[James2001]

you'd have the usual "Fred and Wilma are appearing in panto this year at the Bedrock theatre"

Yabba dabba doo!

[JAS84]

Yeah, the current episodes are re-runs from 2020, and of course the new series for Blankety Blank would follow the following calendar year.

That aside, I dare say not the first time some host promotes (accidentally or otherwise) something else they happen to be doing, in jest or otherwise, though it probably didn't happen very often back in the day - you'd have the usual "Fred and Wilma are appearing in panto this year at the Bedrock theatre" type of mentions though, which was the usual exception around the Christmas specials.

Maybe that episode is what tipped the BBC off that Brad wanted that job then.

[AaronLancs]

Maybe that episode is what tipped the BBC off that Brad wanted that job then.

Also doing Doctor Who made it slightly easier for him.

[Larry the Loafer]

Or there's just such a chronic shortage of talent who would be good enough for the job that Bradley was a favourite to get the gig by default.

[tellyblues]

The Xmas special for Blankety Blank was in 2020 so Bradley maybe could have known something at the time.

[Ash101]

Moneyball really isn’t 8pm on a Saturday night material. But then again I don’t think The Chase Celeb repeats should at 9pm. Poor schedule even by summer standards.

[JamieMurph25]

Moneyball really isn’t 8pm on a Saturday night material. But then again I don’t think The Chase Celeb repeats should at 9pm. Poor schedule even by summer standards.

I'm pretty surprised that Moneyball game show got recommissioned by ITV, with some tweaks.

[Brekkie]

If you have a central gimmick it needs to be visually interesting. Thought Rolling In It did a similar concept better yet that was axed with higher ratings.

[JMT1985]

ITV has a very bad summer prime time schedule for Saturday nights, they really have flown the white flag of surrender and are literally telling the viewers to find something else until September arrives.

These schedules takes me back to the early and mid 1990s growing up, when BBC One and ITV would be packed full of repeats during the summer season.

BBC One were usually the worst back then, with repeats of anything they could find to fill prime time.

I remember there was an interview with Michael Grade from around 1989, when he said come Easter every year, BBC One had largely run out of money, and for the following four months it was a bare bones schedule filled with repeats, imports, movies, sport and maybe if they were lucky some new material.

[Neil Jones]

If you have a central gimmick it needs to be visually interesting. Thought Rolling In It did a similar concept better yet that was axed with higher ratings.

I could argue "visually interesting" is relatively recent. Quite a few games of yesteryear didn't really have any interesting visuals, yet somehow managed to run for years. Maybe the audience has changed so much and now have the attention span of a gnat so it has to look pretty to be memorable.

Perhaps we're just in the space between a rock and a hard place with gameshows at the moment. If they look pretty, they don't last. If they don't look pretty, they also don't last. What do you do?