You may have seen a news article today circulating in the Sun newspaper and social media, suggesting that The Crystal Maze revival has been axed by Channel 4.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/crystal-maze-axed-channel-4-24782992.amp
We have known this for about six weeks, but have remained quiet until it was made public by the media.
The revival was a success. The new set, designed once again by James Dillion who designed the original set was fantastic. The games were good. Towards the end, we even had a Crystal Maze series commissioned by Nickelodeon for America.
The beauty of The Crystal Maze format, is it has the ability to remain fresh. They brought in Eastern Zone - but they still could have tried another Presenter and perhaps brought back Ocean Zone. Derren Brown would make a fantastic presenter. The Crystal Maze remains very popular, especially with the rise of online escape rooms during lockdown. It's a shame the Maze is gone already when it still had lots of mileage. I feel that C4 deciding to make too many Celebrity editions turned viewers off
The only consolidation, is that Channel 4 have the option to maybe bring it back again in the future. Hopefully when the COVID-19 pandemic calms down.
Sadly, the new set has already been dismantled and skipped. We personally witnessed it. However we have done our best to save as many relics as possible incase it never returns. We went on a bit of a Maze blog mission.
We will bring you another blog on this soon. In the meantime, we aim to keep the iconic show's legacy alive and campaign for another return. We all need to keep the popularity of the show alive to help it come back again in the future. Make sure you all email Channel 4 Viewer Services to express how unhappy you are that the Maze has been axed, and that you want another series.
Sadly the writing has been on the wall since 2020 that this was going to happen. 1st C4 announced a huge budget cut plan which axed some better viewing figure shows which was confusing at the time to why. With the maze being a less than 800k case there was strike 1 against it. 2. Back to the surprise cancellation of the circle which was scoring roughly a 10th more than the Maze. If a strong fan base couldn’t save that what chances the maze fan base could do the same. 3. Back in Jan Richard Ayoade himself confirmed on Celebrity catchphrase that no more maze recordings were on the cards and was up to exces to decide the fate. I did on several occasions over the last 12-16 months mentioned my gut was saying cancellation however members of the fan base kinda ignored all the facts that were in public domain. Now all I need to know is Nicks plan for any future shows and if so must surely mean a Homebase set in the US. Has anyone let Adam know the UK situation
ReplyDeleteAdam probably knows. I'm not sure the US would bring it back. The UK set has been dismantled.
DeleteHi Danker. We didn’t ‘ignore the facts’. We were just trying to remain optimistic. The thing you have to understand with tv & film production is secrecy. Non disclosure agreements, signing of contracts etc.,are all private & not open to public domain until authorised to do so (if at all).
ReplyDeletePhil N-E
Sad. To be honest I disagree, the revival wasn't a success. It was just a dumbed down version of the original and I don't think Richard Ayoade was the right presenter, his heart just didn't seem to be in it and his sarcastic humour (constantly mocking the set, etc) wasn't suited to the show. To me if you're going to bring something great back you need to commit 100% to it and do it properly. The cheap set and very unbalanced games (either too easy or too hard) didn't help at all and it just seemed that C4 didn't make a good enough go with it. It had its moments but there were too few of them.
ReplyDeleteI thought they got more right than wrong. I thought the games were good. I thought, also, that Richard Ayoade 80% worked. He got a good modern sense of humour, the hand etc worked well. He had good interactions with both celebs and ordinary players. Like all witty people, though, he can't resist but do the line. I agree that making fun of the show constantly was a problem - it was unnecessary. No other show does that - and there is a reason for that. Take The Cube - similar idea - it goes on like it's the most important thing in the universe to build suspense. No other game show, other than Blankety Blank, makes a big point about having rubbish prizes. Also, they could have learned from Fort Boyard in France that is still going since 1990. They have fun and have a laugh but the game is played straight and as if it's serious and Pere Fouras is a real character etc - Lady Boo glares at the contestants and so on. For me, though, the biggest problem was Channel 4: The show was barely on at the same time twice, and in groups of 3 or 4 or something. They wouldn't have done that to Bake Off. There's also no reason why it couldn't gave been on earlier so Primary kids could catch it. Kids have always been a big chunk of the audience. So, in summary, Richard Ayoade should have realised why no other game show says the game doesn't matter and the flag stones are sprayed wood etc. If that was a winner, all game shows would play it like that. Second, ch4 ballsed up the scheduling through not caring or panicking about ratings at various points. I enjoyed the reboot and, apart from those two gripes, thought the show was good. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your summary on its failings. The inconsistent broadcasting schedule didn't help. For me when it comes to passing judgement, it can only be done alongside the original, and this is where it falls short in all areas. Yes it had some good moments and some games were well designed and Ayoade was funny on occasions, but I just find it remarkable how you look at the set from the early 90s and it just looks way bigger and more high-tech than the set from 25 years later! Such a shame, a great show which C4 we all thought would continue its legacy, instead they sold everyone short. Anyway lets hope in the future it gets brought back with a good budget and presenters who have real passion for the show.
DeleteChannel 4. Crystal maze coming back
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