''Hive Minds'' is a British television quiz show that aired on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

from 14 July 2015 to 1 December 2016. It was hosted by

Fiona Bruce Fiona Elizabeth Bruce (born 25 April 1964) is a British journalist, newsreader, and television presenter. She joined the BBC as a researcher for ''Panorama'' in 1989, and has since become the first female newsreader on the ''BBC News at Ten'', ...

Background

''Hive Minds'' was developed by Saltbeef TV - a production firm responsible for

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

's ''

Friday Download ''Friday Download'' was a British children's entertainment television programme, produced by Saltbeef Productions on CBBC. It premiered on 6 May 2011. The final presenting team consisted of Molly Rainford, Anaïs Gallagher, Harvey Cantwell, Ak ...

'' - with co-production from Green Inc Film & Television. It was intended as a replacement for ''

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'', which had been moved to

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

. It was filmed at the Lyric Theatre,

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

and was hosted by

, who fronts the ''

BBC News at Six The ''BBC News at Six'' is the evening news programme bulletin from the BBC. Produced by BBC News, the programme is broadcast on the BBC News (TV channel), BBC News channel and on British television channel BBC One on weekdays at 6:00pm. For a ...

'', ''

BBC News at Ten ''BBC News at Ten'' formerly known as the ''BBC Ten O'Clock News'' or the ''Ten O'Clock News'' is the flagship evening news programme for the BBC News channel and British television channel BBC One on weekdays and Sundays at 10:00pm. Huw Edwa ...

'', ''

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'', ''

Call My Bluff ''Call My Bluff'' is a British panel game show based on the short-lived US version of the same name. It was originally hosted by Robin Ray and later, most notably, by Robert Robinson. Its most prominent panellist was Frank Muir. Format The ga ...

'' and ''

Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people (g ...

''.

Gameplay

Players must first work out the answers to questions and then find the answers hidden in a hexagonal "hive" of letters.

Round 1

Two teams of three play the game. For this round, each team faces four hives each; they must find an answer embedded into the hive. They have twenty seconds to find it, and five points are on offer; after two seconds hexagons start disappearing from the hive. Once another two have elapsed, the hive is worth a point less and decreases in value every four seconds. After another eighteen seconds and eighteen hexagons have elapsed, the time expires and Bruce offers the hive to the other team, who may earn a bonus point by answering the grid. Once each team has cleared two hives each, they have to find two related answers from the same hive.

Round 2

For this round, each team faces two hives; five are offered, and teams take it in turns to select categories. One hive remains unpicked. The teams must find three answers hidden within each hive; the players are separated, and each player has to get one answer. Play then passes to the next player. Each team then has two passes; if any player gets a wrong answer, the whole team is locked out of the hive. Each correct answer is worth one point, and two bonus points are awarded if all three answers are found, for a total of five points.

Round 3

The teams each try to make one perfect hive out of one super hive (basically a slightly larger hive) out of answers. Humour is made out of the fact that the two hives are called the A-hive and the B-hive. They must find multiple answers on a single question. Every answer found is worth a point; a perfect hive is worth ten.

Round 4

This is a quickfire round. Both teams are handed a hive, and each team try to find answers from that grid. Every correct question gains a point; every wrong answer loses a point. At the end of this round, the team with the highest number of points wins and goes forward. In the case of a tie, one more question is asked. At the end of the show, Bruce offers one hive to the viewers, and once the credits have finished, the answer is revealed.

Tournament format

The show featured teams playing in a

double elimination A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost ''two'' games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimina ...

tournament with occasional wild card spots, with the series winners getting a special trophy at the end, similar to ''Only Connect''.

Reception

The first episode pulled in 505,000 viewers; the show it replaced, ''

'', pulled in 209,000 in its first episode. Michael Hogan in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' gave the quiz a mixed review. While the questions were described as "enjoyably eclectic", and Fiona Bruce "clearly enjoyed the opportunity to flex her funny muscles", overall Hogan felt that it was "a tad too stiff and niche in appeal, while the “hive” gimmick seemed over-stretched. This bee-themed quiz needs a bit more buzz".

Transmissions

References

External links

* * *{{UKGameshow, Hive_Minds 2015 British television series debuts 2016 British television series endings 2010s British game shows BBC television game shows British English-language television shows