Yeah, Yeah, "A Few Days"

I know, I know - yet again, I say I'll be back in "a few days" and then disappear for over a week. I'm sorry. I did finally watch Splatalot - it's the Canadian version. It's also a Wipeout clone of the highest order.

Twelve kids each take a turn at facing a giant medieval themed obstacle course and its costumed "defenders", who make lame jokes and have names like "Gildar" and "Knightress". Hosts Jason Agnew and Matt Chin provide the required snarky commentary and little comedy bits.  After each kid takes a turn, the six with the fastest time move on to round two, which all six run at once - it's close to impossible to tell who's where, and having the defenders running around making lame jokes doesn't help. The first four contestants to finish round two advance to round three, and at the end of the show one of the kids reaches the finish line first and wins the game (no prizes, as far as I can tell) - followed, in the grand tradition of shows like this, by a "Splat Of The Day" segment. The end. All that's missing is a trademark sign-off of in the vein of "DON'T...GET...ELIMINATTTTEDDDD!" or "Good night...and big balls".

Of course there's nothing wrong with this - I'm sick of identical Wipeout clones, but I'm not this show's target audience anyway. My eight-year-old self would have thought this was amazing, and that's what matters.

If you're now saying "is there any kids game show your eight-year-old self would not have liked?", the answer is...probably not. I remember being seven years old and making a list of all the game shows on television, from best to worst. At the top of the list was Nick Arcade (a show I currently consider one of the worst game shows ever made), and at the bottom was "every adult game show in the world".

I was a really, really weird kid.

This will probably be my last post in July - maybe I'll post if there's absolutely massive news, but at the moment my heart isn't in this. I'll come back in August when I can find the season start dates.

Aaron

OK, Break Over

I am back for now, but I'll be updating this blog on an irregular schedule until I get myself back together and decide which day to do my weekly posts on. I wasn't planning on restarting this blog until August when I could track down the Fall 2012 season start dates, but I couldn't resist posting as I've apparently tracked down a piece of news no other game show blogger has found yet: July 17, three days after I am typing this, is the premiere of the new Nickelodeon game show...

That name may well sound familiar, as it's actually a kids Wipeout-type show (with a giant medieval themed obstacle course - get the title now?) that premiered in 2011 in Canada and has already aired in a fair number of other countries. It remains to be seen whether the episodes shown on Nickelodeon will be the original Canadian episodes, new episodes with American contestants, or Canadian episodes reshot to include American hosts in place of the originals (apparently, all three have happened). I will, of course, let you know which one it is in a few days after I watch the premiere.

A few other bits and pieces:

• If you're wondering why I titled my May 31 post "Have I Got News For You", it's because I was in London the next week and saw a taping of the topical comedy panel game show by that title. It was a lot of fun live!
• RIP Richard Dawson and RIP Jim Packard. There isn't a whole lot more I can say that hasn't already been said.
• As I say every year, I am going to try to hold off on posting any Fall 2012 season start dates until I have all of them. Of course, I usually end up failing at this, but I'll try again nonetheless. 

So...yeah. See you in a few days. Splatalot.

Aaron