Spicks & Specks didn't get that resurrection right, its return without Adam Hills, Myf Warhurst and Alan Brough a pleasant but still damp squib. Turns out there's more to making a music quiz show than silly games, funny retooled versions of hits and shots of Brian Mannix in spandex.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
You know what was missing? Channel 7 does: more. More noise, more movement, more light and much, much more shouting.
The vibe for The Big Music Quiz is a cross between those late night, cheap as chips, dial-in shows the networks tried around the turn of the century and a pub quiz when everyone's had their fifth wine cooler, the mini sausage rolls have run out and the bloke from accounting is starting to look less like The Hound and more like Bondi Vet – in a certain half-light, if you cover one eye, and pray.
You know the drill: music is squeezing itself through inadequate speakers with as much grace as you manage each time you put on those skinny jeans, half the beer is going down the shirt rather than in the mouth and there's breakouts of singing to prove the karaoke later will be hellzapoppin. Having fun? Mate it's the Best. Night. Ever.
Trying to make that happen on a TV set requires more than a hyperventilating audience, which this has, of course. Here you can tell every panellist, including one of those who was at the rebirth of Spicks & Specks, Ella Hooper, has ingested whole the Bugger Charm, Have More Fun memo. If they were trying any harder those post-op seams would burst.
Get an answer right? Get up and dance with a beaming smile that says my cheque from Channel 7 has been cashed already and who will be watching anyway? Got an answer wrong? Get up and dance with a sad face that says my cheque from Channel 7 has been cashed already but I've got a sneaky feeling my agent can't keep this out of the resume.
While host Darren McMullen is no more appealing than in his The Voice guise, The Big Music Quiz does throw in familiar elements such as the quirky covers of a well known song and a physical musical challenge (the Madden brothers – why? – on bikes in the first episode), an '80s rocker prepared to be a goose and someone who didn't win Dancing with the Stars. All with added eye-smearing graphics.
The problem is though when you start at the pain threshold of hysteria, your audience is going to tire long before the hour is up. Yes, an hour. That's a very long time to spend without gags in a packed, day-glo pub with the Shoutiest. Shouty. People. Ever.
WHAT The Big Music Quiz
WHEN Seven, Sunday, 7pm
