Hello!

So it looks like the mystery raised in my last post has now been solved: the ABC has announced an upcoming news quiz show called Win The Week, hosted by Alex Lee and Craig Reucassel. 

That’s them there.

It’s being billed as “a test of news knowledge and loyalty, where everyday Aussies must know the news and betray their teammates to win.”

Apparently, each episode will see three teams of two players go head-to-head over four rounds. Each team has an everyday Aussie as Team Captain and a celebrity who’ll both need to work together to win. But team loyalties will be tested at the end of each round with the “Stay or Betray” dilemma – one Team Captain must decide whether to stay with their celeb teammate or to betray them and swap to a different celeb from another team… in order to Win the Week!

If you’d like to know more details, the show’s full media release is right HERE.

I think this all sounds really promising – a new, light-hearted, inclusive, fun show, an original Australian concept, and really good talent on both sides of the camera. Here’s hoping it’s a hit!

If it sounds like the sort of show you’d like to compete on, you can still apply to be a contestant by sending an email to quizcontestants@abc.net.au

I wish you – and indeed them – every success!

Today, HowToWinGameShows.com is 8 years old! How about that – who would have thought?

Probably not me. Back in 2013, when I posted the first-ever entry here, entitled Well, here goes!, I had no idea if this concept could possibly sustain a regular blog. I remember how nervous I felt as I set up the site, and how vulnerable I felt when I finally hit that “Post” button for the first time. This silly little idea of mine was now OUT IN THE WORLD. This was all new to me, and exciting – I liked the idea of a blog on this subject as a fun little hobby. I’d spent a bit of time on an online blogging course. Game show tips, information and stories was a ‘niche market’, as they say, but I figured I had nothing to lose. I knew a few people who’d been on game shows, I knew a few people who worked in the industry; maybe they’d chat to me, and this could be a place where we could share their stories, tips and hints with a wider audience. I’d share my stories, my tips and hints too, of course, and maybe some future contestant, somewhere out there, might find some of it useful. Worst-case scenario, it’d fizzle out, and I could look back on it as a fun little experiment.

But it didn’t fizzle out.

A year after that first post, the blog celebrated its first birthday. 52 weeks after that was birthday number 2. Another 365 days passed, and suddenly the site was three years old. March 14th 2017 saw the site turn four, and 12 months after that it was five – well, you get the idea.

For a long time, I thought I had to post every week, no matter what. Not sure why I thought that – some weeks there’s naturally more content than other weeks. A streak of stubbornness, I suppose. I’ve mellowed a bit now, and my policy is to post when I have something (hopefully) interesting to share with you.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for your feedback, your contributions, and, as always, your support.

Cheers!

Stephen

Yes, yes. Bender Bending Rodriguez (Bending Unit 22, Unit Number 1729, Serial Number 2716057) is right.

Mark Zuckerberg has finally, FINALLY come to his senses and restored all the posts to the HowToWinGameShows Facebook page.

I bet he was probably having sleepless nights. It must have taken a heavy toll on old MZ. He had to eventually crack; I mean, he’s only human. I bet he woke up screaming yesterday, simply unable to bear any more of the crushing, soul-deadening, bone-aching sheer MORTIFICATION

of mildly inconveniencing the 82 people who follow it.

Oh, and I guess perhaps the 11th hour deal with the Australian government and various media organisations might have had something to do with it, too.

Either way, the HTWGS Facebook page is now BACK, so you can triumphantly go there and get all the latest HTWGS news that’s just directly copied off this blog anyway…

The news that also automatically pops up on Twitter and LinkedIn as soon as it pops up here…

Hm.

What was I worried about again?

Hello, just a quick one today to let you know that Facebook seems to have removed all of my posts from the HowToWinGameShows.com Facebook page.

(https://www.facebook.com/Howtowingameshows/)

It looks like they’ve decided I fall under the category of “Australian News”, and so… that’s it. Nearly 8 years’ worth of posts over there just… suddenly… gone. I guess the Facebook posts were mainly just duplicates of the information here, and it’s not as if the page has TONS of followers, but it still made me sit up and take notice. Am I, technically, “Australian news”? Maybe I am.

But am I, though?

This ongoing stoush between Facebook and the Australian media (and government) does seem to keep evolving and changing, so I’ll monitor developments and keep you updated.

What do you think? Should HowToWinGameShows.com be part of Facebook’s blanket ban on Australian news? Is what they’ve done fair enough?

Or is it another classic example of Zuckerberg Overreach*?

Please let me know – either in the comments here, or over on Twitter. I’d love to know what you reckon!

* Zuckerberg Overreach = overenthusiastic censorship, NOT an obscure amateur mountain-climbing maneuver.

Hello! Just a quick post this week to heartily, heartily recommend a new podcast created by two young friends of mine; the brilliant comedy writers and performers Andy Matthews and Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall.

It’s called The Pop Test, and if you’re in Australia, you can listen to it on ABC Radio National, and if you’re anywhere else in the world, you can listen to it as a podcast. (You can listen to it as a podcast if you’re Australia too, obvs.)

The Pop Test is a fast-paced – and very funny – half-hour quiz show covering various subjects in science. The questions are difficult and often abstruse, but Andy and Alasdair’s brilliant gag-writing and improvisation make the time fly by, and there are always a lot of laughs to be had. Each week, they welcome a different group of comedians, and a lot of the fun comes from listening to these guests struggle to answer the tricky, esoteric questions – or at least come up with amusing bluffs or tangents.

I suspect this is very much an ‘iceberg show’ – I’d estimate that nine-tenths of the work is below the surface. The breezy half-hour swings by so quickly that you don’t always realise just how thoughtful, surprising and expertly crafted Andy and Alasdair’s jokes are. The way they formulate the questions, the way they reveal the answers, the way they introduce the players and the way they explain the game… if you listen carefully, you’ll realise just how well written these elements are. You’re never more than a couple of seconds away from a really clever gag. And when you add the hosts’ great improvisational skills, and that panel of funny people in the contestants’ seats, you’re onto a real winner!

So there you go. The Pop Test; on ABC Radio National, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do yourself a favour. Along the way, you might even learn a thing or two about science that could serve you well in future quizzes…

Aaaand that’s it for this week. (I told you it was a quick post.)

See you next time!