Ben Gamblin Online - Blog: Chris Moyles Quiz Show

Chris Moyles Quiz Show

14 Jul '08, 17:41

I had a great time in London yesterday - Kate and I went to the London Studios at Waterloo to see a recording of a pilot of The Chris Moyles Quiz Show - a quiz/chat show hosted by Chris Moyles that is intended for Channel 4.

We arrived at the studio building at around 4:30pm ready for a long queue to enter the studio at the advertised time of 6:45pm. Although tickets were issued, it was still a case of first-come-first-served, so we thought we'd get there early to avoid any disappointment. The time went quite quick though since we met up with a couple who we knew were going to be there. Fortunately, they opened the doors about 20 minutes early so we got to sit down sooner.

It was slightly surreal walking though the building, looking at the pictures on the walls of the famous light entertainment stars who work or have worked there. Once we got near the studio, the carpeted, nicely painted corridors made way for a stage furniture store. We walked through the door labeled Studio 2 and suddenly I had flashbacks of being back in the high school drama studio since we were walking around the studio edge behind a large thick curtain. Eventually we arrived at our seats. We were about 5 rows back, and I was sat on an aisle seat.

Being the geek that I am, I immediately started taking in the technical side; looking for the cameras, locating the auto-cue and watching the crew prepare. I did take note of the stage as well though which contained a central desk/table, and two very large hollow box like structures on either side. On the far right was another hollow but shallow wooden structure with nothing but a black background. All of these structures appeared to be wooden. The was a rough background just in front of which was the setup for the studio band. Around the stage were chairs where those who had priority (e.g. paid for) tickets got to sit.

A person, who's name I can't remember, started to warm up the crowd at around 7pm outlining what was going to happen, telling jokes, picking on a few members of the audience (fortunately not me), rehearsing the applause, whooping and hollering and rehearsing the chorus of Sweet Caroline which would come in to play at the end of the show. He introduced Chris Moyles who came out in his casual clothing and spoke to the audience for a short while.

About twenty minutes later, the show began. For the most part it was recorded as live although nearer the end they went through what are know as 'pick-ups' - re-recordings of some parts which had gone wrong. The show was very funny. Chris had three guests - Patsy Kensit, Louis Walsh and James Nesbit. All were good, and Patsy seemed very hyper. Of course, how much of the way they acted was played we don't know.

The central theme to the show was a simple quiz based on the news over the last week. There were three rounds consisting of 5 questions. For each round, one guest would be out on stage with Chris and they'd have a chat. The other guests were off-stage behind the left hand large hollow box structure but still playing the game. A special screen was in this box which created the divide between them and Chris and the use of lighting meant that it could be controlled when those guests were visible. Questions were asked by a variety of people, but most frequently Davina McColl. Those asking the questions were not in the studio, but had pre-recorded segments. It was at this time I discovered what the shallow box on the right was - it was a fake TV screen. Chris and his guests would look at it when video was playing but nothing could be seen. I looked at one of the monitor screens and lo-and-behold the picture was there. Very clever.

The show took a while to record. It all stopped for the commercial breaks, when the bloke who warms up the audience would talk to us for a couple of minutes making sure we knew of anything coming up and basically making sure we were still being loud. The end of the show featured the looser of the quiz (Louis Walsh) singing Sweet Caroline accompanied by the studio band and us the audience. Thanks to my being on an aisle seat, I managed to get a camera pointed right at me whilst I was belting out the words! Everything wrapped up not too long after this, and we were out of the studio building by just after 9:30pm.

The only question remains - what happens now? Well as this was a pilot recording, I don't think it's all that likely that it will be broadcast on television. The show will be edited ready to be pitched to the Channel 4 executives who will make a decision on whether a series is commisioned. I believe they said a series would consist of 13 programmes, but since they are topical, by the time it goes to air, this pilot will be quite out of date.

I'll have to keep an eye on the website to see if tickets for future recordings become available.

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