:30pm the weeks Hive Minds aired at 8:30pm.
No, quite famously it was bumped for Nigella around Christmas.
Also, Hive Minds was on BBC Four; Only Connect by this point had moved to BBC Two. Nothing stopped them occupying the same slot, even if BBC may not have thought that desirable.
OC was originally scheduled to go out at the same time as UC! We suggested moving it forwards 30 minutes might be wise…
Hey guys, at the end of yesterday’s Countdown, it was announced that The Question Jury is starting Monday. That’s a pretty fast turnaround if you ask me…
Only two people on the planet understand the format of the new Only Connect series. Luckily our host is one, but sadly I am not the other.
All I can say is that it will all become clear in time. Around about March 2017.
Do we know much about The Question Jury starting tomorrow at 4pm on C4 (apologies if I’ve missed the obvious post!)
From the description it’s probably not been filmed with an audience so no surprise little info is available, but it sounds more promising than some recent C4 efforts:
GAME SHOW: The Question Jury
Seven strangers are locked in a jury room and must answer general knowledge questions unanimously to accumulate as much money as possible. They have the chance of winning up to £10,000, but only one of them will get to leave with the day’s total prize fund.