The TV Gameshow Thread - Printable Version
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RE: The TV Gameshow Thread - tellyblues - 15-01-2024
There was Go For It in 2016 which was similar to You Bet but it was just people performing tasks and then if they completed them they were given money. I say just but in any show there needs to be enough going on and at stake for people to want to watch. With You Bet, there was the betting and charity elements which made things more interesting.
Why The Crystal Maze flopped - a variety of reasons. It started off with celeb specials which as I've said before undermines a format and people may not want to watch because of certain celebs, then when it was the general public's chance to have a go, it wasn't really the general public as it was teams of people who already knew each other. While this can help with team spirit which makes good TV, the common bond can put viewers off if it's as was the case staff from a Pizza Hut or an AC/DC tribute band, both narrow points of reference for most people, whereas teams of contestants used to be far more diverse so could appeal to more viewers.
Scheduling was another problem and there is more competition at 9pm whatever day of the week than at 6pm and where the original show thrived and people may not want to watch The Crystal Maze at 9pm anyhow so that was a mistake. Also, a good chunk of the original show's audience were kids and that could still have been the case but putting the show on so late meant that audience would never got a chance to watch it.
RE: The TV Gameshow Thread - Brekkie - 15-01-2024
I think in short they probably relied too much on the nostalgia, especially in the scheduling of it, rather than making it for today's audience.
It also didn't seem to get much of a life beyond it's original airings and any narrative repeats - indeed going back to the original and IIRC I became a fan by watching the summer holiday repeats rather than the original airings.
RE: The TV Gameshow Thread - Neil Jones - 15-01-2024
(15-01-2024, 08:02 AM)Brekkie Wrote: I think in short they probably relied too much on the nostalgia, especially in the scheduling of it, rather than making it for today's audience.
It also didn't seem to get much of a life beyond it's original airings and any narrative repeats - indeed going back to the original and IIRC I became a fan by watching the summer holiday repeats rather than the original airings.
I don't remember seeing the summer repeats, I saw the show first time round, when it went out at 8:30pm.
There was too much wrong with the revival to be honest to be plausible, it was too rigid a format. The original show worked because if you were super smart and burnt through games like there was no tomorrow, it just freed up time for another game or two at the end and made it look more realistic. Which is what happened in at least one episode. Most teams got 14/15 games, one got 16. Not that it helped them in the dome but...
Though that argument falls down because they faffed around with the format when Ed Tudor-Pole came along, and those teams just got 13 games each. So I have to presume when it was revived they thought that's what they'll carry on.
RE: The TV Gameshow Thread - tellyblues - 15-01-2024
It's A Knockout
Knightmare
Scavengers
Fort Boyard
Ice Warriors
The Moment of Truth
Jailbreak
Robot Wars
Techno Games
Or is it Man O Man that gets rebooted?
RE: The TV Gameshow Thread - MorganLamia - 15-01-2024
(15-01-2024, 11:05 AM)tellyblues Wrote: Ice WarriorsConsidering that they revived already not that long ago and it seemed very well received, but they axed it not long after anyway... I doubt it. Although I would love to see it. It worked really well; seeing how far technology has progressed since the original show's run. People have the tech and knowledge to make some really impressive stuff at home these days. Dara Ó Briain and Angela Scanlon were great hosts too.
Robot Wars
Ice Warriors - I only have vague memories of it, but I remembered enjoying it a lot as a kid. What's not to love? It was essentially Gladiators on ice, even cheesier, and medieval fantasy characters.
I'm surprised that it did so poorly, judging by how quickly it ended and from what I was reading about it yesterday, coincidently. It seems next to impossible to find any full episodes of it online. Even clips are few and far between. (And of course they're only parts containing Dani Behr...) There isn't much info online either.
Random fact - One of the Ice Warriors, Tyron the Deceiver visited my primary school at the time. I had my photo taken with her and was given a promo pic of her character. I still have it somewhere... A quick Google tells me that she's from my home city, so I guess her visit makes full sense now, after all of these years. 😆 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammy_Sear
RE: The TV Gameshow Thread - msim - 15-01-2024
Didn't the Crystal Maze revival also suffer criticism because of the host mocking the format too? The couple episodes I tried to watch felt a bit like that, plus what seemed like a load of D-list celebrity specials again treating the whole thing like a joke.
As for further potential revivals what about Treasure Hunt?
It ended in 1989 and the brief 2002 revival was so out of place and lost in daytime BBC Two so I doubt it made that much of an impression either way. It has plenty going for it as a format - never really ever imitated so could look fresh, a race against the clock, showing off the UK's places of interest, potential for your local place of interest to be visited and with a strong engaging location host that the public want to see could work well.
Downsides are more to do with technological advancement and society changes since the the 80s. Would audio only communication work in an age of 5G video calls? Are helicopters too environmentally unfriendly? When the internet has the answer to anything, would using reference books be seen as twee? The 2002 revival used Encyclopaedia Britannica on CD-ROM but even that is old fashioned now. Are bookish middle-class and middle aged contestants the type of person the modern viewer wants to watch win a prize?
RE: The TV Gameshow Thread - Neil Jones - 15-01-2024
I'm pretty sure Robot Wars was a thing before it became a TV show, though I don't know what happened to that after the TV show ended.
Its a Knockout was revived for Channel 5.
Knightmare, well that was revived in 2013 for YouTube's Geek Week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74r-EbIqt9s
Fort Boyard has had a few incarnations, most recently for CITV as Ultimate Challenge, though its still a thing in France I believe.
Scavengers flopped first time round and was relegated to daytime TV to burn it off. Apparently the set cost a fortune.
RE: The TV Gameshow Thread - Andrew - 15-01-2024
(15-01-2024, 11:01 PM)msim Wrote: Downsides are more to do with technological advancement and society changes since the the 80s. Would audio only communication work in an age of 5G video calls? Are helicopters too environmentally unfriendly? When the internet has the answer to anything, would using reference books be seen as twee? The 2002 revival used Encyclopaedia Britannica on CD-ROM but even that is old fashioned now. Are bookish middle-class and middle aged contestants the type of person the modern viewer wants to watch win a prize?
I think you’ve basically summed up why Treasure Hunt wouldn’t work.
It’s bad enough during the treasure hunt week on The Apprentice where they can’t use the internet or phones, it would really stand out if it was the entire format.
RE: The TV Gameshow Thread - Jon - 15-01-2024
I’m not sure bringing up a tried and tested week on a long running popular show helps to prove the point.
I’m not sure Treasure Hunt would work either, but surely complaining it wouldn’t be realistic if they didn’t have the internet is like complaining they can’t Google the answers on University Challenge.
RE: The TV Gameshow Thread - Andrew - 15-01-2024
(15-01-2024, 11:40 PM)Jon Wrote: I’m not sure bringing up a tried and tested week on a long running popular show helps to prove the point.
I’m not sure Treasure Hunt would work either, but surely complaining it wouldn’t be realistic if they didn’t have the internet is like complaining they can’t Google the answers on University Challenge.
Well no because that’s a general knowledge quiz. Having to search through a bookcase of old reference books would just look out of place. Unless it was deliberately meant to be and aired on BBC Two, then it might work.
And I know The Apprentice is popular but it still has many format holes. I’m not the only one who thinks that.