Tipping Point

And it coincides with those beautifully crafted discs of excitement tumbling down the shelf of treachery. One moment I'm racking my brain to questions akin to that of University Challenge, the next I find myself perched on the tip of my sofa ready to tumble myself! A high octane and beautifully constructed game show, my tip? Watch Tipping Point.

Are Tipping Point questions too easy or is it meant for primary school children's viewing? A typical question and answer may be as follows- Ben - "What fruit is orangey flavoured, orange in colour and has a chocolate version made by Terry's?" Contestant - "Is it a Cadbury Cream Egg?"

Maybe not but comes close.

Is anybody watching this for any other reason then to drool over Ben Shephard? He is insanely handsome, he's a wonderfully nice chap, friendly, kind, hard to imagine him being mean to any of the contestants, but let's face it the show is so uninspiring. I am really surprised to see it's still going after almost a decade, so many great game shows haven't lasted half as long. Truly the most exciting thing about the show is seeing what fabulous suit Mr Shephard is wearing. The contestants can be annoying, but I don't remember seeing any unpleasant ones. How big is that machine? That's what I want to know.

Another quiz show in Britain that faces stiff competition in the field from several others on ITV. Like is usually the case, the Brits really hype up the quiz show with catchy themes and devices to add entertainment value. The device here of course is the tipping point "machine" in which contestants win counters to put into the machine for answering questions correctly hoping to tip over other counters in order to add money to their bank. You can learn some trivia knowledge if you watch the show enough.

However, the show compared to its competition is a little repetitive. Ben Shephard is fine as a host but does not have the same flare to him as Bradley Walsh on the Chase.

Overall it's still a quality quiz show that lets you somewhat play along with whoever you are watching it with. I can't imagine watching it on my own though calling out answers.

One other part that feels a bit off to me is that players can spend the entire hour building up their bank and it all just gets removed unless they have won the show. Usually most shows offer contestants some chance at keeping what they've already won. The mystery tokens also seem like rather cheap prizes a lot of the time.

Overall it's not your first choice game show, but it's not bad if there's nothing else on and you need to burn a little time and want a distraction.

I like the bit where the coin displaces other coins which in turn push other coins into the trough.