The Hitlist Review

Last night we had the first episode of a new TV music quiz, The Hitlist. Here's what I made of it:

When I saw a trailer for the show the impression I got was mixed. On one hand it's a music quiz so should be right up my street. But in the trailer they said "Do you know your Ed Sheeran from your Ariana Grande?" which implied it might be too modern for my liking. The fact it's presented by a member of JLS and a member of The Saturdays would also imply that.

There were 3 pairs of contestants who walked into the studio to a song of their choice. First was a father and daughter who came out to "I Drove All Night" by Roy Orbison, good song. Then came Glen and Christopher who came out to some Cheryl Cole song, a terrible choice but more to the point surely they should have came out to "Diamond Lights". Finally we had 2 females come out to "The Best" by Tina Turner. When the female presenter asked why they chose "Simply the Best" I shouted at the TV for the first time saying it's "The Best" not "Simply the Best.

The introduction went on far too long for my liking, but that's a complaint I have about most TV quizzes. It was 7 minutes into the show before we had our first question.

Round 1 was Number Ones and Number Twos. They played a clip of a number one and the contestants had to buzz in and give the artist and title. If they got it correct they'd get played the number two record from the same week as the number one and would be the only contestants to get the opportunity to answer. The first 2 pairs to get 5 correct would progress to the 2nd round.

The first clip was played and it was something modern I didn't know. Obviously the number two record was also modern, and I didn't get that one either. Fortunately not all clips were modern so I got some. I think I knew all the 20th Century clips and the only 21st Century one I got in that round was "I Kissed A Girl" by Katy Perry.

Onto the 2nd round where the contestants would pick a category that would contain 4 clips. Each clip would have a clue as to who the artist is, for example there was the category "Stage Names" and the clue was the real name of the artist in the clip. Each pair would take it in turns to pick a clip and they'd have 45 seconds to name the artist and title for all the clips they hear with the option to skip 3 clips, first to run out of time would get eliminated.

Again I was good on the older clips but not so good on the modern ones. They had to be entirely accurate when giving the artist and title, when played "Re Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo Selecta)" by Artful Dodger the contestants weren't given it because they said "Rewind" instead of "Re Rewind". Fair enough, but then in another clip the contestants were given it when they said "Mysterious Girl" by Peter Andre when it's in fact by  Peter Andre and Bubbler Ranx.

It was the father and daughter who made it to the final round. They picked a category and would be played clips related to the category. They would begin the round with £10,000 and would have 5 seconds to give the artist and title of each clip, after which the money would start going down like a clock until they gave the answer. They would have the option to skip and be played a new clip, but the money would continue to go down. After 10 correct answers the contestants would win however much money is left.

I knew all the clips in the final round including the ones the contestants skipped, but that was because there was nothing too modern in there. It was the father who answered all the questions in this round, but his daughter did get a few of the modern ones earlier on in the quiz.

How did I find the quiz then?

Well I'd say it's as good as can be expected. Ideally I would want there to be no waffle at the beginning and no modern questions, but that was never going to happen. It wasn't as modern as I expected it to be though which is a good thing.

Would I apply to go on?

Not sure, the problem is I don't know anyone with decent knowledge of modern music to go on with. I've done music quizzes before with some pretty knowledgeable people and got all the 20th century questions correct, but ended up not winning from flopping on the modern ones. But never say never.