Catchpoint (2019–2022) User Reviews

Not great.

[Mark_a_Wood · 5/10 · 26 April 2020]

Both the BBC and ITV have served up some exceptionally bad Saturday night game shows/light entertainment shows over the decades. Catchpoint isn't one of the worst - but it isn't particularly good either.

Host Paddy McGuinness doesn't get much of an opportunity to connect with the contestants, there are very few questions posed to the contestants, there is zero atmosphere in the studio and there is too much faffing about with slow motion replays and the like. However, McGuinness still makes for an amiable host, there is some modicum of entertainment to be had from watching people spectacularly fumble a seemingly easy catch, the music question and memory question make a welcome change to the format of the other questions on the show and it is only a half hour programme.

Overall Catchpoint is rather Meh.

Catchpoint...just completely fails to catch my interest

[Richard_McGhie · 20 December 2023]

I struggle and fail to understand why the BBC basically justified the existence of this thing by allowing it to continue on air for close to 4 years because fundamentally, this show is just a big batch of nothing-burger: There is just literally nothing new or creative or fun or exciting or engaging or even remotely entertaining about this show to begin with. It is just a televisual black hole of pure nothing.

When you have such a format as this that is as absurdly bland as it sounds (probably even worse actually than that of Impossible), where you just have to answer a series of questions (the large majority of which go in way over your head rather quickly anyway) whilst at the same time you faff about trying to catch some random-sized balls from midair and yet it simultaneously commits the cardinal gameshow sin of immediately losing your audience's interest and/or boring them half to sleep, that's when you know there's a huge problem and that something clearly got lost in translation here. Honestly, the only perfect analogy I can use to describe this format is that it is like you're being served a cheeseburger without the cheese or a pepperoni pizza without the pepperonis or an ice cream without any of the sauces or even a chocolate cake without the icing.

Now don't get me wrong, I have genuine huge respect for Paddy McGuinness especially when it comes to his personal life and I don't think he is entirely a bad presenter per se (e.g. I am of the opinion that Take Me Out was his best presenting job by far and Take Me Out was in itself a legitimately great show when it aired; still a tragic shame though that ITV cancelled it after 11 seasons) but I'm sadly not gonna lie, he is just not the right choice to present a show like this and it further cements not only the fact that the BBC are completely wasting his presenting talent in recent years with an extremely unfortunate line of generic dreck such as this, I Can See Your Voice (which I legit have little to zero interest in checking out anyway), latter-day Top Gear and even latter-day A Question of Sport that lead to nowhere, consistently tank in the ratings and then immediately get taken off air after two or more seasons but also further confirms that Paddy (very much like Gary Lineker) is probably better off without the BBC and thus at this point he might as well return to ITV and potentially do a revival season of Take Me Out.

In conclusion, if you're in the mood for a gameshow that is fun, engaging, exciting and most importantly entertaining, prepare yourself to be immensely disappointed because this show frankly lacks any of that and my advice instead is just stick to watching either Tenable, Tipping Point or even The Chase.

My overall rating for Catchpoint: 0.5/10.