ITV confirm the return of the teatime game show which was launched by ATV in 1981…
Darts based game show Bullseye is back on ITV1 and STV, with cricketing legend Freddie Flintoff at the presenting helm this festive season.
Freddie Flintoff:
“I love the darts and Bullseye was one of my favourite shows as a kid. Can’t quite believe I’ll get to host this Christmas special. You can’t beat a bit of Bully!”
Bullseye is one of the UK’s most successful and best loved family game shows and in a brand new Christmas special each playing team will be made up of an amateur dart player, known as the ‘thrower’, and their team partner, the ’knower’. They will combine their skills, throwing darts at different game boards, whilst answering questions correctly for ‘points and prizes’.
The ATV, and later Central Television, game show would make original host Jim Bowen one of ITV’s best-known personalities over its original fourteen-year run. ATV’s publicity listing noted for the first series; “Jim Bowen hosts a quiz show based around darts. Three teams of contestants, in pairs, test their skills at scoring on the dartboard in order to answer questions and win money and prizes. The winning team then can gamble their winnings for a major star prize”.
The show however, like Blankety Blank over on the BBC, became legendary for its strange range of prizes which often included a speedboat.
Katie Rawcliffe, Director of Entertainment & Daytime Commissioning ITV:
“Bullseye is back and we can’t wait to welcome Freddie Flintoff back to ITV too. It’s a real treat to have both as key parts of our Christmas schedule on ITV1 and ITVX this year.”
The one-off, hour-long, programme brings back the series for a third time. The format was revived for a Challenge TV/Sky series in 2005 hosted by comedian Dave Spikey. There has also been several specials on ITV as part of their Game Show Marathon and Epic Game Show formats.
While the first run in 1981 wasn’t quite the show viewers came to know and love, by series two, the format was set for over 300 episodes and Jim Bowen became the king of Sunday teatimes on ITV.
The series proved a hit with the television audiences until 1995 when ITV decided to change their weekend schedules. It has been suggested that the broadcaster was looking for more ‘upmarket’ quiz shows, and Bullseye didn’t quite match the demographic Central and ITV sought. Despite this, the programme became one of ITV’s longest-running game show formats and continues to pull in the viewers to Challenge with its regular reruns of both the ATV and Central Television years.
The enduring popularity of Bullseye was celebrated by Challenge in 2015 when they aired a specially commissioned documentary charting the darting in You Can’t Beat a Bit of Bully. Produced by Sky Vision Productions, the hour-long one-off special saw contributions from host Jim, referee and co-host Tony Green plus celebrity fans and former contestants all fondly reflecting on the production which at its peak commanded viewing figures of over fifteen million viewers.
In February 2016 Jim Bowen was voted Britain’s Best Game Show Host in a poll by Quiz Britain. Bowen topped the vote with 26%.
