Weekend Replay: UK 1 Vs 100
To coincide with the news regarding GSN’s 1 Vs 100 revival. This week’s Weekend Replay features 1 Vs 100 from the UK. Unlike the NBC/GSN version, the British version of 1 Vs 100 is loosely based on the original Dutch version. The show launched as a BBC National Lottery game in 2006 and ran for four series until 2009. The 2006 and 2007 series was presented by Dermot O’Leary with Krypton Factor’s Ben Shephard taking over hosting duties for the 2008 and 2009 series. The 2009 series faced a studio move to Glasgow, resulting in squeezing the whole set in a much smaller studio space compared to the superior Maidstone Studios. As of today the Endemol show has not been recomissed by the BBC, due to the fact the 2009 series got slaughtered in the ratings against ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent.
The clip is from the 2009 run, features the first contestant of the series while Ben explains the rules.
After watching a full episode of this show, I regret ever criticizing it. The gameplay is exciting, the host is affable (if a bit dull) and the music is superb. I’m a bit surprised GSN didn’t pick this up, considering how a payout is rare and, when won, probably going to be big.
Not as rare as you’d think, someone would win every two or three episodes really. That’s a much higher rate than, say, the original Dutch rules played straight does, although I can’t for the life of me think why – the option for the fourth dodge and the ability to bail out without the 50k bonus if the 100 get the final question wrong and you don’t like your answer probably help rather a lot though.
The study… of Greta Garbo…
‘Nuff said.
I thought people in Britain are smarter then Americans.
You should see Tuesday’s Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Somebody used PAF on “What type of vehicle is used for a destruction derby?”.
That may just prove his point, don’t get me wrong, as a man, I love demolition derbies, but I don’t see Brits getting joy out of cars smashing into each other.
Obviously you’ve never watched Top Gear, they mess up a LOT of old cars on that, and even worse about trailers (or as they call them, caravans).
Good format. GSN might have gone with this one, but we’ll see what they came up with.
Ben S. goes through the game’s mechanics quite succinctly, and with some degree of dispatch. He doesn’t dawdle, but makes the game move at a decent pace. Yet, it’s still dramatic.
Let’s hope that, whatever GSN does with it, they manage to succeed. If they can capture the flavor of the NBC show they’ve been repeating, on a smaller prize budget, they might have something that will be marked in black ink, not red.
I’m with you, James – here’s how this should’ve been done in the US: $500 a person, 2 dodges, the double for one question, and double the bank for all 100 eliminated…AND FER GODSAKES A LIVE MOB!!!
They should’ve learned from the UK version. We recorded three shows a day (for three days) and used the same 100 or so people for one day. Meaning, those who were there for the day recorded three shows, regardless if they got eliminated early.
What happened when a contestant left? Did they get replaced? That hardly seems fair to the person who replaces the 2nd to last One on that tape day.
When you become the 1 and play your game, you cannot go back to the 100 and play again. Therefore a standby contestant replaces that person for the next game and sit in the 100.
If you were wondering how they select the next player. They find out who answered the question correctly (the question where the 1 answered wrong), in this case it was 14 who knew. One of those 14 contestants would be selected by the producers to become the 1.
Maybe $5,000 a person, three dodges (each halving current total), no doubles, and no additional bonus for defeating the MOB.
I’ve read from somewhere that in 32 episodes, only 6 people beat the mob outright, earning from about 55000 to 80000 pounds (including the 50000-pound bonus). One more contestant won around 16000 pounds, opting not to have their last answer checked after knowing all the remembers got the last question wrong (thus not winning the bonus).
Did the remaining members of the 100 split the losing contestant’s winnings after the contestant answered a question incorrectly? I know that’s what would happen on the US version, but did it happen in the UK version as well?
No. Unless the One beats the 100 they have no winnings (you can’t walk away) the prize for beating the One is the opportunity to become the next One.
I was actually a member of the mob on this episode (and two others for that matter) Although this was the first show in the series, it was one of the last to be recorded.
For anyone interested I was on the left hand side, third row up, third person in from the middle. I did atrociously badly. I got knocked out way before the contestant did.
I really disliked the format of this show, there were precious few winners, in the episodes I took part in, one person won outright and one person won by bailing out (walking away after the last member of the 100 has fallen). The dodges are quite a feeble lifeline, and the makeup of the 100 usually contained around 10-15 very intelligent people, that are very hard to eliminate.
Add that to the low amounts that can actually be won (remembering that a dodge HALVES your pot) it wasn’t that captivating to watch in my eyes…..even when I was actually there playing it.
4 series? Wow, that’s impressive!
8 episodes in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Here is a fact, the BBC wanted to have two series of 1 Vs 100 in 2007 and was going to air the second series in January 2007 with a third series in the autumn but Dermot O’Leary had an offer he cannot refuse, The X Factor. So they ditched that and had to search for a new presenter (Ben Shephard), which ironically also did many ITV shows after his stint on 1 Vs 100.