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Sunday, September 7, 2008

Fox's Hole in the Wall - Not Amusing

So the Fox TV network gets the rights to Japan's TV program known as "Brain Wall." If you ever watched the Japanese version on YouTube, you now that the program is quite popular to watch, even if you don't know Japanese.

The Japanese version:


So I'm watching this new American version right now on Fox and I have to say... this one sucks.

This program is only 30 minutes long, and minus the commercials doesn't make it much air time.
  • The scoring system is too low since it only a single point system. They should use something bigger like 25 points per success to make it look more enticing.
  • They do use some of the same sound effects as the Japanese program, but the American version should have shown the scene where after the three second countdown, they raise the curtain to show the piece, but instead they do the countdown and the next screen cut shows the wall in motion. Literally, we don't hear and see the reaction of the contestants before the wall goes in motion.
  • The hosts suck, especially the female hostess. All she does is YELL. That male host is just annoying.
  • The competitors were allowed to comment, but also should joke around more. The Japanese version uses a lot of the same people, but are encouraged to crack jokes and pull pranks on their team members (i.e. shove them back in the pool).
Even the Australian version looks quite good than the American version:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This post made me laugh. I watched maybe the first 10 minutes of it and had to change the channel. I saw one "hole" coming that looked like it was created for a midget. You could see the guy's leg in the air and it was clearly way longer than the space he was supposed to get it through so not only did he get pushed into the pool he broke the prop. So why would I want to watch 6 guys getting shoved into the water for 30 minutes?
Yes that woman is a shrieking mess full of false enthusiasm. The host is Mark Thompson who used to do the weather on KRON. He didn't used to have so much hair but is still annoying. Is this a step up in his career?

Anonymous said...

I'm watching right now, and googled "hole in the wall sucks", and your post was 2nd :) I'm not making up what just happened in this episode.

One man made it through, but didn't fill the entire shape, so it didn't count. Later in the exact same show, the 3 members had to fit through 3 holes, but one was way too small. The host said they were supposed to double up on on the big hole, and leave the small one...empty!

Excuse me, but you change the rules midstream? The japanese version is much more entertaining. I think a show with this little substance (in the american version) hinges on the hosting talent, which just isn't there.