Unbelievable TV

[simont]

This seems to be the month for me encountering TV programmes which I can't quite believe are real.

Recently I heard of ‘Sudoku Live’, and I was honestly convinced it was a joke. Then the Gallery caught thirty seconds of it on Friday evening; it isn't. Someone has genuinely turned Sudoku into live television.

I assumed that was a one-off, but today my credulity was strained again by catching sight of a newspaper's TV listing which contained ‘Ann Widdecombe To The Rescue’.

At times like this I want to say ‘you couldn't make it up’, except that somebody evidently could!

Comments

[meirion.livejournal.com]

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

-m-

[simont]

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!)

[mooism.livejournal.com]

I heard it was a pilot episode.

[crazyscot.livejournal.com]

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...)