The Weakest Link
|
|
The Weakest Link (or, in the U.S., simply Weakest Link) is a television game show which first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two in 2000. It was devised by doctor and situation comedy writer Fintan Coyle and the comedian Cathy Dunning, and developed for television by the BBC Entertainment department. It has since been replicated around the world. The BBC officially dropped the definite article (the "the") from the title (and the logo) in 2001, though it is still generally referred to by its original title, and host Anne Robinson still says "Welcome to The Weakest Link" and "let's play The Weakest Link" regardless.
| Contents |
Format
The original format featured a "team" of nine contestants who take turns answering general knowledge questions. The object of each round is to answer a "chain" of consecutive correct answers to earn an increasing amount for a single communal pot of up to ten thousand pounds (in U.K. money). However, just one incorrect answer wipes out any money earned in that chain. Before their question is asked, a contestant may say "bank" and the money earned thus far is safely stored, however a new chain is initiated from scratch. It is advantageous but risky to not say bank, as each successive correct answer earns proportionally more money.
At the end of each round, contestants must vote off one player whom they consider to be "The Weakest Link": the one they believe wasted the most time, failed to bank judiciously or gave too many wrong answers. Until the beginning of the next round, only the television audience knows (via an announcer's narration) exactly who the "strongest link" and "weakest link" was statistically. While the contestants work as a team, they are encouraged at this point to be ruthless to each other. At the end of the show, only two contestants remain for a final showdown. Only the winner leaves with the accumulated prize money — everyone else leaves with nothing, however in special "celebrity editions" the losers leave with only a minimal sum of money donated in his/her name to his/her charity.
Voting presents somewhat of a tactical challenge for canny players seeking to maximise their chances of winning, and maximising the payoffs if they do. Voting off weaker players is likely to increase the payoff for the winner, but stronger players may be more difficult to beat in a playoff. Some players may consider incorrectly answering some questions so as not to appear so much of a threat — however, such a strategy is risky. One study suggested that the optimal percentage of questions to answer correctly is 60%. If you do worse, you risk being voted off for being too weak; if you do better, you are perceived as a threat in the final showdown.
Mathematical analysis of the expected payoffs provided by various banking strategies suggest that the optimum strategies are to either attempt to go for the highest payoff, or bank after every question. Few teams adopt either — most choose to bank after three or four questions.
Success
Part of the show's success was due to the presenter, Anne Robinson. Already well-known in the UK for her sarcastic tone while presenting the BBC's consumer programme Watchdog, she found here a new outlet in her taunts to the contestants. Her sardonic summary to the "team", usually berating them for their lack of intelligence for not achieving the target, became a trademark of the show, and her call of "You are the weakest link — goodbye!" quickly became a catchphrase. (Originally, the devisors suggested the equally acerbic Jeremy Paxman, host of University Challenge.) The voice-over in the UK version is by Jon Briggs.
With elements inspired by Big Brother and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, the show differed from virtually all games shows before it by inviting open conflict between players, and using a host who is openly hostile to the competitors rather than a positive figure (though this feature of the show tends to be played for laughs, especially in the prime time version, where there is a studio audience for Robinson — and the contestants — to play to). Heavily criticised by the television press in some countries for its Hobbesian overtones, the show has nevertheless been a ratings success in most countries.
Other versions
The daily version which has run at the 5:15 pm slot on BBC2 for the past four years, has had great success still winning its slot, proving that quiz shows do not have to give away a lot of money (£10 000) to bring in ratings.
In December 2000, a short-lived weekly night-time version aired on BBC1. Known as the "Champions League", it brought back previous winners from the daily version, to compete against each other (only 8 contestants though) to win £20 000. In mid-January 2001, having ran out of champions to bring back, the show now featured 8 regular contestants competing. In April, it was then cut back to 7 contestants, in order to reduce the show to fit into a half-hour slot. In September 2001, the night-time show was revamped, with a new studio, a new hour-long time slot, in which 9 contestants could now compete just like the daily version. The top prize was also raised to £50 000. After lasting the season, it was decided that the show would only appear every so often in primetime, as special celebrity editions, usually lasting one a week for a month. Usually this would occur, 2-3 times a year.
International versions
Tv_weakest_link_fiona_coyne.jpg
Internationally, the show has taken off airing in at least over 50 countries world-wide, some with red haired, female presenters, some without, and some even with male presenters such as the US syndicated edition as mentioned above. Others include the Irish version hosted by Eamon Dunphy, the Italian version presented by Enrico Papi, the Chilean version (broadcast on Canal 13) hosted by local actress Catalina Pulido, the South African (broadcast on SABC3) with Fiona Coyne, and the Filipino version with Edu Manzano, and the Hong Kong version hosted by Dodo Cheng.
American version
The American version of Weakest Link (without the "the" in the title) premiered in April 2001 on NBC, with Anne Robinson hosting. In this version, there was a team of eight contestants vying for a cash pot of up to one million dollars. Earning respectable ratings, even topping Who Wants To Be A Millionaire a few times, the show had garnered itself a place on the 2001-02 fall schedule. After the 9/11 attacks, the ratings went down. People were not interested in reality shows or game shows. The episodes now featured celebrities, rather than ordinary people. There were a few episodes with ordinary people in between, but they usually had themes (such as halloween costumes, christmas costumes, or contestants that looked like Anne Robinson). It got worse as the episodes were beginning to be pre-empted for NBA playoff games. The ratings continued to sink and the show was cancelled. The show aired its last episode in July 2002. It is still questionable if NBC had done this on purpose to get the show out of its lineup.
A syndicated version ran from January 2002 through September 2003 (it too ran only two seasons). It was hosted by George Gray. In this version there was a team of only six contestants. In the first syndicated season, the maximum pot was $75,000 and there were five rounds, while increasing to $100,000 (and the rounds decreased to only four) in the final syndicated season. In contrast to Robinson's "dominatrix" tone, Gray was more playful and humorous to the contestants.
Both U.S. versions were produced by The Gurin Company, BBC Worldwide and NBC Studios.
Australia
An Australian version premiered in February 2001, on Seven Network. Presented by Cornelia Frances, the show featured 9 contestants vying for $100 000. It aired twice weekly in primetime. At the beginning, the show received a lot of feedback from angry people, complaining how rude Cornelia was, some even saying she was worse than Anne Robinson. After toning the show down, it continued to receive modest ratings until its cancellation in April 2002.
Hong Kong
The Hong Kong version of the show was licensed and started quickly by TVB, after rival ATV took the lion's share of ratings with the Chinese version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". Per the licensing agreement, Dodo Cheng initially had to act just like Anne Robinson — complete with the same style of voice and facial expression. Since Chinese culture typically does not value this kind of attitude toward people, TVB received complaints about the show. Bowing to public pressure, the broadcaster changed the style of the show, softening Dodo Cheng's "character". As a result, ratings went up.
Non-English versions
March 2001, saw the appearance of the first non-English version. Der Schwächste Fliegt premiered weekdays at 3pm, hosted by Sonja Zietlow (who was already known for her tough-talking styles on her self-titled talk show from prior years). Just like the British version, the show pitted nine contestants against each other for a pot of 50 000 Marks. By September of that year, the show was sinking fast in ratings, so in order to gain ratings, Sonja became much nicer to contestants. This did not help the show very much, and it was cancelled in December. However, in February 2002, the show was given one last shot in the Saturday night slot. This time with a revamped studio, that now featured an audience, and a higher prize of 50 000 euros, (100 000 Marks). It has been said though, that after the first few episodes, actors were paid to be contestants on the show, in order to make the show better. But whatever the reason, it did not bring in the much-needed ratings, and was cancelled one final time in March.
Trivia
Anne Robinson appears as the voice of the "Anne-Droid" in the Doctor Who episode Bad Wolf, which hosts a version of the show in the year 200,100 that has deadly consequences for its contestants if they are eliminated.
External links
- UK Gameshows Page: The Weakest Link (http://www.ukgameshows.com/index.php/The_Weakest_Link)
- Funny Weakest Link Answers (http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/gsflubs)
- Strongest Strategies for The Weakest Link (http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991800)he:החוליה החלשה