3. Analysis of a TV Show relevant to Cosmic Snatchers - Ludus

I chose the CBBC TV show Ludus as the TV show relevant to Cosmic Snatchers because it has the same general theme of space and the contestants win a ticket to leave the planet. In Ludus, the three contestants are playing to win their family members who have been turned into holograms by the main antagonist of the show Ludus. Before each game, they are shown who they can play for and if they win the game they can get their family member back, but if they lose then their family member gets uploaded into Ludus's game forever and won't be able to return home with them. In the final round, the three contestants face one more game and the prize for this game is a ticket home to planet Earth. The ticket is underneath a spherical object which Ludus calls 'a tick', however under the other two are Ludus's bugs meaning that if they choose a tick with a monster underneath it means that they lose and are stuck with Ludus for all eternity.

In this show, there is also an option that no one returns home and only the holograms of their family do, which I find quite tragic. I would argue that Ludus isn't a kid's game show as the concept of 'losing a family member' can be quite disheartening, even though little kids are the contestants. Some of the main differences between Ludus to Cosmic Snatchers is that the target audience is different as Cosmic Snatchers aims for a more mature audience, regarding the references to mature themes that younger audiences might find disturbing. Another difference is that Cosmic Snatchers has one definite winner of the shows to make it fit into the scripted parts of the show. 

With the concept of winning, in Ludus, it is all up to the final game to see who goes home, which does show a similarity with Cosmic Snatchers as there is a final show of who won by an egg reveal. In the plastic glittered eggs we were thinking of having blue tinsel for the losing eggs and in the winning glittered egg was gold tinsel and the tinsel would be the fuel for the contestant's spaceship to get home to planet Earth. Scott Manville, a former development executive of Merv Griffin Entertainment states that: "Those moments of drama always teeter on a CHOICE the contestant must make, and not always just on getting the right answer." (Manville, 2022)

I think the contestants choosing the eggs they choose and with one of them having the winning colour in is purely based on luck and how the cards are dealt. Dan Kowalski, a blog writer, states that: "Luck adds an element to games that allows for a worse player to have a chance at success against better opponents." (Kowalski, 2022). This is why I think luck games are crucial in TV game shows as it adds that necessary suspense which is what I like about TV game shows. 

Bibliography:

Kowalski, D., 2022. Dan on Luck In Games: Should the Best Player Always Win?. [online] Nerd Herd. Available at: https://nerdherdgettysburg.com/blogs/news-events/dan-on-luck-in-games-should-the-best-player-always-win [Accessed 28 February 2022].

Manville, J. (2022). Creating & Pitching Game Shows for Today's TV. [online] Available at: https://www.tvwritersvault.com/creating/creatinggameshows.asp#.YkxMOxPMLDE [Accessed 28 February 2022].