To be unable to watch most TV game shows?

[Sofiria]

Light-hearted, in case it wasn't obvious, but it seems that every quiz show I watch lately has ridiculous amounts of filler. Repeatedly explaining how the game works, or reciting each contestant's points total even though they're clearly visible to us, and in some cases even going over the basic maths each time.

'Jane has 20 points and Mary has 50 points. That puts Jane 30 points behind!' and suchlike - especially if it's done before the ad break and then again after it. It annoys me so much that I can't watch.

And don't get me started on any kind of competition-based show that announces 'the winner is...' and then pauses for 20 seconds. It's not suspense. 2 seconds of pausing is suspenseful. 20 is extremely irritating.

The only quiz show I've found not to be guilty of any of this is University Challenge, which I enjoy even though it makes me feel very ignorant for only guessing a half-dozen right answers most of the time.

Eh. It's late and I'm feeling curmudgeonly. What do you all think?

I love The Chase. I'd love to be on it. Bradley Walsh is great on it even though you might think he might be a bit of a twat. He manages to let you see the personality of the contestant without going on too much. The chasers are pantomime villains. It's harmless fun.

I love Pointless, but I watch it on iPlayer so I can skip over the bits where Alexander Armstrong is explaining the game, and that cuts the programme time down quite a bit.

I do enjoy Paxman's attitude - "We all know the rules, let's get on with it." Other quiz show hosts should learn from him.

I love Pointless but record them so I zip to the first question and zip through any sport/politics ones and I only watch the last round if they pick a category I know.

I used to love weakest link, I really miss that.

Cant abide any luck based games - tipping point, deal or no deal etc.

tipping point is unbelievably bad.
i do like university challenge, and only connect.
did over watch pointless I think, and they do have filler, apparently they used not to show it but do now due to the enjoyment factor.

There's a National Lottery 'gameshow' on once a week in Ireland, where I'm from (or there was, I assume it's still on) and you would think it was bloody Mastermind or something involving military levels of strategy for all the huffing and explanations from the presenters, the faux bonhomie with the contestants, and the shrieking and banner-waving from the audience. In fact, you push a series of buttons and win larger or smaller amounts of money. No questions, no strategy, no skill. There's no particular reason why Nuala from Tyrone has to be there in person at all.

It makes Pointless look like Plato's Symposium.

I think I'd enjoy Only Connect if it was presented by anyone other than Victoria Coren. She just seems so insufferably pleased with herself.

I agree about lengthy explanations of the answer. If you know it just answer, don't go through each thought process. I was irritated by this when watching Eggheads and it became so bad when Grinning Barry and No-neck Paul joined the experts that I gave up watching. Show-offs!!

We watch Only Connect partly for Victoria Coren-Mitchells introductions - "X once shared a 99 ice-cream with the archbishop of Canterbury" or "Y once endured a night in sub-zero temperatures while trapped in a telephone box by a dead wombat". We assume she makes them up if the contestants don't come up with something. The quiz itself moves at a good pace and has questions that are hard but fair, a bit like QI, if QI was actually a quiz programme. After decades of watching University Challenge I think I could go on Mastermind with my specialist subject "Guessing the classical music questions of University Challenge".

Okay you* I'll grit my teeth and give 'Only Connect' another go. To be fair she is the least odious Coren sibling in the public eye.

Strange, because I really enjoyed their father on Radio & TV.

Pointless is painfully slow. I'm sure it could be edited down to 15 minutes if you cut out all the chat. It's a shame because I think it's a great concept for a quiz show, but I just can't watch it any more. Series one was much better because they had five pairs of contestants instead of four, meaning it was a lot faster paced.

The same kind of thing happened to Deal Or No Deal. It used to be really good when it was 45 minutes. Then they increased it to one hour and had to fill up the extra time with chat and silly gimmicks, which ruined the show.

The Chase on the other hand is perfect. Very fast paced but still lots of good interaction between Bradley, the contestants and the chasers.

I love Eggheads, University Challenge and Only Connect. I enjoy the slow pace and no frills of Eggheads and I do enjoy the explanations. I can't stand all the others, as there is so much unnecessary chatter and background music, noises and general faff. On radio I enjoy Round Britain Quiz and Brain of Britain - available as podcasts.

There was a woman on The Chase last week who was being all over familiar and chatty with BW. I had to switch over.

I bloody love Tipping Point. I have it on while I cook dinner and get really into it. 'It's riding!' 'Ooh just a little nudge to the right'. Gripping stuff.

I always pause The Chase to watch after dinner, I love it.

Also love UC and OC, especially if I get an answer right.

Fun (well not that fun really)Mastermind fact.

The single chair in a spotlight, the relentless interrogation, the lack of host contestant interaction, the austere set etc. were influenced by the bloke who came up with the original format's experience of being interrogated by the Gestapo when he was a prisoner of war.

Tipping point is atrocious, but I went on it, came across as a massive tit, but won £10k, so... Giant smug face. Don't watch it though! Ben Sheppard smells lovely.

Thanks for the interesting Ben Shepherd fact DrRanj.

Quite frankly if I even get one or two University Challenge questions correct I feel like getting the bunting out and hiring a brass band to play a triumphant ditty.

Whenever UC comes on I always think of this episode.

Some friends and I decided that UC has been going downhill recently, because we were all finding we could answer more than 3 or 4 questions in the whole show. I got 8 once. 8!

I prefer Numberwang- it's quick and pointless