Weaver's Week 2025-11-02

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Someone once said that the Sunday when the clocks go back is the saddest day of the year. Summer is completely and properly over, the weather has turned, and we've got months of it getting dark well before Blue Peter begins.

So we're sat down in front of the telly at 4.30, curtains drawn, ready to watch some entertainment. How do we get on?

Dermot O'Leary hosts, the ultimate in safe television presenters, he could cope with anything up to a nuclear explosion with little more than a slightly raised eyebrow. He's joined by Sam Quek from A Question of Sport, and Paul Merson from the Arsenal men's side who were never European champions. Also in the studio is Osi Umenyiora, who doesn't take part in our games but watches the nuffleball.

Yes, Big Game Night is an attempt to make the NFL "product" more entertaining and interesting to the casual viewer. NFL matches take a lot of commercial breaks, more than broadcasters over here like, so there's got to be some filler material. Rather than have people in the studio dryly talk about the action we've just seen, Big Game Night will show ordinary people doing some silly things.

So there are players to meet. The players are teams of four, fans of the same teams we'll see in the formal game, tonight it's (checks the book of nuffleball cognomen) New Jersey/A and the Philadelphia Nesharim. The /A are in white jerseys with red highlights, the Nesharim play in green with white trim. The winners on the night are playing for a trip to Nashville.

How do they get to Nashville Town Hall? Practice, man, practice. They're competing in little games to win balls, those balls are loaded into the Super Ball tombola, and whichever one ball is drawn out at the end of the show is the winning ball. So it's a random draw, but the odds may be in your favour through good performances earlier.

We kick off with Field Goal Frenzy – kick indoor balls through some goal posts. This proves to be much more difficult than it looks; after every player and the celebrities have had a go, the Nesharim have the win 2-1. Then there are some brief previews of the nuffleball game coming up; we're a game show column, and this is of limited interest to us.

Troy Hawke is in the studio, wearing a purple dressing gown to run "no question too stupid", where he answers a question from a viewer who is unsure about some point of nuffleball. Why is there a yellow line on the field? And how come it won an Emmy award for technological innovation? Good questions; we're more interested in meeting the tunnelling moles who draw and cover up the line across the field with such speed. Troy also presents some "idiot on the streets" stuff filmed in the north American colonies. None of this is a game as we understand it, but it does demonstrate that Big Game Night is trying to introduce newcomers to its pastime through entertainment and fun.

Another game! They Might Be Giants – four people stand behind cardboard cutouts, one of them is six foot ten, the others are standing on a wooden box. Our celebrities ask a question of each of the tall people, which may or may not help the guessing game. May not seems to be the general consensus: "I'm not entirely sure this is going well," confesses Dermot before asking the teams to write down the tall person. Turns out the /A guessed correctly, and get another ball in the super ball. All this palaver for one measly ball?

We see the top three sportsball plays of the week (from last week). Then the nuffleball game starts. New Jersey/A commit a foul even before the clock has started, clearly it's going to be one of those days. Two scrums later, and after a hideously illegal forward pass the refs didn't spot, the Nesharim score a try, subsequently converted.

Back in the studio, a quick game of NFL or Victorian Profession – are these names from nuffleball squads, or were they recorded in the 1891 census? Bobbin Turner is a profession, Chandler Brewer is a player. The Nesharim get three out of five, introduced by cheap and cheerful powerpoint animations using public domain pictures and a large typeface. All of this has to be complete in two minutes, because it's inserted to replace an advert break by the host broadcasters. Then some more "action" on the field, which ends with a professional nuffleball player proving no better at kicking field goals than our friends in the studio.

Roll With It asks the teams to roll their balls into areas of a field. Gotta say, it's great to see BBC daytime show The Edge revived on shoulder-prime television, and condensed to a length that didn't outstay its welcome. They try to cram two-and-a-half minutes of telly into a two-minute commercial break, it becomes a bit of a mess, and ends up with /A winning 3-0.

Spin It to Win It - the ball that spins upright for longer is the winner. It's a very quick game, and they have to do some extra balls because the segment under-runs – /A has superb spinning technique, winning as they do 7-1.

There's a nasty injury on the field, so they cut back to the studio, where there's whooping and hollering. Dermot does his best to dampen the enthusiasm, but it feels a bit tasteless. The perils of live television, folks.

Eligible Receiver – /A have a designated chucker, who is asked questions with numbers as the answer, and throws a ball to the appropriate player – the three wear shirts 1, 3, and 6. By toutatis, it's Looking After Number One from Winning Lines back to charm us. Now there's a show Dermot could revive... Back in the game, three right answers, four wrong, so that's a small swing to the Nesharim.

There's about half an hour of not very much action – as far as we're concerned – while they concentrate on the nuffleball pictures coming from Philadelphia, and reports from other games. No footage from other games, Channel 5 only have rights to this match, all of the others are showing on KYTV.

During half time, there's footage from earlier in the week of Paul Merson trying his hand at bowling, on a rather large triangle of 300 pins (a full 24 rows). Paul hit 49 of the pins; the /A fans were closer in their prediction, so they get another ball to lead 18-9.

Hut Hut Hike – will Sam say "hut hut hike" or something similar? This segment is introduced by a really long clip, and a long rules explanation. There's an awful lot of faff for not very much payoff. The round ends as a 3-2 win for /A.

After all the games, New Jersey/A go into the prize draw with a significant lead, 21-11 over the Philadelphia Nesharim. It's a one-ball pullout; Paul Merson dons a crash helmet with a blacked-out visor, they spin the balls in the Super Ball, and Paul pulls one out. Almost inevitably, it's one of the New Jersey/A balls, and they go through to the final round. End of the road for the Nesharim, but can the /A win the prize?

The team have one ball to throw at two doors: the prize lies behind one of them. The prize was Nashville, and the question is related; how many times does Dolly Parton sing "Jolene" in the song? 31 or 62? The team pick 62, throw the ball.... but it bounces off. The correct answer is 31, never mind, the /A team leave the studio with nothing more than our thanks, and knowledge that their side is losing and losing badly.

Big Game Night is a strange show. As a game show, it's adequate: all of the games fit into the very limited time available, though some could use a little work. We like the way the outcome is in doubt until the very end; less happy about the all-or-nothing conclusion. Dermot O'Leary remains a brilliant host, Sam Quek is engaging, and Paul Merson was a welcome guest.

As a sports experience, we can imagine it's frustrating; why are they cutting away from the action for this inane rubbish? On the upside, the sport is allowed to take priority – there are no studio games in the frantic minutes before half time, and the whole entertainment draws to a conclusion early in the fourth quarter. People who are interested in the match get to see it in full, and with respect.

We understand that the NFL organisation is paying much of the cost of this show, effectively renting space on terrestrial television; like with Win Win a few weeks ago, it's a fair shop window for their product. But is it going to attract new viewers, people who didn't know about their game and find it here? Doesn't seem likely, only about 150,000 other people are watching these programmes, and those figures are rather flat.

Is it a show we will be watching again? Don't intend to; we have other things to do with our Sunday evenings. Do we regret watching it? Not in the slightest.

What's Welsh for "snake eyes"? S4C has commissioned Y Deis (The Dice) from Slam Media. According to the press release, it's a mixture of general knowledge, skill, strategy, and a little luck. James Williams hosts, he's the host of the breakfast show on BBC Radio Wales, and we're told there will be a celebrity special around Christmastime. Interestingly, the format's also been commissioned by Irish-language channel TG4, and they'll make some episodes in English to sell around the world.

Come to Birmingham, get taken down by Jet There's to be a "Live Experience" version of television's Gladiators. Housed at the NEC Birmingham in Solihull, visitors will be able to take on challenges including Hang Tough, Duel, The Wall, and Not Laughing At Brad's Jokes. Other "Live Experience" thingies around include The Cube, The Traitors, Race Across The World, and The Crystal Maze.

Do actors have a head start at the House of Games rounds where you've got to remember a lot of random things? Dani Harmer might not have book smarts, but more than made up for it with a bravura performance in "Potplant Middlemarch". Shivi Ramoutar was also impressive, concluding "Games House Of" by putting the musical scale in alphabetical order, from do to ti. Jack Carroll was the obligatory standup, and "Answer Smash" always favours standup comedians. Dominic Littlewood played in good spirit.

A very even edition of Mastermind ended in victory for Tomas Stevenson, he'd taken teen drama The O.C. as his specialist subject. One only needs beat the opposition in front of you, but we cannot ignore that his score would only have finished fourth last week. All of the contestants seemed to struggle this week: one passed on both their after-buzzer questions, at least one seemed not to expect the subject to include as much as it did, and one visibly gave up with a minute to go.

We were surprised to learn that Taskmaster has been sold around the world, and some of them even call their shows something other than Taskmaster. What next, knock-offs of the Only Connect wall with not-very-well encoded snark?

Anyway, Only Connect had some great spots: the Worker Bees got pictures of ancient tribes, the Pitchers put the heads of Europe's smallest microstates in order, and then they got from peach melba to Lord Melbourne in about two seconds flat. Lock up your apples: Paddy, the captain of the Pitchers, surprised himself by guessing that there are exactly 1.4 bikes per person in the Netherlands. The show was decided on Missing Vowels, with Pitchers running away with it and winning the Brutal Third Quarter of this year's draw.

A scrappy University Challenge rep chage match ends with Sheffield beating New Oxford by 175-125. New took a strong lead, then Sheffield came back, and it swing and rolled throughout. "Scrappy" because New picked up five penalties for incorrect interruptions, and Sheffield got just three of their last 12 bonuses. Sheffield were penalised for a "wrong person answered" interruption. New were later penalised after a player began their answer a little too slowly for the producers' liking, which felt very harsh to us.

Sheffield's overall rate was 49%, and they were 45% on their bonuses. On the upside, Sheffield have twice scored about 175 points against strong opposition, and are over 60% on science questions, and they spread starters around the team which we think makes for a more successful team than one-buzzer-three-wingsfolk. Wrong answer of the night: Judi Dench received a Best Newcomer BAFTA in 1976 for Bugsy Malone (she actually won it in 1965 for Four in the Morning).

So, who's going to win The Celebrity Traitors? Expect some interest when we get to see the final (BBC1, Thu). It's also the final of Worlds Apart and Bake Off (both C4, Tue).

Tom Daly pops up on Game of Wool (C4, Sun), hoping not to get too much needle. A new run of Celebrity Race Across the World (BBC1, Thu), and Boom! Bang! comes to S4C's Stwnsh block (Mon). Next Saturday's The Wheel reunites Ed Gamble and Jonathan Ross (BBC1).

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