Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses

I don't know if this was fake and scripted as some have suggested, but it was terribly cheesy. It was like what a comedy sketch show (maybe Key and Peele) would do as a mick take of a American scripted reality TV shows, with all the over the top clapping and cheering after every sentence and apparently normal people 'contestants' who love being in front of the camera and acting out their well rehearsed lines, and an advert break every 10 minutes.

However, as a Harry Potter fan there were some interesting questions in there and it was enjoyable just to be connected to the universe again for 45 minutes. A properly done Harry Potter quiz show would be hugely popular, wonderful for fans to watch, and would probably go on running for years and decades. So in short, this was disappointing and achieved very little of what it could have, however, as a Harry Potter fan you are always going to enjoy being connected to the universe no matter how bad it is.

Overall the show is kind of cringey to watch. The questions are at times extremely random, but its still fun to test your own knowledge on the questions presented.

The idea of a Harry Potter trivia game show is an awesome idea. However, this is an AWFUL execution of said awesome idea.

They present the show as if the contestants are picked randomly from the audience, but it's clear that's not the case as the contestants already have name plaques on the podiums. Each question has 4 answer choices, presented very much like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. But every question's third or fourth answer is something completely stupid and meant to be funny, i.e. "What is Remus Lupin's Marauder's nickname?"; "Lupin-ator."

But my biggest turn off with this show is the way the contestants confer before answering each question. I understand as a team they're supposed to give only one answer, but they way they do it is very annoying. It's as if the producers told them to to show their work and explain how the came up with their answer, as if they doing a long division math problem. For example, one of the questions was who transfigured into a shark during the Triwizard Tournament. Instead of simply answering it, they go into an in-depth analysis in order to eliminate their choices. "Well sharks are strong manly forces and who's known for being manly? It must be Viktor Krum."

I'm not sure who's idea this was, but it's clear this was only made to capitalize on the excitement of the upcoming reunion special.

So, to start off, I read a lot of reviews that said the contestants were clearly fake/planted adults amongst kids in the audience. This is not true. I only counted about 4 teenagers in my section (slytherin) and everyone else were adults including myself. When Helen announced the three contestants, one of them was sitting next to me and she went ballistic. If she was acting, she deserves an Oscar. Secondly, the guy who got chosen from slytherin (Ryan) thought Helen said "Brian" which was his brothers name who was sitting next to him. His reaction was delayed and they had to re-shoot him and then decided to re-shoot the reactions. "Please pretend that we didn't just call your names and act just as surprised." So, if you got the impression that these contestants were fake, that is why.

After the 3 contestants were chosen, there was a long break before the filming of the contest had begun. I am certain that this is when they were told how to conduct themselves throughout the show when answering questions and talking about their story. They weren't reading scripts. Helen was the only one reading scripts. The way they were told how to interact was just cringey. Nothing more.

Another thing I have to point out because it seems unfair to her, Helen did great. The way they edited the show was so weird and choppy. It gives her no personality on screen, when it was clearly present during filming. She never interrupted anyone. The editor did that. I promise you. I was there. She listened well, went back and forth several times. She was respectful AND she was self admittedly not a huge Harry Potter fan. She just saw the movies and thinks it's a wonderful world and salutes it as a fan of art in general. Make sense? Don't throw her under the bus because she was clearly edited around and was actually the best part of the experience for me.

I couldn't agree more with the other reviewers here when they speak about the very unnecessary explaining during answering. Just answer the question dude! I don't care to know why you came to the conclusion that the piano was in the room when dumbledore fixed the room. YOU HAVE EYES. That should have been your reason, if any. Just say "piano" you know what I mean? There was a crap ton of that going on, which was definitely told to the contestants for purposes of "dragging on" for time. So annoying.

The questions were easy, and some were stupidly hard. Like which object was in dumbledores office and which Diadem was the real one. They are literally split second bits of footage from the films that the biggest fan of Hp could easily overlook or forget.

The outcomes weren't staged as far as I can see. It wouldn't make sense from my perspective. It was just poorly executed. Very little actually made it to final edit which makes me feel bad that a lot of you think Helen was just cutting people off left and right. She was super funny and she had a cool attitude. So if you get anything out of this review, I hope you can feel better knowing that Helen wasn't as bad as portrayed.

And as for the videos of the cameos, yes, they were 100% pre recorded and no interactions happened between contestants and them. They recorded both possibilities, for example. Draco saying "the answer is D, congratulations " AND "the answer is D, better luck next time" does that make sense? Just wanted to clear that up. The contestants actually did guess, and the video reflected whether they got it right or wrong.

Just wanted to share. I saw myself many times on screen, and that was the best part of the experience for me lol.

First of all I had no idea this existed until I saw an ad for it after the first episode had already aired which should've been a hint on it's own. I love everything to do with the Wizarding World Of Harry Potter and I have read the books and watched the films countless times so the idea of a gameshow was very exciting to me. But I couldn't have been more wrong in thinking that!

Everything about this show is cringeworthy, there is nothing unique about how it plays out it's just a hodgepodge of famous gameshows mashed together. This would be fine is it was done well but its executed so poorly and it seems like Hellen Mirren doesnt even want to be there. She plays the role of the game's host and she cuts the contestants answers short more times than I could count including when they were "introducing themselves and why they love Harry Potter". The "contestants" on this show are terrible actors and they are clearly ready from a script and it's not well hidden at all. There are a few segments with "celebrity fans" of the series as well and you can tell they were pre-recorded but they try to edit them into the show as if the celebrities are talking to the contestants live and you can tell this isn't the case. As for the questions...some of them are so ridiculous like asking which couch Hermione's parents owned and having the contestants pick it out from 3 couches.

All in all if you are a true fan of the series I feel like you will be extremely disappointed in this show and you shouldn't watch it. I don't know what they were going for but it really is awful and the production feels so rushed.