BBC Shelves “Secret Fortune”; Orders “Break the Safe”
While one BBC lottery game show appears to be going away, another one will be taking its place. BBC One has announced that they plan on shaking up its lottery game show lineup. The network will be resting the Wild Rover-produced Secret Fortunes. While they have no immediate plans for a new series they are not ruling out its potential return. This past series averaged in the area of four million viewers.
In its place is the new quiz and intuition show Break the Safe. Each show sees contestants trying to win £100,000 as they stop a 40 minute clock within a predetermined limit. The host will be Secret Fortune host Nick Knowles. The series is produced by Thames Scotland and executive produced by Suzie Lamb and Sarah Woolley. Eight 40 minute episodes have been ordered.
Our friends at Bother’s Bar were on the set for the pilot and wrote a recap. Click here to see what you’re in for.
Source : BroadcastNow
Well, at least Nick still has a hosting job.
Secret Fortune was a great game show, and CBS was stupid not to produce it. The game could get a bit predictable at times, depending on what envelopes were picked vs. what answers were revealed, but I still liked it. Good mix of music, quiz-style gameplay and non-annoying contestants.
Hopefully Break the Safe will be just as interesting.
Even though Nick Knowles wasn’t hosting Break the Safe he would be returning in 2013 to host new runs of Who Dares Wins (The Rich List) and daytime show Perfection.
To confirm, this will be the National Lottery line up in 2013.
Eight episodes of Who Dares Wins (The Rich List/The Money List) with Nick Knowles. Returning for a sixth series.
Sixteen episodes of In It to Win It with Dale Winton. Returning for a fifteenth series It is uncertain whether they will break the sixteen episodes into two series of eight shows each.
Eight episodes of Break the Safe with Nick Knowles.
Of course, it’s better to see this, but by the description in Bother’s Bar, I’m not impressed. Nick Knowles is a more than capable host, though. He seems to do everything well. I still like “Secret Fortune” and “Who Dares Wins” and cannot understand why the BBC think they have to fix something that’s not broken. A 13-episode rotation of four games is fine.
I can’t help but wonder if the BBC had already lost interest, for whatever reason, in Secret Fortune by the time this year’s series took to the air…
And they say that they are not ruling out the show’s potential return… well, sadly, I am.
It’s worth pointing out that SF’s predecessor of sorts, 1 vs 100, was also quietly cancelled even though its viewing figures were still healthy and critical reception was still generally positive (although many believe that its high production costs were a significant factor in this decision).
Oh well, at least there’s still WDW…
GSN should bring back The Money List. That’s what I say.
[...] not Christmas related. It has been reported this week the National Lottery quiz show, Secret Fortune will be taking a break from broadcasting. Due to [...]