University Challenge

Much Paxman interest in the press in the last few days, some of it relating to the “revelation” (to some, the “shocking revelation”) in this week’s Radio Times that Jeremy Paxman failed to get onto his college’s University Challenge team. This has actually been known at least since 1994, when it was The One Big Thing that the same newspapers getting excited about it now zoned in on from the publicity surrounding his appointment as host.

More interesting to me is this Q&A, which got chopped out of the version of the Radio Times interview supplied to the churnalists:

Does there have to be a woman on the team?
I don’t think so – it seems to be a predominantly male activity, quizzing. I think you will find that the form of words in the letter we send to the student body says they should try to choose a team that is representative of their institution. This is code for “we would like to see some girls on the team”.

Actually, I think this bothers TV producers more than it bothers viewers. I don’t particularly care whether the contestants are male, female or other and I’ve never understood this idea that viewers want to see people on TV like themselves. (If I ever see anyone on telly who’s like me, I’ll sue.) In fact, I was actually a bit relieved when the last female-captained team got knocked out in the semi-finals last year, simply because the media interest in winning female captains is really creepy. I mean, really really really creepy. It’s not the producers’ fault, but for some reason (and let’s face it, youth is a factor) that show just attracts the wrong sort of attention. Not that the contestants themselves are likely to have their heads turned by the media circus – heck, almost by definition they’re going to be smarter than that – but it’s not something I find pleasant to witness. Um… anyway, none of this changes the fact that it’s probably the best quiz show on television, and it’s back on Monday, so hurrah!

Go go go Jenn Turner!

Since my semi-abandoned blog seems to be one of the top search results for Jen Turner + Quiz Trippers, let me head off your queries by saying that no, I’m not THAT Jen Turner. But here’s hoping she wins/won the show anyway!

So… if you came here looking for her, you’ll probably want to go and look at her Facebook page instead.

Tell her Jen Turner sent you and make her paranoid. (Actually, don’t do that. She seems really nice.)

Great game show gimmicks (UK)

Hello again!

This came up on a news feed: 7 of the greatest game show gimmicks of all time. It’s a list from a US perspective, which leads me to ponder: what would a UK equivalent look like? (Quick, efficient set-up, yeah?)

I reckon the major criteria are that the gimmick has to be fairly original, and has to have improved the show’s chances of being a hit. A few spring to mind, in no particular order:

1. The Lifelines on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Turned a simple multiple-choice quiz into one of the world’s most successful TV formats. Sure, there were a lot of other elements that fell into place as well, but without the lifelines, well, it just wouldn’t be the same show.

2. The flight simulator on Krypton Factor. True, Krypton Factor was still a great show before the flight simulator was introduced, and it was still quite good when revived without it. And it had plenty of other iconic elements – but the flight simulator was just Really Really Cool.

3. The conveyor belt on The Generation Game. It was a simple prop for a simple game, but everyone remembers it. The constant presence of a cuddly toy helped.

4. The spotlit chair on Mastermind. It’s just a chair (well actually it’s a quite upmarket designer chair) but stick it under a spotlight in a darkened room and… whoa! Instant terror!

5. The not-strictly Geordie but near-enough narrator on Big Brother. It was an all-conquering format anyway, but even if most people would struggle to put a name to the voice, Marcus Bentley’s undisguised (and often played-up) Teesside tones gave the show a distinct personality, and the entire country a target for bad impersonations.

6. Using an actual, dangerous weapon on The Golden Shot. It’s an actual real-life crossbow, the most feared and deadly weapon of the early middle-ages! On live TV! Quite frankly, an absolutely insane idea.

7. Anne Robinson being nasty to the contestants on Weakest Link. It’s a pretty good format and doesn’t really need gimmicks like this, but it’s what the viewing public latched onto. Bizarre that her persona here is almost the complete opposite of her other big quiz show, Test The Nation.

And a bonus gimmick that never quite took off:

8. Swotting up on someone else’s specialist subject. Introduced in The Syndicate, became the basis for Swapheads, and was played for laughs in Don’t Call Me Stupid. None of these shows made it to a second series, but someday, somehow, someone’s going to make a success out of this one.

Any more suggestions? There could be a “Good Game Guide” (or, um, “Article”) in this…

Quite interesting

A couple of things found on the interweb tubes:

Firstly, John Lloyd and John Mitchinson talk to The Big Issue aboutQI, and they’re hugely enthusiastic about knowledge and curiosity. Some great quotes from them both:

Mitchinson:

What [the education system] rewards isn’t much more than having a retentive memory. There’s a terrible moment around the age of eight when a child learns that it’s a more successful strategy to pretend to know things than to go on asking questions.

Lloyd:

No child should, even for an hour, go to a lesson where they don’t learn something amazing. Every child ought to go to school singing and jumping and go home telling their friends they learned something extraordinary today about whatever –atomic physics, Greek philosophy or how frogs walk.

I haven’t always been entirely convinced by the product (and there was certainly a phase when it seemed the show was focussed more on piddling points of pedantry than interesting facts) but the philosophy behind the show I find highly admirable. Mitchinson and Lloyd (the one-syllable name always goes last, it just sounds better that way) are the anti-Victoria Coren(s), and more power to them.

That article in full: This issue is a BIG issue

And a curiosity. Which hit UK game show is looking for Saudi national women fluent in Arabic?

Click here to find out!

Oddities from the wide world of the world wide web

The South Wales Echo profiles Gilbert Harding on the 50th anniversary of his death:

When grumpy Gilbert’s dying wish came true

And Bernard Davies, who once held the record as Britain’s biggest TV game show prizewinner (the article says £6,000, UKGS has it down as £5,800) has died:

Bernard Davies obituary

Apologies

…for not posting in ages but frankly, nothing’s struck me as worth posting about in ages. Blah. Blah blah blah.

Strictly Come Dancing

It’s been confirmed that Strictly Come Dancing is to return to having a Saturday night main show with a Sunday night results show.

Idiots.

Unless the results show is also live… which would explain why Brucie isn’t doing it (Tess and Claudia will be hosting). Still a bad move though, and with the other changes to the format, this isn’t going to rescue the show. The launch show also won’t be live, but recorded three days before broadcast, thus negating the point of having one. It’s supposed to be a big reveal of the celebrities – it’s not going to be much of a reveal after all the details have been in the papers and all over the web, is it? BBC Strictly Paul write on the Strcitly Come Dancing blog:

We’re excited to let you know that we will announce this year’s celebrity line-up on Wednesday 8th of September, the day that we film our brand new red carpet Launch Show.

We’ve seen a few of you comment that you’re a little concerned about the fact that you may find out who’s being partnered with who, and it won’t be a surprise on the night. Rest assured, we’re working with the press to make sure that these details aren’t reported until the show airs on Saturday 11th – and of course, we will be asking the studio audience to please keep it to themselves as not to spoil it for anyone.

Well that’s a load of guff, isn’t it? Basically, Strictly Come Dancing is suffering from bad decision after bad decision. This could well be the year the ratings finally collapse.