Hello everyone, and apologies for not posting for the last fortnight. I’ve been on a family holiday to the USA, so other priorities have been front and centre of late. But now I’m back, rested, refreshed and raring to launch back into serving you here at HowToWinGameShows.com, so let’s get into it.

With the latest edition of The Game Show News…

From the UK version of Big Brother, comes this great story; After 58 Days, The ‘Big Brother’ Housemates Realise They’re In A Game Show. And sadly, that’s not a joke headline. I’m guessing the UK BB contestants won’t end up spending those cash winnings on Mensa memberships…

Here in Australia, there’s been a bit of a buzz about an Australian version of The Chase, which has been so successful for ITVStudios in the UK and America. Local (and, by the way, excellent) blog tvtonight.com.au broke this story on this on July 3rd, and then again on July 6th, when they reported that Andrew O’Keefe (ex-Deal Or No Deal) is rumoured to be its host. .. It was also reported in the mainstream newspaper and website The Daily Telegraph. Even Jake, a regular visitor to howtowingameshows.com, seems to have done a bit of homework on this… And while nothing has been announced officially just yet, I think that in this case it’s safe to say ‘where there’s smoke, there’s fire’… So watch this space!

Still in Australia, a couple of Millionaire Hot Seat stories. Firstly, this one about Gerard Lane, an actor who won $541,000, which is the largest prize amount ever won on this version of the show. In amongst the advice from the show’s host Eddie McGuire to Gerard, (“Just buy a house”), and what Gerard’s up to now, I was struck by a couple of elements of Gerard’s character that I can really relate to:

1) He’s an actor, and 2) He hosted trivia nights for ages. Says Gerard: “Being a trivia host, I kind of absorbed useless trivia for years and years and years.” This is a really great tip. You don’t have to host trivia nights, but if you’re serious about winning on a game show, you should certainly go to them, as often as you can. They’re a great way to train the brain and soak up a lot of great general knowledge information; general knowledge information on just the types of subjects favoured by quiz show question writers!

In the second MHS story, it appears host Eddie McGuire has virtually told a contestant a correct answer, so that she could use her winnings to buy shoes for underprivileged schoolchildren. This article from the Herald Sun newspaper says Eddie was so “moved by teacher Bri Dredge’s vow to buy 200 pairs of shoes for every kid at her… school in the struggling streets of Wendouree”, that he guided her toward the correct answer for the $20,000 question. Not exactly playing by the rules there, Eddie, but I don’t think anyone could be too upset with him for bending them on this occasion. Mind you, at a struggling school, buying “200 pairs of shoes for every child” doesn’t sound like the wisest allocation of resources to me; I’d have thought that just one or two pairs per child would suffice.

Then again, it’s not my area of expertise.

And finally… Sometimes it truly seems that there is no corner of the world into which game shows can’t penetrate. Now, there’s even a game show especially for you if you fancy yourself as a golf club designer.

I kid you not.

The big golf brand Wilson Golf is behind an upcoming competitive reality show Driver Vs Driver, where 8 competitors will go head-to-head in a ruthless, frenetic, no-holds-barred golf-club-designing contest, to see who can dream up the club that will become part of Wilson’s 2017 range. The show will air on NBC’s Golf Channel, and the ultimate winner will take home a cool $500,000.

Oh.

Half a million bucks. Right. Doesn’t seem quite so weird now. If this sounds like something you’d like to take a swing at *, then you have until August 15th to apply, and you can do so right here.

And that’s this week’s Game Show News. Stay classy, San Diego.

*

Yeah, sorry about that, Tiger.