tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401280171563686515.post4917115645013822173..comments2024-03-12T12:54:32.926-07:00Comments on Life After Mastermind: Only Connect - Match 6Londiniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07871325359167581176noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401280171563686515.post-50817963445916422312014-10-12T09:44:48.635-07:002014-10-12T09:44:48.635-07:00Hi Gavin, Hi Stephen,
I don't know of any pro...Hi Gavin, Hi Stephen,<br /><br />I don't know of any production company who have ever come out with a clear and open statement on their policy towards applicants who have already appeared on other shows before. So what follows is based on my own experience and deduction.<br /><br />Some shows have or had a no reappearance policy. For most of its original run, once you were out of Fifteen to One you couldn't come back. Mastermind you couldn't come back until 1995. Only Connect when I was on series 4 told us that the policy then was you couldn't come back. <br /><br />As a rough rule of thumb, I would say that the greater the monetary value of the prize the less likely that players with a long list of previous appearances are to get on. It can happen - I have been to two auditions where the researchers hadn't actually looked at my previous appearances on my form, but it's a lot more rare. I don't know that you could say that it's anything in the way of an outright ban. I think all production companies would tell you, with some reason, that they consider each application strictly on its own merits. For example, Dave Bill, one of the Gamblers who won series 3 of Only Connect, went on to win in Pointless, and to play in Breakaway. So it can be done. <br /><br />At the serious end of the market appearances are far more common. It's only natural for a good quizzer to apply to Mastermind, OC, BoB and 15 to 1, for example, and it's important to each of these shows to put forward some contestants of a high calibre. <br /><br />Londiniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07871325359167581176noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401280171563686515.post-62407815401884255262014-10-12T08:15:23.072-07:002014-10-12T08:15:23.072-07:00'In other words once BBC knows someone, are th...'In other words once BBC knows someone, are they more likely to select them, or even positively encourage them to enter?'<br /><br />It won't be the BBC, as such, but the producers of individual shows. I got an 'Only Connect' application form last year (although didn't end up applying because one of my team had to pull out). There's quite a large box on the form where you have to describe in detail your entire previous involvement in broadcast quizzes. <br /><br />The wording makes it seem as though they're asking you to own up to a previous conviction, as though it's some sort of CRB check. However, it's obvious from the people who get on to the show - and there was another all-Manchester UC team in the last series - that it's actually a method of positive selection.Stephen Followshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00241893861868075325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401280171563686515.post-14130381978072237732014-10-12T01:04:59.721-07:002014-10-12T01:04:59.721-07:00You often mention recidivists in your posts. A rel...You often mention recidivists in your posts. A related point is the cross fertilisation between the different top flight BBC quiz programmes (Only Connect, Mastermind and University Challenge). It is uncanny how often I spot a player in one of these that a recognise as a previous player from one of the other two. <br /><br />I'm not sure whether this has always been the case and it's only in these days of catch up TV that I've actually noticed, or whether this is happening a lot more than it used to. In other words once BBC knows someone, are they more likely to select them, or even positively encourage them to enter? Cuts both ways of course: I've read somewhere - here probably - that players from the top flight show are barred from some other shows such as Pointless.<br /><br />The odd player I've seen from all three shows. <br /><br />This week a couple of the chessmen looked very familiar. One of them, captain Stephen Pearson, featured on the University Challenge documentary about how teams get selected; he was on Manchester's team early on in the Paxman era, and has since acted as coach to Manchester's UC teams in subsequent series. <br /><br />The other, Henry Pertinez I also recognised from a much more recent UC series; I speculated that all three were in fact UC Manchester alumni, and this was in fact confirmed by a colleague at work, himself a Manchester UC alumnus. <br /><br />No major issue, more an observation. Gavin Tillmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07008941854879044026noreply@blogger.com