ITV gets format deja vu

So I came across this on the Broadcast website: http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/commissioning/itv-pilots-interactive-variety-show/5007511.article

It's a programme to be made by Celador and hosted by Stephen Mulhern, but there seems to be no acknowledgement that it's EXACTLY THE SAME SHOW (albeit with a much bigger cash prize), as Celador's old light-ent format, Talking Telephone Numbers, hosted by Phillip Schofield and Emma Forbes (and later Claudia Winkleman) in the '90s. I wonder why they haven't said this outright as, while the original didn't set the world on fire, it ran for quite a few series.

I once spent a day as a guest of Schofe and The Forbes (tm) on its set as part of a charity thing, and despite being only nine at the time, I was mobbed by teenaged girls on my way through the back gate who wrongly suspected me to be Darren Day (my parents drove a black Range Rover with tinted windows at the time; maybe that had something to do with it)! Later, the warm-up guy (who was far funnier than whatever P-list alleged comedian had been booked on the show) told the assembled audience that Darren Day was on the show, and some old biddy in the front row piped up: "Who's 'ee?" I suspect that now, much of the country is asking the same question!

Wasn't much the same format recycled as National Lottery Winning lines?

at least it kept the same host, well for the first year anyway. so this is Version No3? two more it will be done more times than Bobs full house,

Yes, arguably so, but reading the article, the format is "we use variety acts to obtain a set of numbers that if it matches your phone number, you can call in and win money" - which is not just similar to TTN and WL, it is TTN.

Why would they mention it? Lots of quiz and game formats have come back without any acknowledgement of the original - for example the many remakes of Bobs Full House, Everybody's Equal, Going For Gold etc

Because it's a Celador show - I could see another production company ripping it off and (obviously) not mentioning it, but this is somewhat different.

No company 'rips off' a format (well not without getting sued) so every remake is either made by the format owner or the owner has licensed it to the production company. In the case Going For Gold for example, it's a Grundy format and has since been remade at least 3 times by Grundy/FreemantleMedia since the original BBC1 version.

TV companies (and indeed any company) are reluctant to admit that their new big project is actually just an old one recycled... unless they can capitalise on the nostalgia aspect, which TTN doesn't really have

Holly Willoughby is ideal for the female role (if there is to be one) as she and Mulhern are a former Saturday morning pairing (like Phil and Emma were when they were re-paired after Going Live); ironically, I think Emma would have been a far superior choice to Holly on This Morning (she's not exactly swamped with TV work these days), but I digress!

Ah the Gameshow martharn that the only time I seen it happen.




I support Holly, as the choice,

Not really what I was getting at, they were brought back purely for the purpose of nostalgia

Now both Holly & Stephen have well and truly broken out of CITV, there definitely needs to be a show with them both on.

Do Celador still own the format to Talking Telephone Numbers? Didn't they flog it off with Who wants to be a Millionaire? and other shows?

Edit : Looks like it is owned by Sony.

You can view an almost complete episode (as well as some interesting clips and other complete shows here...
http://www.2waytraffic.com/business_lines/formats/talking_telephone_numbers