“The show needs to work for a new audience that is far more demanding and sophisticated than 26 years ago.” “Nostalgia wears off very quickly,” says executive producer Neale Simpson. The Crystal Maze ran from 1990 to 1995 and feels intrinsically part of the ’90s, from its synthesised opening theme tune to the final challenge in which the contestants had to pretend to catch the golden tokens because the fabled fans didn’t actually work. Updating a show so defined by the past was a tough challenge for Banijay UK indie Fizz, which produced last year’s special. Keeping, and potentially growing, this audience meant evolving the format beyond the SUTC special, which had been constructed as an intentional nod to the past. “We were worried that it would only attract viewers of the original series, but the number of young viewers was huge.” “We were blown away,” he said at the time of commission.
The experience has proved so popular that a second one was recently opened at Manchester’s Granada Studios.įor C4 head of live and events Tom Beck, the demonstrable youth appeal was a key factor in bringing back the show for a full 20 x 60-minute series.
Interest in the show had been stoked by the Crystal Maze Live Experience in London’s King’s Cross, with groups of players taking on the maze away from prying TV cameras. The special reeled in a consolidated 4.3 million viewers and produced a 15% spike in the number of 16-34s watching the channel.
The Office co-creator Stephen Merchant stepped into former host Richard O’Brien’s shoes in the big-budget celebrity special for the channel’s Stand Up to Cancer (SUTC) fundraiser, even shaving his head in homage to the original presenter. When Channel 4’s cult gameshow The Crystal Maze returned last year after a 21-year absence, it received a warm welcome. Executive producers Neale Simpson Peter Usher
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