Popmaster TV

We've just reached the end of the first series of Popmaster on TV. The radio quiz consists of 2 contestants answering 10 questions each and takes around 10 minutes in total so it was interesting to see how they fill in the other 50 minutes minus adverts.

There are 5 contestants per show and the lowest scoring one gets eliminated every other round until they're down to the final 2 who then go head to head on a traditional Popmaster round.

The first round is a links round. Each contestant gets played a clip of music where they have to name the artist or title and then get 3 further questions which are linked to the previous question asked. I like the concept and part of the fun is anticipating what the next question will be. The questions can be luck of the draw, I've managed to answer all 4 correctly for some and there was one set where I only got 1 correct because the other 3 were too modern.

Next up is intros, middles and ends. This is where the buzzer comes in, a clip is played and the contestant has to name the artist and title. There were some clips I may have got had the contestant not been so quick to buzz. The points start at 5 and gradually go down to 0 the longer the clip is played. It's after this round we lose the first contestant.

The next is video gaga where a still of a music video is shown together with a clue. You can have up to 5 of these and the points go down from 5 to 1 for each clue you get. It was played individually on some shows and on the buzzer on others. Again it can be luck of the draw, if it's a video from the heyday of music channels it's going to be easier than something more modern that you're only going to know the video by seeking it out on YouTube. I also found sometimes the clues helped identify the artist but not the song, a Biffy Clyro video springs to mind but that said I don't think I'd be able to name a Biffy Clyro song no matter how many clues I was given.

Then we have a random Top 10 where questions related to each song in the Top 10 get asked. I like the concept and again it can be fun anticipating the questions. Some of the questions were pretty brutal though such as naming the Ian Van Dahl album on which "Castles in the Sky" appeared. I was listening to a lot of trance at the time and bought "Castles in the Sky" on vinyl but did not know Ian Van Dahl even had an album and can't imagine too many people did know that. On one episode the Top 10 in question was from 2015 and the contestants were pretty clueless on most of the questions, as was I. 

Following this we lose another contestant and the next round is on years. The contestant can have up to 3 songs from the same year which they have to name. The more songs they need the less points they get. It's an individual round and a great round, but my only gripe is that on every episode one contestant has had a 21st century year to name and the other 2 have had a 20th century year which puts the former at a disadvantage in my opinion.

The most dreaded round comes next, lyrics. I am clueless when it comes to lyrics, you just need to see a childhood video of me on stage singing "Under Pressure" by Queen and hear how few actual words I'm singing because I had no clue what they were despite knowing the song so well.

I was absolutely hopeless at it, but we all have our weaknesses and there is no reason why we shouldn't have such a round in a music quiz. When a contestant buzzes in and gets the lyrics question correct they get 3 bonus questions where they have to name the artist for a given song who's title has a word in common with the song in the lyrics question. I've done really well on those questions so it's unfortunate I wouldn't get the opportunity to answer them if I was on the show due to my lack of lyrics knowledge.

We then lose one more contestant and it's the final two contestants playing traditional Popmaster. The points are reset which means you could be far out in the lead prior to this round and end up losing by one question. That would be unlucky, but then if you're more than 39 points ahead there would be no point in this round so I understand it. As it happened the contestants who scored particularly high to that point would go on to win any way. 

At the end we have 3 in 10 and I loved the fact that in the grand final the artist was Gene Pitney given the much talked about moment on the radio where a contestant gave an answer to one of the questions as "Green Pitney".

I did apply to go on the TV show myself, but no such luck. It's impossible to truly know how I would have done if I was on, the individual sets of questions varied and I don't know how quickly I would have buzzed compared to others not to mention the pressure of the situation.

One thing I do know is if I was to get to the final round I would have to be comfortably be in at least 2nd place prior to the lyrics round to stand a chance.

Overall I've enjoyed it and look forward to the next series if there is one. If there's one improvement they need to make for the 2nd series it's to have less modern questions. That's not just me being an old git, you could see how much the contestants struggled with those questions regardless of age.