TV Home Forum

Challenge - June 2016 onwards

#ChallengeAccepted (June 2016)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
JA
james-2001
Sounds like they're using the edits made in the later days Virgin owned the channel rather than getting new tapes.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Not quite understanding Challenge's editing policy today. Decided to stick Family Fortunes on and it's an episode presumably from around the turn of the millennium. The title sequence was halved, all of the contestant introductions were cut... But they've left in a bit where Les and one of the families start singing a Rolf Harris song.


They're Virgin edits. Family Fortunes suffered a lot from this as did the entire run of Paul Daniels Wipeout and random Bullseye episodes (typically Series 11 and later).

For whatever reason they can't or won't get the unedited prints/files. Maybe Virgin just edited them and Sky after the buyout didn't get (or can't find) the original files and it's probably not cost effective to get new ones just to replace five minutes of programme.
PF
PFML84
In an episode I watched recently (it was the brown set so I'm assuming that was late 80's?) one of the contestants gave the answer of "Jimmy Saville" to Name a popular Irish entertainer. Surprised it wasn't cut, though it was quickly moved on from. I imagine if Les did an impression or made a joke that would have been cut.

132 days later

JB
JasonB
I see from trailers Challenge are having their annual Chase marathon from 12pm on Christmas Eve.
BR
Brekkie
I see from trailers Challenge are having their annual Chase marathon from 12pm on Christmas Eve.

By annual I assume you mean weekly.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
I can't remember the last time I watched Challenge now in all honesty. The schedule is so bland and repetitive. But they seem to have found some money down a sofa somewhere and gone off to buy some Dara Ó Briain episodes of Robot Wars and these will appear December 23rd according to a EPG search.
DE
DE88
Easy to say I know, but if I was in charge of Challenge right now I'd get Countdown back in the schedule. And the Krypton Factor. And Bob's Full House...
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
DE88 posted:
Easy to say I know, but if I was in charge of Challenge right now I'd get Countdown back in the schedule. And the Krypton Factor. And Bob's Full House...


They had all them. And they got rid of them again because apparently they didn't rate well enough. Which may have more to do with the fact they tended to buy earlier "work in progress" series which tend to be a bit rough around the edges. Treasure Hunt didn't really catch on until its third series, Krypton Factor everybody only remembers the Art Of Noise years anyway and seem surprised that it had been on air for ten years prior.
:-(
A former member
There tried buy other older series for other show, and Challenge got flack for not getting original series. Challenge moved the series around but again nothing picked up compared to WWTBAM or The Case. It just can;t win. Wheel of fortunes and Strike it lucky does seem to do well, and there did buy S1 of blockbusters and Sky 1994 series.
IN
Interceptor
DE88 posted:
Easy to say I know, but if I was in charge of Challenge right now I'd get Countdown back in the schedule. And the Krypton Factor. And Bob's Full House...


They had all them. And they got rid of them again because apparently they didn't rate well enough. Which may have more to do with the fact they tended to buy earlier "work in progress" series which tend to be a bit rough around the edges. Treasure Hunt didn't really catch on until its third series, Krypton Factor everybody only remembers the Art Of Noise years anyway and seem surprised that it had been on air for ten years prior.

Did they have an early series of The Krypton Factor recently? I know in the first couple of years of Sky ownership they had the last 2 series, the latter of which was more or less a completely different programme.
JB
JasonB
DE88 posted:
Easy to say I know, but if I was in charge of Challenge right now I'd get Countdown back in the schedule. And the Krypton Factor. And Bob's Full House...


They had all them. And they got rid of them again because apparently they didn't rate well enough. Which may have more to do with the fact they tended to buy earlier "work in progress" series which tend to be a bit rough around the edges. Treasure Hunt didn't really catch on until its third series, Krypton Factor everybody only remembers the Art Of Noise years anyway and seem surprised that it had been on air for ten years prior.

Did they have an early series of The Krypton Factor recently? I know in the first couple of years of Sky ownership they had the last 2 series, the latter of which was more or less a completely different programme.


They used to show 86-93 series of the Krypton Factor under different management.
WO
Worzel
All of these classic shows used to air on Challenge...

Adventure Game
Interceptor
Strike It Lucky/Rich
All Clued Up
Crosswits
Give us a Clue
Win, Lose or Draw
Wipeout (both the Paul Daniels and Bob Monkhouse eras)
Celebrity Squares
You Bet!
Blockbusters
Gladiators
Bob's Full House
Krypton Factor
Countdown
100%
Whittle

They even had a time when they aired Aunties Bloomers of all things!

Sadly, I don't think Challenge will ever screen half of these again, even though they did have the rights to them.

I'd love to see Challenge go back to its 90s roots and bring back Prize Time etc, but I think those days are long gone (I always wanted a Challenge TV phone - remember those?).

Newer posts