TV: It's the game that matters

By Teri Fitsell

Those likely lads of New Zealand sport, Marc Ellis and Matthew Ridge, are back together again, this time as captains of opposing teams in a new celebrity quiz show, Game of Two Halves (TV One, Tuesdays, 8 pm).

And while last night's initial episode didn't sparkle quite as brightly as hoped, the show has clearly got great potential and should develop into enjoyable viewing.

Basically, it's all about sporting trivia knowledge, offering viewers excellent opportunities to indulge in interactive television of the low-tech kind ... for instance, shouting out the answers at your television set.

Come on, we all do it don't we?

Two Halves bears similarities to a successful British sports quiz show entitled They Think It's All Over, in which the emphasis is as much on the humour as sporting knowledge.

Touchdown Productions' Julie Christie says it's not based on that programme, "but was developed specially as a vehicle for Ridge and Ellis."

"That programme is heavily scripted, while this one is totally ad-libbed.

"We wanted to create a programme that would unite Matthew Ridge and Marc Ellis again and allow them to continue the good-humoured competitive rivalry they've built up.

"And, since a lot of sport on television is losing its female audience, we also wanted it to appeal to men and women.

"It's meant to be an entertainment show about sport, not a sports show that's entertaining."

Ellis and Ridge will be joined each week by their regular vice-captains comedian Mike King and media personality Phil Gifford. They are there to inject some extra humour into the proceedings, which they did particularly well last night in the commentary segment, a round where the teams have to do a spontaneous "Keith Quinn" over a sports clip.

The teams will also have a guest personality each week. Last night they were former Commonwealth sportswoman (and presenter of Dream Homes) Jayne Kiely, whose excellent sporting knowledge helped Ellis' team to an opening win, and Warriors forward Jason Death, who was, well, cheerful but rather quiet, really.

One of the most entertaining parts is the clues round, a quickfire affair in which the vice-captains must each give their own team-mates clues to the names of various sporting stars, clubs or grounds, and the other two must come up with the answer.

To quote school report cards the world over, Ridge's team "could do better" here. Ridge and Death got so mixed up last night - despite Gifford's excellent efforts - that at one stage the episode was in danger of being retitled A Game of Two Half-Wits.

Not that it really mattered since quiz-master Eric Young (who can also be seen on Tight Five), was happy to dish out points even when a question was answered wrongly, prompting some appropriately sarcastic jibes from Ellis. Perhaps the Two Halves scoring is based on that of the Rugby World Cup ... even if you lose you get points for showing up.

But then, Ridge/Ellis rivalry aside, the points really aren't too important. After all, it's a programme of two halves - it's a team game, not an individual effort, the boys are just taking it one match at a time ...

And, when the captains settle into it more and the banter really gets going, it's television that'll be the real winner.