Post by Mr. Jon Donnis on Dec 11, 2006 23:51:36 GMT
www.paranormalreview.co.uk/News/tabid/59/newsid368/72/mid/368/Default.aspx
Note how the "heirs" dont even need to be psychic, in other words they are all magicians
I would love to see this show
In scenes reminiscent of his “discovery” in the US and UK in the 1970s, spoon-bender Uri Geller has had a remarkable homecoming in Israel – thanks to his new reality TV Show, “The Successor: the next Uri Geller”.
Its premise is that, with his 60th birthday approaching (20 December), Geller is looking for an heir. The TV show is currently one of the most-viewed Israeli programmes but has also provoked controversy, with questions being asked in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
As already revealed on www.ParanormalReview.com (see Geller’s X-Files meets the X-Factor, posted 18 October), “The Successor” features 10 contestants eager to be named Geller’s heir and win a huge (as yet unnamed) prize.
What will confuse many people, however, is that his successor will not necessarily claim to be psychic, as Geller does. Most of the contestants are clearly accomplished magicians. Geller has said: “This is not a show where people have to prove to me that they are for real. I just want to be amazed.”
A recent show involved the contestants apparently reading the minds of the panel of judges and studio audience.
Mind-reader Lior Suchard, 25, correctly guessed the name of someone’s grade-school teacher and another contestant shattered a wine glass by pointing the palm of his hand against it.
The best performer, however, was Meni Lindenfeld who demonstrated his own version of Russian roulette, using a sharp upward-pointing blade hidden inside one of four collapsible paper tubes.
He was then blindfolded and one of the judges, model Shiraz Tal, changed the order of the tubes before guiding his hand over each one. The audience watched in terrified suspense as Meni slammed his hand down on three of the tubes, without harm. The fourth tube was revealed to be the one containing the blade. Geller and the panel judged Meni the best act and he goes through to the final.
Stunts like that require the show’s presenter to warn viewers “don’t try this at home”. There are no reports of anyone coming to grief (see Footnote) by trying to replicate Meni’s trick, but questions were asked in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, when it was reported that a Haifa youngster had tried to copy one contestant who astonished the audience by apparently making his heart stop for 30 seconds. The child who tried to do the same is reported to have been taken to hospital, but soon recovered.
The Knesset’s Education Committee chairman Michael Melchior called for greater censorship of the show. Geller responded by saying: “With every successful thing you will find people who try and go against it. This is the most successful show in the history of Israel.”
It is said to have taken a 50% share of the potential viewing audience when it launched on 18 November, with 1,280,000 viewers, and the weekly Saturday night audience has now settled at 40 per cent. Though the acts may be pure magic – rather than paranormally-produced – there is still a psychic element to “The Successor”. During the first episode, the show’s dedicated hotline received tens of thousands of calls from viewers reporting “strange” and unexplained things happening in their homes, such as spoons and keys bending, and broken watches suddenly starting to work.
Geller is no stranger to big ratings on reality TV, having been one of the contestants on the very popular UK-produced “I’m a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here”. Even so, he says he is flabbergasted by the success of his own show.
“After 38 years of not performing in Israel I never thought I would get this acceptance and love,” he says. “The programme is breaking historical ratings records. The success is just staggering. It is an amazing thing.”
The biggest difficulty for Geller, who has lived in the UK for the past 30 years, is reverting to Hebrew for his appearances on the show. He is said to have discovered his spoon-bending abilities at the age of four and became a nightclub entertainer in his early 20s.
“They say there is no prophet in his homeland,” Geller told one newspaper. “When I left there was envy, there were those who did not like my success. I admit today that I was on an ego trip. I had to prove myself. But so what? I came from a poor family.”
Now he sees himself as a prodigal son returning to Israel from prosperous exile of sorts in his adopted Britain.
Note how the "heirs" dont even need to be psychic, in other words they are all magicians
I would love to see this show
In scenes reminiscent of his “discovery” in the US and UK in the 1970s, spoon-bender Uri Geller has had a remarkable homecoming in Israel – thanks to his new reality TV Show, “The Successor: the next Uri Geller”.
Its premise is that, with his 60th birthday approaching (20 December), Geller is looking for an heir. The TV show is currently one of the most-viewed Israeli programmes but has also provoked controversy, with questions being asked in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
As already revealed on www.ParanormalReview.com (see Geller’s X-Files meets the X-Factor, posted 18 October), “The Successor” features 10 contestants eager to be named Geller’s heir and win a huge (as yet unnamed) prize.
What will confuse many people, however, is that his successor will not necessarily claim to be psychic, as Geller does. Most of the contestants are clearly accomplished magicians. Geller has said: “This is not a show where people have to prove to me that they are for real. I just want to be amazed.”
A recent show involved the contestants apparently reading the minds of the panel of judges and studio audience.
Mind-reader Lior Suchard, 25, correctly guessed the name of someone’s grade-school teacher and another contestant shattered a wine glass by pointing the palm of his hand against it.
The best performer, however, was Meni Lindenfeld who demonstrated his own version of Russian roulette, using a sharp upward-pointing blade hidden inside one of four collapsible paper tubes.
He was then blindfolded and one of the judges, model Shiraz Tal, changed the order of the tubes before guiding his hand over each one. The audience watched in terrified suspense as Meni slammed his hand down on three of the tubes, without harm. The fourth tube was revealed to be the one containing the blade. Geller and the panel judged Meni the best act and he goes through to the final.
Stunts like that require the show’s presenter to warn viewers “don’t try this at home”. There are no reports of anyone coming to grief (see Footnote) by trying to replicate Meni’s trick, but questions were asked in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, when it was reported that a Haifa youngster had tried to copy one contestant who astonished the audience by apparently making his heart stop for 30 seconds. The child who tried to do the same is reported to have been taken to hospital, but soon recovered.
The Knesset’s Education Committee chairman Michael Melchior called for greater censorship of the show. Geller responded by saying: “With every successful thing you will find people who try and go against it. This is the most successful show in the history of Israel.”
It is said to have taken a 50% share of the potential viewing audience when it launched on 18 November, with 1,280,000 viewers, and the weekly Saturday night audience has now settled at 40 per cent. Though the acts may be pure magic – rather than paranormally-produced – there is still a psychic element to “The Successor”. During the first episode, the show’s dedicated hotline received tens of thousands of calls from viewers reporting “strange” and unexplained things happening in their homes, such as spoons and keys bending, and broken watches suddenly starting to work.
Geller is no stranger to big ratings on reality TV, having been one of the contestants on the very popular UK-produced “I’m a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here”. Even so, he says he is flabbergasted by the success of his own show.
“After 38 years of not performing in Israel I never thought I would get this acceptance and love,” he says. “The programme is breaking historical ratings records. The success is just staggering. It is an amazing thing.”
The biggest difficulty for Geller, who has lived in the UK for the past 30 years, is reverting to Hebrew for his appearances on the show. He is said to have discovered his spoon-bending abilities at the age of four and became a nightclub entertainer in his early 20s.
“They say there is no prophet in his homeland,” Geller told one newspaper. “When I left there was envy, there were those who did not like my success. I admit today that I was on an ego trip. I had to prove myself. But so what? I came from a poor family.”
Now he sees himself as a prodigal son returning to Israel from prosperous exile of sorts in his adopted Britain.