[Nobby]

The best outcome would be for this to result in 'subtitles'  being made available to everyone or no one and for that to be codified in the rules. The mistake here was for the production to agree to an unreasonable adjustment.

Try this, watch the first cash builder on The Chase, see how many questions you get right before the answer is revealed on the show. Now watch the second cash builder with subtitles, it's so much easier because you can probably skim read the question in your head much quicker than Bradley Walsh reads it out loud. That extra thinking time makes a big difference, or maybe I'm just neurodivergent or maybe everyone is.

I'm not sure I'd be that happy to be on a quiz show and find out that another contestant gets to see the questions written down if that option wasn't available to me.

[bilky asko]

The best outcome would be for this to result in 'subtitles'  being made available to everyone or no one and for that to be codified in the rules. The mistake here was for the production to agree to an unreasonable adjustment.

Try this, watch the first cash builder on The Chase, see how many questions you get right before the answer is revealed on the show. Now watch the second cash builder with subtitles, it's so much easier because you can probably skim read the question in your head much quicker than Bradley Walsh reads it out loud. That extra thinking time makes a big difference, or maybe I'm just neurodivergent or maybe everyone is.

I'm not sure I'd be that happy to be on a quiz show and find out that another contestant gets to see the questions written down if that option wasn't available to me.

Live subtitling, or at least subtitling revealed at a speed analogous to Amol Rajan's speaking speed, would likely eliminate that advantage.

[RhysJR]

This feels like it's almost as much as an annual tradition as anything else, but there is complaints once again that the University Challenge entry process is 'biased', 'elitist' and 'breaching the BBC's impartiality' by allowing multiple Oxbridge entrants rather than just two like many other institutions. I get where Prof. Coffield is coming from, but I don't really have much issue with allowing multiple Oxbidge entrants as long as the same process can be possible for others (like below); and the language used is quite sensationalist (breaching impartiality is a little OTT).

Ironically it's two institutions of the University of London instituitons competing tonight, another university that is allowed multiple entrants, but not many complain about that funnily enough. I think the same was true of the University of Wales before its demise, and likely is true for others organisations.

www.theguardian.com 

BBC called to defend ‘elitist’ format of University Challenge | University Chall…
Professor complains that show’s Oxbridge bias is even more pronounced in …
  Source: www.theguardian.com

The full list of teams and relevant alumni for the next few weeks:
Just the one Oxbridge entrant remains after the episodes with the accessibility issues were lost. Four from London though.
www.bbc.co.uk 

Festive cheer and intellectual prowess unite in the University Challenge Christm…
The University Challenge Christmas Special Series starts on BBC Two and iPlayer …
  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

[Brekkie]

Have ratings been affected at all by the change of host?

[RhysJR]

One noticeable change from Amol's first regular series to the later Christmas series is that the screen that he reads the questions from is now flat and not sticking out of the desk. He has also has a new smaller chair.

up.metropol247.co.uk 

x.com 

And a birdseye view of the set.

x.com 

[Steve in Pudsey]

The original chair looks like it's borrowed from Countdown

[VMPhil]

Getting rid of the “chimney chute” might look better, but can’t imagine it will do his neck any good hunching over like that.

Couldn’t he have a laptop like on Pointless?

[Brekkie]

Getting rid of the “chimney chute” might look better, but can’t imagine it will do his neck any good hunching over like that.

Couldn’t he have a laptop like on Pointless?

Or perhaps even one that works. A tablet is the best equivalent to a question card really.

I've not seen an episode with him yet but from those shots him looking over to the side looks odd. I get from the shot of the set that is where the contestants are but surely you turn the desk so it doesn't look so awkward.

[Neil Jones]

Getting rid of the “chimney chute” might look better, but can’t imagine it will do his neck any good hunching over like that.

Couldn’t he have a laptop like on Pointless?

I presume you are aware the laptop on Pointless doesn't actually work, or at least it didn't in the Osman days?

[VMPhil]

I presume you are aware the laptop on Pointless doesn't actually work, or at least it didn't in the Osman days?

I am aware, thanks. My point, that I thought was clear but apparently is not, was that if Pointless are allowed to have a laptop on screen, why can't UC. Surely it's preferable to the "chimney chute" that looked like a '90s enclosure for a CRT, and to the presenter of the programme suffering from iPad-neck. Even if he isn't operating it, using it as a screen to show him the questions would look better. That was my point.