In our on-going weekend series, the second stop on what NBC’s Deal or No Deal world tour should have been is the Australian version. The show began in 2003 as a primetime series with a top prize of $2,000,000. The next year the show was reformatted to a half hour daily edition for $200,000. It follows the same format as ours except it’s a lot more brighter, a lot more high energy, and contestants hold the cases as they do basically everywhere else on the planet. Take a look at some videos from the Australian take on the show.
Archive for the 'Australia' Category
With the second season of “American Gladiators” on the horizon, I figure it’s time we see how it’s done somewhere else. The Australian version has already had a gladiator ejected from a show. See the incident below:
A lack of news plus a lack of any time to update anything leads to nothing done around here. But hey, here’s a video of the Australian version of Power of 10 which was sadly canceled after just two episodes because of bad ratings. Check out their version.
Not to be remotely jingoistic, but hopefully we’ll get some American news soon. However, I’m sure some of you will enjoy some news and pictures about the new Australian revival of the hit show Gladiators. Seems like they are going for an even more British route than we did. However, a large amount of their Gladiators look like the casting department said, “Look at what the American Gladiators look like! Hey, I have an idea, let’s not be original. Let’s get people who look oddly similar and have many of the same themes.” Plus some of the names are downright crappy. Angel? Destiny? Sounds like a girl group reunion tour.
Their list of games puts ours to shame, though. They are basically getting a lot of the same events that we had, but they are including some great ones as well that we were missing, like Atlasphere. There are also some games which Americans might not be familiar with, like Pendulum, Sumo Ball, Suspension Bridge, and Vertigo. You can check out some pictures here.
And now the question to keep us all entertained. What events would you like to see come back for season two of NBC’s American Gladiators?
Of all shows that could come back in recent times, for some reason this one I never figured. There are talks that Channel 7, an Australian television station, is bringing back the hit quiz show Weakest Link. While it’s still going strong in England, it fizzled out practically everywhere else. A possible host is Gretel Killeen, who is the host of the Australian version of Big Brother. She is known for a sharp wit and tongue, and has not signed back onto the show for 2008. Sources are saying that the deal is basically done, so keep on the lookout.
I’d honestly really like to see a Weakest Link revival in America. I am a backstabbing show fan, yeah, but it was still a pretty good quiz show regardless. George Gray isn’t really doing that much recently it seems, I’m sure he’d come back given the opportunity. I have noticed, though, that there is a rather sizable group of game show fans who really do not like the show. Any particular reason (I’m just curious)?
The US version of Power of 10 isn’t doing too well right now. For some reason CBS insists on putting it against Deal or No Deal which is a steamroller at this point, but what do I know? I’m just a critic.
Despite this, Australia is going ahead with their version of Power of 10 for Channel 9. They will be offering $1,000,000 instead of $10,000,000. Note that we still have a potential syndicated version in the making (depending on how the rest of the primetime run goes), so their version will basically be how our syndicated edition will go.
Longtime quiz show host Eddie McQuire (who hosted Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and 1 VS 100) was actually not chosen. Instead, the host is Australia’s Today weatherman Steve Jacobs. He told TV writer Stephen Downie, “I don’t think it has sunk in, actually. While Jacobs described McGuire as “the master when it comes to quiz shows, he denied having taken tips from him. This show is a little bit more relaxed than other quiz shows. There is a bit more ad-libbing. It’s a really good vibe.”
Eight episodes have been ordered. Finally, another US export that we can be proud of.
A bit ago, when we announced Australia will have their own version of Power of 10, some people said Australia will never offer anywhere near that much money. Eddie MacGuire may have proved them wrong. It was announced today that Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, in Australia, will now be played every Monday night for 80 minutes and $5,000,000. This marks the most money given away in a regular season of Millionaire, not a series of specials such as Super Millionaire. This new edition of Millionaire will be completely live and give viewers a chance to win $10,000 each night.
“This is the most exciting show for me to come back on air with - I really enjoy Millionaire and to up the ante with the $5 million is great news,” McGuire said yesterday. This new version will start on Monday, October 22nd.
Good news for Australian Temptation fans. The US version might be a flaming piece of shit, but the Aussie version will be staying on the air. It will now be on Tuesdays through Fridays at 7PM, which means I’m guessing Millionaire will be Mondays at that time. All of these changes are under new Nine Network boss David Gyngell. I know we have some fans of those versions of the show here, as well as some Aussie readers, so at least you have a big of good news today.
Shocked by the headline? Trust me, I was too, and it may get even more shocking. GSN’s short-lived game show, Whammy!, has apparently been picked up in the Philippines and possibly many more countries. The show begins daily on GMA-7 starting on October 8th and is being hosted by Paolo Bediones and Rufa Mae Quinto. It seems like it will compete directly against their version of Deal or No Deal, but we will try to find out.
This part may be old or horribly made up, but who knows. In the release, it also says that United Kingdom, Taiwan, Australia, Germany, and Turkey bought the rights to air a local version. I know we have quite a few British and Australian readers, so be on the lookout. I’ve never heard of any other country getting this show, so this could possibly be from a few years ago and the contract expired. However, the way it’s worded is leading me to believe that our British friends might be getting their first ever taste of the Whammy.
How many fans of the GSN series of the show do we have here? It’s been running in the daytime recently on the network. The first season was god awful. However, the second season really started to click (with the exception of The Newtron 2000). Nice set, the money went up a bit, you could read the board, and the Big Bank was just cool. The only outstanding thing in any series to me were the Whammies. I just liked the CGI better than the cheesy 2D graphics. Plus I liked Whammy!’s car game.
Thanks to reader Dan M. for this link. The Australian edition of Temptation, which is being syndicated in the USA starting September 10th, has been canceled in favor of a weeknight return of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?. No word if it’s the good regular version or the “eh” new British edition. It will be on the shelf for at least the rest of the year, which means if daily Millionaire with returning host Eddie McGuire bombs, we might be seeing Temptation back on the air. The Millionaire season is to be 40 episodes currently. The decision to bring Millionaire back was necessary to “keep the rights to the show alive”, Nine sources said yesterday.
Source: Daily Telegraph
Bloomberg has announced that the host of the Australian version of 1 VS 100, Eddie McGuire, has resigned from his position of chief executive officer of Australian network Nine. Nine is set to lose its title as the most watched network to Seven partly because of their Dancing With the Stars and Desperate Housewives. McGuire currently hosts 1 VS 100 which is Nine’s most popular show and Australia’s 14th most popular show. Before becoming chief executive officer he was the host of Who Wants to be a Millionaire which is rumored to be coming back sometime later this year. McGuire is expected to play a bigger on air role than he previously did.
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