I think the worst (outside Japan) I heard was couples competing to adopt a baby. I *think* I heard that was real but can't find a cite now...

how on earth did they manage to produce 'sudoku live'? the mind, it doth boggle.

-m-

It doth a bit, dothn't it? (Er.)

I'm afraid I didn't catch enough of it to find out how it worked: we only saw it in the few seconds between turning the TV on and switching it over to the DVD player, so we weren't in the mood to stop and have a longer look. And Google suggests it was a one-off, so there won't be another episode to examine. (Though that's probably a mercy!)

I heard it was a pilot episode.

My parents were curious and tuned in, and I happened to be in the same room at the same time.

It started with a partial sudoku grid (also published in a newspaper) which apparently didn't have a unique solution. They waffled for a while - largely explaining the game - and about the time of the first commercial break, they added a couple of numbers to make it unique. At that point the phone lines opened - everybody who phoned or texted in with the correct answer (made by taking the four corner digits from the completed grid in a particular order) was entered into a draw for a GBP 9,000 prize, and they called the winner live on air at 9:55pm. (Throughout the rest of the program, they ran some VT, hinted at playing tactics, revealed a few more digits from the grid and chatted with the people in the studio. There were nine teams in the studio from around the country, playing (I think) for a separate charity competition. While this was going on, I was attempting (unsuccessfully) to explain to my parents that sudoku was not a guessing game...)

I am reminded of the live chess coverage.

Do they do live chess coverage on a regular basis, or was the one I remember watching (the 1993 Times World Chess Championship between Short and Kasparov) a one-off?

That one actually made quite good TV, because the commentator team managed to be interesting when speculating about what the next few moves might be and what the likely consequences were. Not to mention the silly bit at the end (once Kasparov had won handily leaving a bunch of spare TV slots to fill) where the two players teamed up and took on the entire commentator team, as personified by Carol Vorderman wearing an earpiece, to demonstrate why they were sitting in the championship seats and the commentators weren't.

ESPN, a major US cable sports network, broadcast Magic: The Gathering tournaments (http://www.mtgnews.com/F/Topic/1078455345048_ESPN2_to_air_all_Magic_PT_and_WorldC.html) on ESPN2 years ago. They broadcast the championships for years before picking up the whole "tour."

It's times like these that i'm grateful for PBS and BBC America. My countrymen have, quite obviously, lost their minds.

At least chess is meant to be competitive! This is more like live crossword-solving!

While daydreaming in M&S the other day, I invented The Weakest Partner in which partners in an initially very poly relationship are voted out of the relationship one by one. I expect my cheque for a meelion pounds is already in the post.

(S)

Anne Widdecombe has had an agony aunt column in the Guardian for… a while (not sure how long). If her show is just an extension of that, it’s not too bizarre.

My temporary cow-orkers of the last two weeks spent all of one lunchtime gossiping about _Celebrity Love Island_, which sadly is not a vicious parody. *sigh*

I (involuntarily) saw quite a bit of it. It was terrible.

Thank you for justifying my decision to save on the license fee, and, eeeeeeeeee.

Whatever next? Live boggle perhaps? the mind doth Sudoku.