Quiz king Ken Bruce v upstart Jeremy Vine? There's no contest
What is going on in TV quiz land? Tradition had it that celebrities only popped up to do a turn at Christmas. Now they are everywhere, all the time, elbowing the civilians out.
At the weekend, we had 'Eurovision icon' and former Bucks Fizzer Cheryl Baker coming a cropper on Bridge of Lies, while on The Chase, John Conteh gave Noel Edmonds a run for his money in the 'I can't believe he's seventy-something' stakes.
At least Conteh and Baker could console themselves that they were putting themselves through the general knowledge mill for charidee. Richard Osman's House of Games gives its celebrity winners a trophy and a choice of ironic prizes, including a wheelie case and a fondue set.
Now another disruptor, 5's Celebrity Puzzling, is doing away with prizes altogether. There is presumably a fee in it for those taking part, but otherwise, what do they gain? A place to rest their weary bones as they go up, or come down, the snakes and ladders of celebrity, perhaps.
Jeremy Vine, the host of Celebrity Puzzling, knows that game well, having once presented Eggheads. There was more quiz royalty with Carol Vorderman as a team leader. She was up against writer/producer/actor and 5 regular, Sally Lindsay.
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It will be Vorderman and Lindsay's job to lead different 'celebrities' into battle each day, and yes, I'm afraid the quote marks are necessary in some cases. On Monday, TV presenter Ore Oduba and choir master Gareth Malone reported for duty. The rota for the rest of the week includes an ex-Goggleboxer, a couple of comedians I'd never heard of, and an Olympic gold medallist.
All those election nights hopping around a brightly coloured set paid off for Vine as he threw himself into hosting what he called 'the most relentless puzzling ever televised' - whatever that meant. That was like saying Strictly had the most relentless dancing ever televised, or Bake Off the most relentless icing. Another boast was that no two contests were ever the same, except the last round, Memory Bank, which is the same every day.
The games were a couple of notches up from Bridge of Lies, but nowhere near as ridiculously complex as David Tennant's Genius Game. Vine took no one to task for getting an answer wrong because it's not that sort of show, and he's not that kind of host. That style went out the window after the disastrous (and short-lived) reign of Anne Robinson on Countdown. Just as crime turned cosy, so quiz shows became nicer, sillier, and just for fun.
Vine made sure the audience at home felt included by setting easy-peasy questions during the frequent ad breaks. The schedulers did their job by not putting Celebrity Puzzling head to head with the daddy of genial quiz shows, PopMaster TV with Ken Bruce. It started on More4 at 8pm, right after Celebrity Puzzling ended. What a pity The Bruce and Vine can't hand over the controls, one to the other, the way they used to in their Radio 2 days …
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