Blockbusters to be revived by Comedy Central

Lots of comedians/comedy actors have presented 'straight' game shows though haven't they? Roy Walker, Bob Monkhouse, Alexander Armstrong instantly spring to mind, but I'm sure there are many more. (Paddy McGuinness and Paul O'Grady too)

Comedians often have quick wits which means they can be great choices for hosts, rather than being chained to a prompter or a script.

Dara has a presenting CV as well as a stand-up CV too - Stargazing Live, Robot Wars, Go 8-bit, Dara's School of Hard Sums etc. and use to be a kids presenter in Ireland. He's got a strong academic background - so is a good choice for a more academic quiz like Blockbusters.

The press release states:-

Make of that what you will.

Any programme that boasts about how funny it is typically isn't funny.

Oh, well - that's Blockbusters.

I'm surprised you've left out The Apprentice: You're Fired which I think has the same sort of atmosphere they'd be aiming for. A light ribbing of the contestants rather than full on comedy.

Not a bad choice of host. Whether he will be as good as Bob Holness remains to be seen. Holness wasn't particularly a veteran of TV presenting even when Blockbusters came along, he was more of a radio personality though the show's success opened more doors for him TV wise.

The press release also states




Really??? I can think of several channels which would have been a much better home than Comedy Central!

Surely Thames would want it to get good viewing figures so that it will last, and I can't see that happening with it being on Comedy Central (unless is gets repeated on Channel 5).

I wouldn't rule out the show moving to Channel 5 completely at some point.

It’s going to fly completely off the radar then and most people won’t even know it exists.

What's Comedy Central's average audience figures? I imagine this will not rate very well, deeming it to be considered a failure and cancelled. If Channel 5 got it first with repeats on Comedy Central or something it would give the show a better chance of survival. They've ordered two series to be made back to back. Methinks it will be the only two series they make.

I suspect this will do a lot better on VOD services than on the linear Comedy Central which has 0.43% audience share. (August 2018).

Ah, so it's a 'drag up a successful old gameshow, give the host role to a comedian and play the whole thing for laughs' job.

Has potential to be the worst version of Blockbusters yet.

I just hope Challenge opportunistically take on another series of vintage Blockbusters to repeat around the same time. That's the only positive that might come from this.

Only 20 episodes commissioned across two series, so I'm guessing they're not looking to strip it daily. Frankly though whichever channel it ended up it's return didn't exactly excite me.