The Weakest Link

The Weakest Link (now officially titled Weakest Link) is a television game show which first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 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. It may also be called a "reality game show" because of competition similar to present-day reality shows and has been the basis of academic studies.

Format

Overview

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 a thousand pounds. 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 and a new chain is initiated from scratch.

Banking money is the safe option, however not banking, in anticipation that one will be able to correctly answer the upcoming question, allows the money to grow as each successive correct answer earns proportionally more money.

When the allotted time for each round ends, any money not banked is lost, and if the host is in the middle of asking a question, or has asked a question but the contestant has yet to answer, the question is abandoned.

Each player is then required to vote for which contestant they thought was the "weakest link," for whatever reason. Whoever gets the most votes at the end of the round is eliminated from the game, and leaves with no money. If there is a tie in the voting, the statistically strongest link gets to choose which of the tied players is eliminated. If they voted for one of the tied players, they are given the opportunity to change their mind.

Whenever a contestant is eliminated, 10 seconds leaves the clock for the following round.

Detail

Voting

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" are statistically. While the contestants work as a team, they are encouraged at this point to be ruthless to each other. 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.

Strategies

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.

End of the Game

Final Round

When two contestants remain, they work together in one final round that's equal to all the previous rounds, except for two details: First, all money banked at the end of the round is doubled (or tripled in some versions), before added to the current money pool to make the final total of the game. And second, there is no elimination. Game moves instead to the Showdown.

Showdown

For the Showdown round, the remaining two players will each be required to answer 5 questions each. The strongest link from the previous round chooses who goes first. Whoever has the most correct answers out of 5 at the end of the Showdown wins the game. The Showdown can end prematurely if a player is guaranteed to win. For example, if the first player gets their first three correct, and the second player gets their first three incorrect.

The winner of the game takes home all of the money accumulated in the prize pool for the game, and the loser goes home with nothing like all previous eliminated players.

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.

International versions

Internationally, the show has taken off airing in at least over 80 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 below. 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, the Polish version with Kazimiera Szczuka on TVN, the Filipino version with Edu Manzano, the Hong Kong version hosted by Dodo Cheng,the Japan version with Shiro Ito and the Australian version hosted by Cornelia Frances broadcast on Seven Network. The version in Mexico, El Rival Mas Débil, has been a success for two years and is still running with its host Montserrat Ontiveros. The Norwegian version, hosted by Anne Grosvold, was aired by the state-owned NRK, but lasted only one season.

There are also other (confirmed) versions from Belgium, China, Taiwan, the Middle East, Israel, Czech Republc, Greece, Finland, France, Denmark, Hungary, Moldova, Russia, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, India, Brazil, the Netherlands, Ireland, Finland, and Denmark.

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. In an effort to revive interest in the show and cater to changed tastes, 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 set of unaired episodes was shown later that year on the PAX Network. The last set of taped episodes remained unaired until the show ended up on the GSN schedule in 2003.

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 all with a $25 000 top prize) in the final syndicated season. In contrast to Robinson's "dominatrix" tone, Gray was more playful and humorous to the contestants. GSN began airing the syndicated version in January 2006. Reruns of both versions currently air on GSN.

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. There was even a special version where it was linked with the Mole where the Mole contestants were part of the show. In this episode, Bob Young won the playoff over Thao Nguyen and became the winner of this episode, where the prize was a free pass to the next episode on the Mole (aka immunity) and all money won went to the kitty. According to Cornelia Frances, they won $13400, the lowest amount won in any Australian episode of the Weakest Link. However, Grant Bowler, the host of the Mole rounded up to $14000 since all kitties of the Mole have been rounded by $1000.

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, Carol "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 Carol Cheng's "character". As a result, ratings went up.

Philippines

The Philippine version of the show is produced by Viva Entertainment and ECM Productions. The show premiered on September 2001 on IBC 13 as a follow-up to the success of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in the country. It was initially hosted by actor/former politician Edu Manzano. Known for his villainy roles and serious acting styles, Manzano made a good and fitting host of the show (contributing to its popularity). He was later replaced by comedian/singer Allan K. His humorous hosting stint (along with the fire that razed the original studio the show was taped) led its show to its demise on October 2002.

The show followed the eight-player primetime format with the money tree as follows: P1,000, P2,000, P5,000, P10,000, P20,000, P50,000, P80,000, P125,000. If the highest amount was banked successfully in all seven rounds, the highest amount possible would be a million Philippine pesos.

Mexico

The Mexican version of the Weakest Link, or El Rival Más Débil in Spanish, airs on the Mexican network TV Azteca start August 2, 2003. It is a success along with its hostess, Montserrat Ontiveros. Eight contestants have a chance to win $200,000 Mexican pesos, with a money tree of $500, $1 000, $2 000, $5 000, $10 000, $15 000, $20 000, $25 000. As of 2006, the show continues with more than 100 episodes.

External link: http://elrivalmasdebil.tripod.com

Germany

In German, The Weakest Link would be Das schwächste Glied, but this could also be read as The Weakest Member (in a sexual sense). Probably that's why the show was called Der Schwächste Fliegt!, which rhymes to Das schwächste Glied, but means The Weakest Gets Booted (literally The Weakest Flies). March 2001 saw the appearance of the first non-English version in Germany. The show 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 DM 50,000. But 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 latenight Saturday slot, this time with a newly revamped studio, that now featured an audience, and a higher prize of €50,000 euros. 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.

Hungary

In Hungary the show debuted on August 12, 2001 at 7 p.m. on TV2 under the name of Nincs Kegyelem - A Leggyengébb Láncszem (which means No Mercy - The Weakest Link) and was aired three times a week, on Monday, Tuesday Thursday respectively, with a maximum prize of 3 million forints (approx. $12 000 at that time). It was hosted by Krisztina Máté, a News at Night presenter, who took a very extreme turn with accepting this new role. She was probably chosen because of the similarities between her and her American counterpart. The whole show instantly became the most controversial program on TV that time, but couldn't profited with the sudden attention, because of the rude style and manner that the whole game-play was built upon, it shocked people and the hostess' reputation quickly changed into irritating and arrogant. Another wrong decision of TV2 was modifying the airing time to compete with the famous other quiz show shown on the rival channel (namely the Millionaire and its host István Vágó who is often referred as the "Quiz Professor"). The popularity of Weakest Link began to fade, and so the management decreased the number of players from 8 to 5, but it didn't help, and finally the show was cancelled on May, 2002. Though she returned to news, Krisztina Máté's reputation was "tarnished" because of her meanness displayed in the Weakest Link.

Poland

The show is aired in Poland as well, 4 days a week (Monday-Thursday) at 8:10 p.m. on TVN channel. It's called Najsłabsze ogniwo and features Kazimiera Szczuka as the host. Eight contestants have to use their wits and nerve to win 27.000 złoty. The tree money is 3000, 2400, 1800, 1300, 900, 600, 300, 100 złoty.

New Zealand

The show was produced by TVNZ in 2001 and hosted by Louise Wallace. She was a blond-haired news anchor who specially dyed her hair Robinson-red for the host part.

Portugal

The Potuguese version is called O Elo Mais Fraco, and started on June 11 2002 on RTP 1.It is hosted by Luisa Castelo Branco (Julia Pinheiro was the earlier host). Nine contestants compete for the €10 000 pot and the money tree is €20, €50, €100, €200, €300, €450, €600, €800, €1000.

Finland

The Finnish version started on September 6 2002, and aired every Friday. It is called Heikoin Lenkki and the host is Kirsi Salo. Nine contestants compete for up to €15 000 and the show lasts for one hour. The money tree is €30, €75, €150, €300, €450, €675, €900, €1200, €1500.

France

The show Le Maillon Faible, hosted by Laurence Boccolini, is aired on TF1. Nine contestants have a chance to win €20 000, with the money tree of €50, €100, €200, €300, €600, €900, €1200, €1600, €2000.

Singapore

The show was first produced by MediaCorp in 2002 in its Chinese version hosted by Cui Lixin. A similar English season was also produced by the TV station and hosted by Asha Gill from 2002-2003.

Thailand

A Thai version called Kamchad Jud Orn was aired on the Thai Channel 3 from February 2002 to February 2003. It was hosted by Krittika Kongsompong. It follows the eight-person format.

This version was even criticized by the Thai government because it was said to promote traits that are "unbecoming and contradictory to Thai culture and morality", even to the point that it would be monitored. Like the Hong Kong version, the show was somewhat toned down.

Chile

Chile also had its own verson for a 6 month run hosted by local actress Catalina Pulido.

Brazil

Brazilian TV Globo bought The Weakest Link from the BBC in October 2001. It was decided that Fausto Silva would host the show. However, the Brazilians didn't really like the show. So although the studio has made, TV Globo still decided to give up the idea and show Big Brother and it is very popular in Brazil and is still showing now.

Israel

Israel also had its own version hosted by Pnina Dvorin (2002-2004) and then Hana Laszlo. It started out with 9 players and then it went to an 8-player format later in the run.

Belgium

Belgium had its own version, hosted by Goedele Liekens, famous for writing a sex book in Belgium. The top prize was 2,000,000 Belgian francs, however, the show was quickly cancelled.

Italy

Italy had its own version hosted by Enrico Papi. The show did not last long, as Italians preferred shows that were fun, and not with a serious twist.

Greece

Greece has also created its own version, hosted by Elena Akrita. According to its viewers, Akrita is a much nicer host than those of foreign versions-- instead of saying, "You are the Weakest Link-- goodbye," like her foreign counterparts, she would dismiss a player who receives the most votes by saying, "λυπάμαι πολύ," which means "I am very sorry".

The Netherlands

Here is called De Zwakste Schakel and hosted by Chazia Mourali.

China

China also had its own version, hosted by Chen Lu Yu, then Shen Bing, and finally Xia Qing.

Denmark

Denmark had a verson hosted by Trine Gregorius. When this verson was cancelled, they sent their set to Norway.

Czech Republc

The Czech Republc also has its own verson of The Weakest Link. Much like the Hong Kong verson of the show, the host toned down similarities to Anne Robinson.

Romania

The Weakest Link (Lanţul slăbiciunilor) was produced by ProTV, being hosted by Andrei Gheorghe. The first show was aired on 13 October 2000.

Taiwan

Taiwan also had its own version, originally hosted by Belle Yu (first season), then Tseng Yang Qing (second season). Belle Yu later returned as celebrity contestant. This is probably the first Chinese version to have a male host

Republic of Ireland

The independent television station TV3 aired a version of the show in Ireland, presented by radio and TV personality Eamon Dunphy, the first male to host the quiz. The show lasted only one season.

India

Trying to follow up on the success of Who Wants to be A Millionaire, Star TV launched Kamzor Kadii Kaun, the Hindi version of Weakest Link. Hosted by soap opera actress Neena Gupta, it aired weekly in primetime. The top prize was 2 500 000 Rupees. Unforunately, the show barely lasted a year before it was cancelled.

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan has a version called Zəif bənd that airs on LiderTV.

South Africa

South Africa has a verson called The Weakest Link hosted by Fiona Coyne.

Russia

Russia has a verson called Slaboe Zveno hosted by Maria Kiselyova.

Turkey

Turkey also had a verson called En Zayif Halka hosted by Hulya Ugur Tranrover. However, it only lasted one season.

Spain

The Spanish version is called El Rival Mas Debil and has been hosted by Nuria Gonzales (2002-2003) and Kamele Anaburu (2003-2004).

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...or try to quit the game.
Recently there has been a pantomime special in which pantomime actors were questioned, and amongst others, Basil Brush.

External links

Official site for the BBC version of the show
South African version on SABC3
Mexican version on Tv Azteca
Thai version on channel 3
French version on TF1
Polish version on TVN
Funny Weakest Link answers: US and UK
Photos and videos of wl
El rival más débil y Montserrat Ontiveros
Weakest Link Philippines Unofficial website of the Philippine version with photos and video clips
Official site for Paul Farrer - composer of the music for each show
UK Gameshows Page: The Weakest Link
Australian Game Show Homepage: The Weakest Link
Strongest Strategies for The Weakest Link
Personal account from a past contestant including a video and photos

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