All episodes are on SBS On Demand if anyone wants to catch up before the final.
This week was Second Chance Week in which top scoring second place getters were invited back to the show for another chance to reach next week’s finals.
Great finale tonight. Congratulations to Troy.
I notice that SBS has struggled to attract a decent studio audience for the show. There were a couple of episodes where the studio was empty apart from the host and the contestants. In other episodes half of the audience was high school students (on excursion?). I think SBS need to advertise more often to get people to register for studio audience, e.g. during its radio programs through 68 languages and on the network’s Eurovision and Tour de France coverage.
EDIT:
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Probably better to have no audience than half a dozen people in the background as it would look out of place. As these shows are recorded in the daytime, there is little incentive for people to attend due to work commitments.
Sadly, another quiz show that was axed earlier this year was so desperate for audience members they routinely setup AirTasker jobs to pay for people to be in the audience.
So maybe some sessions should be recorded in the evening.
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SBS Upfronts:
Mastermind - Season 2 in early 2020.
Celebrity Mastermind
SBS is excited to announce that in an Australian first, Celebrity Mastermind is set to air in 2020. Sixteen of Australia’s most well-loved celebrities will battle it out for a winning title. Produced by BBC Studios Australia.
Can’t wait to see Celebrity Mastermind 
Celebrity Mastermind. - Celebrities to face TV’s toughest quiz show
SBS commissions BBC Studios for more Mastermind
BBC Studios has scored a new commission for Mastermind, along with a spin-off version of Celebrity Mastermind.
Announced today at SBS’s Upfronts, a second series of Mastermind will return for 85 programmes in early 2020. In addition, BBC Studios has been commissioned to produce five one hour Celebrity Mastermind specials.
With quiz master Jennifer Byrne back at the helm, Australia’s smartest contenders will face the iconic Mastermind chair, the spotlight and a brand new round of questions to test their knowledge.
Plus, for the first time in Australia, Jennifer Byrne will be quizzing celebrities on their specialist and general knowledge, in a special series of Celebrity Mastermind . Watch your favourite celebrities conquer or crumble under the spotlight as Celebrity Mastermind uncovers some surprising and unusual hidden knowledge.
BBC Studios ANZ Director of Production, Kylie Washington, secured the two Mastermind commissions from Josh Martin, Commissioning Editor, Entertainment at SBS. The Executive Producer for both series will be Lucy De Luca.
Kylie Washington said: “We’re delighted that the first series of Mastermind successfully established an early evening ‘smart slot’ for SBS audiences and can’t wait to be back with more. Celebrity Mastermind gives us a chance to build on the success of the brand and invite some of Australia’s smartest household names to bravely step up to the black chair too.”
SBS Commissioning Editor Entertainment and Food, Josh Martin said: “SBS is thrilled to see the return of two new series of Mastermind with quizmaster Jennifer Bryne at the helm. This is a timeless format and the diversity of specialist topics is a joy to watch – not to mention that the play-at-home nature of the series has proven to be an important destination for audiences at 6pm on weeknights. We are particularly excited about Celebrity Mastermind . Which celebrities are willing to be put to the test in the famous black chair? And more importantly, what will be their speciality topics? We can’t wait to find out!”
Mastermind is a BBC Studios format, produced for SBS by BBC Studios ANZ and distributed by BBC Studios.
Since the BBC Studios Australian production arm was established under Kylie in September 2018, it has produced Mastermind S1 for SBS, Stargazing: Moon and Beyond for the ABC and co-produced Dancing with the Stars for Ten.
Celebrity Mastermind will be filmed at SBS studios in Artarmon in Sydney on January 30 (episode 1 and 2), February 11 (episode 3 and 4) and February 25 (grand final, afternoon session only). Register for audience tickets here
According to the SBS website, the first eight celebrities to compete are legendary drag queen Courtney Act (special topic: TV series The Nanny); journalist and author Jessica Rowe (domestic cat breeds); cook and television host Adam Liaw (Asian cuisine); author and comedian Adam Spencer (Great mathematicians of the 20th century); journalist and personality Marc Fennell (Star Trek: The Next Generation), comedian and writer Alex Lee (rats) and comedians Sam Simmons (The Slow Loris picture book) and Nazeem Hussain (mangoes).
SBS will announce the other eight celebrities at a later date.
Celebrity Mastermind
From Saturday 15 February at 07:30 PM
SBS is excited to announce that in an Australian first, Celebrity Mastermind will premiere next month at 7:30pm on Saturday 15 February.
Sixteen well-loved Australian celebrities will battle it out for the winning title across five weeks. The first eight celebrities to face the pressure as they answer questions based on their speciality subjects are legendary drag queen Courtney Act , journalist and author Jessica Rowe, cook and television presenter Adam Liaw , author and comedian Adam Spencer , journalist and personality Marc Fennell, andcomedians Sam Simmons, Nazeem Hussain and Alex Lee.
Specialty topics include The Nanny , domestic cat breeds, Asian cuisine, great mathematicians of the 20th century, Star Trek: The Next Generation , the slow loris, mangoes and rats .
Hosted by journalist Jennifer Byrne , each episode of Celebrity Mastermind will see one celebrity advance to the Grand Final. All winners will then compete at 7:30pm on Saturday 21 March for the prestigious title of Celebrity Mastermind.
Multiple appearances on The Project does not make you a celebrity.
He also hosts The Feed on Viceland so I don’t know what’s your point.
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Agreed. Sure, Marc Fennell isn’t the biggest media personality in Australia by any stretch but he’s essentially the face of SBS VICELAND by being main presenter of The Feed and (from what I’ve seen) also presenting Movie Intros on the channel.
Marc Fennell has a long list of credits to his name. He has been a movie critic and appeared on many TV and radio shows with his reviews.
He hosted the rebooted The Movie Show on SBS, was a presenter and reporter on Hungry Beast. He has also been a radio presenter on FBI radio, Triple J and Radio National. He has also hosted a lot of cult movie series on TV.
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It’s like they’ve sourced all their celebrities from The Project. Of course, one or two is fine but not all of them.
There’s plenty of Z-grade celebrities to go around that haven’t appeared on The Project.
If you don’t watch anything outside commercial television, how would you know all the other things he’s done?
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I have heard of Marc Fennell. Not sure why we’re all going on about Marc Fennell?
What about “legendary” drag queen Courtney Act? Dame Edna I would consider legendary.
Well, she’s done a lot in the shorter twenty years she’s been around. She was in Australian Idol and has performed in many stage shows, released music and competed in Australia Decides last year for Eurovision.
She was in Ru Paul’s Drag Race, hosted dating reality show The Bi Life and had her own late-night talk show The Courtney Act Show on Channel 4 UK. She then did Celebrity Big Brother UK and Dancing with the Stars.
Next, she will have a guest role in Neighbours.
Because you were saying that he isn’t a celebrity due to the fact that he appeared on The Project.
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