I'll start by saying I don't know whether it's been cancelled but my guess would be that it has. Series 4 was recently broadcast less than 6 months after Series 3 and shown across 9 consecutive weekdays.
I didn't know Series 4 was happening until it nearly finished and ended up watching all the episodes on catch up. Not only did this seem to be a low key affair this time I also hear that 12 Yard Productions who are behind the show are calling it a day.
For me this time I decided I couldn't be bothered to track my score which I normally do. What I do know is that if I made the grand final I wouldn't of won because the winning contestant got a full house and I didn't get a full house on the other set of questions.
I'm afraid the transition to TV hasn't really worked and I've heard several others say the same. I can think of a number of reasons why:
It's an hour long: I normally listen to the radio version on catch up and skip through the blurb. This means it takes around 10 minutes to listen to it. If I have a few days to catch up on I start to get sick of it after listening to 3 or 4 in a row. I get that it needs to be more than just the radio version with cameras but an hour does feel too long.
The modern questions: I get that music didn't end in 1999 but it's clear to see the contestants are generally clueless when it comes to music from the last 10-15 years. In 1999 many of us still had just 4 channels and would watch Top of the Pops each week. We knew what was number one in the charts. If you wrote a Popmaster style quiz that only featured music from the 2020s and the contestants were in the 18-25 age bracket I'm almost certain the scores would be really low.
Scoring distribution: If you're good at years there's 5 points up for grabs, if you're good at lyrics there's 48. In Links and Video Gaga there's a maximum of 12 and you have to rely on your competitors being wrong to score more than 12 on Mixtape. So in theory you could have a perfect score on Links, Video Gaga, Mixtape and Year and end up with 41 points, 7 less than you can score on the lyrics round alone.
How does one reach the final?: There were 8 heats but just 5 finalists. We know it's to do with the score in Original Popmaster but if say you are runner up in your heat but get a better score than the winners in all the other heats, do you reach the final or not? I know the 2 finalists in the grand final got 30+ scores in their heats but I'm pretty certain more than 3 contestants got 24. How do you determine which ones went through? is 3 in 10 a factor? None of this is made clear.
Mistakes in questions: There was the question "What was Amy Winehouse's Top 40 debut in 2003?" the answer was "Rehab" but this came out in 2006. Small error maybe but when you consider her debut single that didn't make the Top 40 came out in 2003 it can be confusing. Likewise the question "Who had a hit with Fake Plastic Trees in 2005?", answer was Radiohead but it was 1995 and someone could of done a cover in 2005.
Difficult to play along: Part of what makes the radio version so successful is that you can play along at home. The question is always asked in full before the contestant answers. On Intros, Middles & Ends there's often a contestant who buzzes in after hearing the first note meaning you're not likely to get it without being as quick as them. In the year round if the contestant guesses after 1 clue it's hard to come up with your own answer if you need 1 or 2 more clues. On the final 2 mixtape questions when a place in the next round is at stake a contestant can take the gamble by buzzing in before the question is properly asked.
Low scores in final round: I will concede Original Popmaster is more difficult than the radio version but it's not Champions League level. When you get that contestant who's good at lyrics or identifying a song after 1 note and clocks up enough points to get to the final only to find their general music knowledge isn't that great and they score 9 it doesn't really seem fair.
If it does return I'll probably still watch it. I've probably blown any chance I had of being selected to go on with this post but on reflection I'm not sure I would of wanted to go on and am unlikely to apply again.
