The Krypton Factor puzzles/games

[Jojo Apollo]

Those mental agility games are real tricky buggers (well for me anyway!)

you can play them etc online here: http://www.itv.com/entertainment/kryptonfactor/game/

also at the related Sage site:http://www.trainyourbusinessbrain.com/b ... n-training

[Craig Beevers]

Today's mental agility game is a wordy one, I suspect most on here would have absolutely slaughtered the contestants.

It's on the website. I got 17 on my first go.

[Jojo Apollo]

Today's mental agility game is a wordy one, I suspect most on here would have absolutely slaughtered the contestants.

It's on the website. I got 17 on my first go.

Yeah it was a relatively easier game today, with the words jumbled upside down. I got nowhere near 17 though, well played Craig.

[James Robinson]

Did anyone else notice that one of the red contestant's questions had 2 possibilities?

He had ECHO, but there could've been OCHE.

[Craig Beevers]

Yea I noticed that too. A lot had more obscure Scrabble anagrams, but OCHE is pretty common.

[D Eadie]

I don't know where to start on the KF. It's seriously flawed in many ways and is a poor programme IMO.

The observation round - they ask contestants questions in turn. So, if you happen to be going last you're at a huge disadvantage as the clip you were shown is around 4 minutes older in your memory than the person who went first. Also, if you buzz in to answer a question that is opened up to all, you lose a point if you get it wrong. Why? The guy who won the observation round last night did so by virtually saying nothing and playing it safe while the others buzzed in and lost points. Eventually they'll have shows where nobody buzzes in at all because they'll not want to be penalised and lose ground to the others.

The 'word' game round. I'm sorry but just because they letters are upside down it doesn't really make the game any harder, spotting what were largely 4-letter word anagrams, some of which had more than one answer. The assault course is a waste of time and money - it's too dated now, they could do so much better.

[Craig Beevers]

The observation round has actually improved a lot to last series. There was not a penalty at all in the past and only two people I think were allowed to give an answer before they moved on to the next question. So basically people just buzzed in and guessed, the ones who were slow didn't get a free guess. I do think it's a bit dumb penalising people in the individual questions for not taking a guess.

The scores are generally positive in the observation round, last night just had a fairly weak set of contestants.

For me the show is actually too modern in its styling, ie it's feels like everything is flashy and cut down. The first two rounds don't feel like a proper thorough test. Don't see what's wrong with the assault course mind - probably a bit overdone if anything. Doesn't rival Ninja Warrior though obviously.

[D Eadie]

It's still not fair to go last when the whole round is based on memorising a 60-second clip.
Why not ask them all the same questions, get them to write it onto a electronic tablet, and then review the answers at the end while playing the bit of the clip that relates to the answer?

[Gavin Chipper]

It's still not fair to go last when the whole round is based on memorising a 60-second clip.
Why not ask them all the same questions, get them to write it onto a electronic tablet, and then review the answers at the end while playing the bit of the clip that relates to the answer?

Hey, I'm the producer of this show, but one thing I've come to realise is that people are never happy whatever you do.

[D Eadie]

Hey, I'm the producer of this show, but one thing I've come to realise is that people are never happy whatever you do.

I don't believe it for a second. You're probably over-qualified.

[Marc Meakin]

An electronic tablet would be a good idea on Countdown.
Or maybe give DC a laptop.

[Dinos Sfyris]

It's still not fair to go last when the whole round is based on memorising a 60-second clip.

Maybe so, but of the 4 heats so far the person going last (Yellow) has won the Observation round twice with Green and Blue (middle) winning the other 2.

Why not ask them all the same questions, get them to write it onto a electronic tablet, and then review the answers at the end while playing the bit of the clip that relates to the answer?

IAWTP though. The questions vary widely in difficulty IMO so it's only fair to ask the same stuff to everyone. Also it'd give a better representation of observational ability because people would be answering 8 questions each rather than 2 or 3. I imagine one of the reasons they haven't done this is time constraints. Maybe if they didn't show the relevant bit of the clip but just revealed the answer and saw who got it right.

Make sure to tune in next week's show to watch the fellow in yellow

[Michael Wallace]

I imagine one of the reasons they haven't done this is time constraints. Maybe if they didn't show the relevant bit of the clip but just revealed the answer and saw who got it right.

Yeah. I suspect there's also an element of making it more 'exciting', what with secondary buzzes and losing points for wrong answers and stuff.

Totally agree on the range of difficulty front, too. Possibly a consequence of trying to ask 8 questions from one really short clip.

Edit: Oh yeah, how do they do the show filming? Multiple in a day? A friend of mine from university (James O'Driscoll) was on it a couple of shows ago, just occurred to me you might have met him.

[Dinos Sfyris]

Yes I met James. They film all the assault course stuff for the heats over 2 days. So the first day they filmed heats 1, 2 and 3 and a standby team, then heats 4, 5, 6 and 7 the day after so you get to stay overnight and meet the other contestants involved while they brief you on Health and Safety and fit you for costumes etc. Then a few weeks later they film all the studio rounds for the heats over 3 days. There's lots of logistics and planning going on and gathering of contestant details for profile filming in between. Will document it all in blog form soon enough

[D Eadie]

Interesting, Dinos.
I'll watch it next week to see how you get on of course, but i still think it's a very poor production. Even the black and green studio looks depressed. They waste time asking the contestants inane questions after Rd 1, like "Did you have a strategy?" and other such nonsense.
Of course, it's made down south now, which could explain its apparent demise.

Yeah. I suspect there's also an element of making it more 'exciting', what with secondary buzzes and losing points for wrong answers and stuff.

Well its not working for me. I've had more excitement opening my electricity bill.

[David Williams]

Well its not working for me. I've had more excitement opening my electricity bill.

Be fair. When you've seen as much Countdown as we have, the excitement threshold is pretty high.

[D Eadie]

If we're taking into account your octochamp run, then yes, i can fully understand what you mean.