bye-bye Glitterball

My understanding is that last night was the last Glitterball under the ITV Play umbrella and that ITV Play will now be ‘Make Your Play’ only, which I think is rather sad as if I had to choose between the two I’d opt for Glitterball.

Last night I briefly watched Quiz Call which airs on C5, it looked (on first viewing) as a somewhat inferior product with a single host and answers being revealed by removing a sticky overlay (rather than any fancy electronics) the presenter though seemed characteristically upbeat and the game did feature some good ‘extras’ such as a period where callers could offer two answers for the price of one. On a non-scientific feel it looked like more callers and winners. The game I saw being played was for viewers to name children’s TV programmes.

Views on Participation TV? Either complete the survey or send an e-mail to ITVPlaysurvey@btopenworld.com

I’m putting together a list of characteristics/traits I’ve noted of the format which I’ll add during the week for comments and additions by you…

End of Glitterball samples

A couple more Glitterballs, (the last of the planned sample) that I’ve been going through and some points from them, the dates were Saturday 28th July and Friday 7th September. Both shows featured a single ‘stack’ a word to have another word (or words) joined to it with 6 or 7 possible answers (see illustration). The words wer BACK and HALF.

Both shows were hosted By Alex Kramer and Craig Stevens, the 7th September show was shorter than normal due to changed ITV programming as a result of the death of Pavarotti .

These were the first programmes that I’ve viewed that had commercial break in them making them more like conventional ITV fayre, the breaks were single ones and were at 33 minutes into the show (7th September) and 52 minutes in (28th July).
Some answers were repeated a lot (e.g. Backgammon 6 times on 28th July and Moon 7 times on the 7th September)

£3,300 was awarded in prizes on 7th September and £9,000 on the 28th July, on the 28th July there was nearly 2 and a half hours from the last winner until the end of the show, which to me seems rather a long time between winners.

Any comments? ITVPlaysurvey@btopenworld.com

More Glitterball

Further analysis of the content in ITV's late night participation slot brings to light more stats.

On Wednesday 22nd of August’s Glitterball featured Craig Stevens and Katy Pullinger, the show started off with a ‘Wordsearch’ containing boy’s names and the programme awarded £7,000 in prize money, call volumes dropped as low as ‘an average of 63 per minute’ which is quite a drop from the maximum which was over 1,200 per minute.

It’s interesting that even at low call volumes callers are getting through more to be ''on-air' than once (at least two repeat callers on this show) it would seem that the dedicated participants are going far beyond the ‘suggested’ (on-air) limit of 5 calls per show and perhaps somehow going beyond the 100 calls in ITV Play’s terms and conditions, that number of calls would be around £750 per session at the BT call rate.

Statistically it appears that from the show analysed about 60% of the callers were female but the ratio of female to male winners was 6 to 1, I will also look to see if the all male and all female presenters swayed the balance at all on the shows surveyed.
Again there were two on air callers who were questioned by the presenters about their age (being too young).

A Girly Glitterball

Having watched the boys night of ITV’s Make your Play, analysis of the girls night Glitterball was something I was not immediately drawn to but in the event of it I found it far more enjoyable than anticipated. Again Glitterball seems far closer (to me) to main stream entertainment than Make your play and it appears (again to me) that this is not jus a function of the amusing Craig Stevens.
The Girls night Glitterball I viewed was for the night of Tuesday 7th August going into the early hours of Wednesday 8th, the hosts were Alex Kramer and Yolly Kopel.
Yolly and Alex an be seen here in one of the amusing parts of the show of 7th/8th August here.

It was the first time I’d seen Yolly and like the other presenters she was very accomplished and able to think on her feet, like Craig and Alex she was also capable of being very amusing. The show featured a single game (a stack) where the word to be added to was Full ____ . the number of contestants calls that went to air was an unspectacular (but fairly average) 134 in the four programme, the money prizes awarded were low by Glitterball standards (£3,500) with 4 of the five winners being female.

One caller to air again appeared to be underage (she rang off after giving a less than thoroughly convincing date of birth). There was much interplay between the two girls and an element of hilarity when the cricketing term ‘Full Toss’ was offered as a possible answer.

I’m also now noting the time in the show where ITV2 viewers stop seeing the show and another difference from make your play in that presenters invite interplay with viewers on other topics than the games by asking for e-mails and then using some of these to help pad out the programme.

If you have a view on this type of programme drop a line to ITVPlaysurvey@btopenworld.com

What channel are you watching?

Another night and another Glitterball under the metaphorical microscope, this one was from Friday the 27th of July and on it Craig Stevens was assisted by Alex Kramer.

The show started off with 10p madness where contestants could call from a BT landline for only 10p (as opposed to the normal 75p) that lasted about 10 minutes.

The notable caller on this show was a caller who it turned out was watching Quiz Call on Channel 5 (the caller looking at the TV identified Craig as a girl) and gave a not surprisingly unsuitable answer to the question of Hot What ? in the Stack as Jukebox, other answers that fitted more with the theme (and were correct) were Coals and Temper.

The show had a good number of callers taken 'on air'(146), only 3 winners (all female) but still managed to give away £10,000 in prize money.
There were two calls that made it on air from Crazy Nige who I fear could be a bit annoying if you met him (but of course he might be absolutely charming).

I also note James Murdoch's views on the phenomena seen here -I take it from this that he's not a big an.

Any comments on the world of ITV Play or want to help me with my research - drop a line to ITVPlaysurvey@btopenworld.com

ITV'S Glitterball versus their Make Your Play

ITV has 2 participation programmes each of which runs for 3 days of the week for a duration of (usually) around 4 hours per night/early morning. Sunday night is a night off for the participants- presumably for their good behaviour.
Having spent some time analysing ITV’s Make your Play I’ve now moved on to Glitterball which does pretty much the same job as 'Play' on the remaining nights of the week; ostensibly it’s much the same mix of word quizzes and puzzles but to me so far I’ve enjoyed watching it far more than Make your Play I put this down to a mixture of factors, the principal ones being the programme seems to be more about enjoyment rather than just a 'for money' quiz, the show has more interplay with the participants and amongst the hosts, with more 'two handed' action.
I would also judge Craig Stevens as an amusing guy, who is a self deprecating performer and can bounce off his co-hosts well, in this case the former Eternal singer Kelly Bryan (who seems to have a variable spelling of her first name).
On the show of the 26th July 83 calls went through to the studio and £10,000 was awarded (6 winners) in prizes (far more than I’ve seen on Make your Play) call volumes dropped to as few as an average of 50 per minute which still make the odds of getting through pretty slim but a little less than astronomical.
Interesting point on the show in question was that an underage caller was turned away (I wonder if there are a similar proportion amongst the callers who do not get through), another all girl winners night too