Now that there’s been just a couple of days for the dust to settle, let’s have a look at the 2026 series, the well-dones and the could-do-betters. Yes, this is all just my opinion and please feel free to disagree.
Let us begin with the well-dones.
Up to and including the 2025 season we’ve noticed that when it gets to the semi
finals you tend to get at least one ‘top-heavy’ and at least one ‘bottom-heavy’
semifinal. To put it another way, at least one of the semis would be overloaded
with top scorers from the heats, and at least one overloaded with lowest
scorers. It arose, I believe, from an emphasis on putting the ‘right’ specialists
with each other in each show. Maybe I’m wrong about this but it certainly
seemed to me that there was a far better spread in this year’s semis. Yes,
there were a couple of contenders whose scores in their runner up slots in
their semis would have been enough to win several of the other semis, but this
wasn’t because they’d been placed in unfairly loaded semis, but because they
were beaten by a truly outstanding performance. You can’t legislate against
that.
Likewise, we saw a very
exciting final. It seems that the days of jetting off far and wide for the
filmed inserts won’t be coming up any time soon, but there were still some
famous faces to surprise our finalists, which is always nice to see.
The could-do-betters,
then. I think you know what is coming. Now, the format of the series as stands
assigns 96 contenders to 24 heats. As far as I know, this is done by placing
the right variety of specialist subjects with each other in each show. If this
happens to throw two top contenders together by coincidence, well, that’s just
the way it is and bad luck. Yes, the runner up can be a stand in for the semis
but there’s no guarantee they will be used. Now, okay, you might say, well,
sorry, but if you want to win the series you have to be prepared to face anyone
and to beat them. Harsh, but true. You might also say, well, Dave, this
happened to you in 2006. You were a stand in for the semifinal, you weren’t
used, so you tried again the next year and look what happened. Again, true.
But, oh, I don’t know, some years I just feel that real quiz talent is too thinly
spread to sustain 24 heats and I feel that someone who had a top 5 score in the
heats but didn’t qualify deserves another chance.
But of course, it is a
question how you can actually deliver that. If I could wave a magic wand I
would shorten the series by 2 shows and give 2 semifinal wild cards to the
highest scoring runners up. If the makers are contractually obliged to provide
31 shows, then I would want 23 heats, and a repechage pitting the top 4 runners
up. Yes, it would mean that they would have to learn an extra specialist round,
but then you can’t expect something for nothing. I don’t know that I would
condone going back to 5 contender semi finals though.
The other could-do-better
is not actually the fault of the show itself. But just as happened in 2025, the
first round was killed stone dead by having such a long hiatus for Celebrity
Mastermind. Look, the Celebrity show really isn’t my cup of tea now, but I
understand that there’s an audience for it. I don’t want to be mean about the celebrities
who appear on it since they are doing it buckshee to support a charity. But I’m
afraid that by now, too many of the celebs aren’t so much from Who’s Who as
from Who The Hell’s That? Mastermind isn’t a great fit for a celebrity show, I’m
afraid. Yeah, there’s a place for it, but not where it’s being shown at the
moment.
Well, there we are.
Just my opinions.
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