'' (known as '''''Weakest Link''''' in many countries) 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. The UK version, hosted by
Anne Robinson , reached its 1,000th episode on
18 December 2006 .
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 within a certain time limit. However, just one incorrect answer wipes out any money earned in that chain. However, before their question is asked, a contestant can 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. The round automatically ends if the team successfully reaches the maximum amount for the round before the allotted time expires.
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 maximize their chances of winning, and maximizing 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. After the revealing of the votes, the host will interrogate the players on their choice of voting, reasons behind their choice, and as well, insult the players on their lack of intelligence, their background, and their interests. After interrogation, the player with the most votes is given a stern "You are the weakest link. Goodbye!" and must walk off the stage in what is called the Walk of Shame. In the event of a tie, the Strongest Link has the final say on who goes. If they voted for a tied player, they may have the option of sticking with their vote, or changing their mind. If the Strongest Link is part of the tie, they obviously don't get voted off, as voting for oneself is prohibited, but for mocking purposes, the Strongest Link is still asked who they wish to rid.
Whenever a contestant is eliminated, 10 (or sometimes 15, such as the American syndicated version) seconds are taken away from the clock in the following rounds. The round begins with the Strongest Link, however, if the Strongest Link was voted off in the previous round, the second Strongest Link starts play. (In the first round, the first player alphabetically by first name usually starts in most versions but for both American versions the player randomly selected to be in the first position would start. One exception was when the show started with a woman in a wheelchair in the last position, presumably because she had been selected and the shorter podium is either technically capable to install only on the end of contestant's row or it was chosen to only be put there by custom.)
When two contestants remain, they work together in one final round, identical to previous rounds in all but two details: First, all money banked at the end of the round is tripled (or doubled in some versions) before added to the current money pool to make the final total of the game. Also, there is no elimination; the game moves to the Head to Head Round instead.
For the Head to Head round, the remaining two players will each be required to answer five questions each. The strongest link from the previous round chooses who goes first. Whoever has the most correct answers out of five at the end of the Head to Head wins the game.
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.
In the event of a tie, the game goes to Sudden Death. Each player is continued to be asked questions as usual, until one person gets a question right and the other wrong. This can go on for as long as it takes, though in some countries, the Sudden Death is edited to only one round for airtime reasons.
In most episodes the maximum possible winnings in the British shows is £10,000; in special celebrity and charity episodes the maximum is £50,000.
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.
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.
Initially there was outcry by national newspapers and some viewers, that the
Licence Fee be used for such a potentially high jackpot. However, when it became apparent that contestants seldom came close to winning anywhere near the maximum jackpot, these criticisms generally disappeared.
With the huge success of the show in its early evening BBC Two slot, there was soon a version made for prime-time BBC One.
First off, a Tournament of Champions, featuring eight players who won games on the daytime edition, battled off once again for £20,000. This time, electronic podiums were installed, as well as a studio audience. The Champions format wasn't a success, and so regular players played for the money. After about a year later, the contestants were cut down to seven, and the airtime cut from 45 minutes to 30, however, the prize money stayed the same.
After the seven-player edition, the studio was revamped once again to add two more podiums, as well as a much larger prize money of £50,000. Regular civilians played on the show at first, but now the primetime version usually, if not always, has celebrities playing for charity. Though Robinson states that eight players will leave with "nothing," normally the losing celebrities receive a house amount to give to their charity. In some of these celebrity editions, there have been two celebrities representing one position in the game, with the two conferring before giving their answer. There have also been several editions featuring entirely celebrity couples. The yearly Pantomime-based edition has also become somewhat of a staple in the Christmas BBC One schedules in recent years. Some contestants, such as
Christopher Biggins and
Basil Brush , have appeared several times.
The standard BBC One version has generally been dropped in the last couple of years, but celebrity editions still sometimes appear. Sometimes they are specially designed episodes, such as the March 2007 edition tying in with the new series of ''
Doctor Who '' that began broadcasting the following day.
(typically, but not always, shown on Wednesday evenings).
The original British version of the show airs around the world on
BBC Prime and
BBC America . The format has been licensed across the world, with many countries producing their own series of ''The Weakest Link''.
The Philippine version of the show is produced by
VIVA Entertainment and
ECM Productions . The show premiered on September 2001 on the television network
Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation as a follow-up to the success of ''
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire '' in the country. It was initially hosted by actor
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. If the highest amount was banked successfully in all seven rounds, the highest amount possible would be 1,000,000
Philippine Peso s, which is close to the maximum prize of £10,000 in BBC2's version of the game.
Azerbaijan has a version called ''Zəif Bənd'' that airs on Lider TV and is hosted by Kamila Babayeva. The premiere was in September 2004. The top prize was 100,000,000
Azerbaijani Manat (=20,000 New Azerbaijani manat).
In September 2001, VTM launched it's national version of Weakest Link, called De Zwakste Schakel, just like the Dutch version of the show. Goedele Liekens who had been working in television since the 80s, was asked to perform as Anne's Belgian clone, but wasn't even convinced herself that she'd make a good one. After a small series of unsuccessful episodes, VTM cancelled the show in early 2002. Goedele continued her work on other shows and admitted afterwards that she wasn't the right person for the show.
Belgian Weakest Link had 8 contestants who could win up to 2,000,000 Belgian Francs. The format was like the US prime time edition. The chain was even the same, only doubled, so that the team could make it to 250,000 Francs in each round.
Nrk started the Norwegian version of Weakest Link called Det Svakeste Ledd in 2004. Unlike any other version it took over the Danish set. It was hosted by talkshow hostess Anne Grosvold. It aired in 2004 and only lasted for one series.
The chain was 500 kr, 1000 kr, 2000 kr, 5000 kr, 10 000 kr, 15 000 kr, 20 000 kr og 25 000 kr.
MTV3 launched the Finnish version, called Heikoin Lenkki, on September 6th, 2002. Host Kirsi Salo sent home every week 8 contestants and rewarded one with prize money of up to 15,000 euros. Only a month after it's premiere, the format was changed though. In the changed version, only 8 contestants started off (instead of 9) and top prize was raized to 18,000 euros, with 2,000 being up for grabs in each round. This changed format lasted for quite some time. The version was aired for three seasons and got canceled in February 2005, after the channel had broadcast a small set of unaired episodes, recorded already in early 2004.
The biggest channel in France, TF1, launched Le Maillon Faible on July 9th, 2001. It became an instant success. Presenter Laurence Boccolini, who had already hosted the quizshow "Que Le Meilleur Gagne!" and who was known for having a sarcastic sense of humour, was taken to be Anne's French clone and it worked out very well. French contestants could win up to 150,000 French Francs until the introduction of the euro in 2002, where it became 20,000 euros. At the end of 2003, LMF got a bigger set and prize money was raised to 50,000 euros. The French version is the only not original version in the world that has been running for over 6 years (without seasonal breaks) and was never ever repeated: every single episode aired was always a new one.
In 2002, Laurence Boccolini wrote a book about her experiences on the show. The book is called "Méchante", meaning "Mean" in English. In 2005 "Méchante 2" was published, but this time, it just contained a large amount of unintelligent funny answers, given by contestants on LMF.
After a series of unsuccessful celebrity specials, TF1 decided to cancel the show in the spring of 2007: viewers had been dropping since 2006. In July, Laurence decided to leave TF1, as they didn't offer her a new program for the new television season. The final episode of Le Maillon Faible was aired on August 12th, 2007.
In Germany the show ''
Der Schwächste Fliegt! '' was first broadcast on the 19th of March 2001. It was rather difficult to find an appropriate name for the German version of "Weakest Link", since the direct translation of the word "link" (Glied) is ambiguous in German. On the one hand, the word "Glied" stands for a part of a chain and on the other for the term "member" in the sense of sexual organ. Therefore, the name "Der Schwächste fliegt" was suggested, which means the weakest team member has to leave.
The show was hosted by Sonja Zietlow, who previously hosted talk shows. It was aired by RTL from Monday to Friday and lasted 60 minutes. Unusually for European versions of this format, "Der Schwächste fliegt" was not very successful on German TV. One reason could have been Sonja Zietlow's offensive use of language towards the contestants. Another could be that the timeslot that differed the German version from the other versions around the world, with RTL choosing it to put it out in the middle of the afternoon.
Greece also created its own version ''Ο ΠΙΟ ΑΔΥΝΑΜΟΣ ΚΡΙΚΟΣ'', hosted by Elena Akrita. According to its viewers, Akrita was a nicer host than those of foreign versions-- instead of saying a terse, "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 show is not airing anymore but it was a huge success with high ratings. The top prize was €15,000. It was broadcasted by major Greek TV station
Mega Channel .
In Hungary the show debuted on
August 12 ,
2001 at 7 p.m. on
TV2 under the name of (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 another other quiz show shown on rival channel
RTL Klub (namely the ''
Millionaire '' show and host István Vágó
is often referred as the "Quiz Professor" by Hungarians ). 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.
In the Netherlands it was called ''De Zwakste Schakel'' and hosted by
Chazia Mourali on
RTL 4 . It had a maximum prize of €10,000, even in 2001, when the euro was not yet used, and it had nine contestants. Until the summer of 2004, it was the longest running version after the UK. RTL put it out of the schedule in 2004 though, making France the longest running international version. In 2006, RTL announced the comeback of the show, but apparently changed their schedule once more, as there still haven't been new episodes since. At the moment there are no new confirmed plans for the show. Rumours say that there is a new unaired set of episodes with a new host, recorded in 2006, as RTL was spreading that new episodes were being recorded in the summer of that year. Nothing has been confirmed since.
O Elo Mais Fraco started off quite well in 2002 with Julia Pinheiro who was later replaced by Luisa Castel-Branco, in a new series. The version had nine contestants, of which any could win up to 10,000 euros, just like on the Dutch version.
El Rival Más Débil debuted on TVE1 on May 15th, 2002. The title literally means "The Weakest Rival". Nine contestants competed for up to 7,200 euros. 800 could be won on each round and the prize money of round 8 was doubled.
The Spanish version, like many other versions including Israel, Taiwan, US and Portugal, had two different hosts. The first host was Spanish actress Nuria Gonzales, who cloned Anne Robinson very successfully during two seasons. Then in 2003, the role was taken over by Karmele Aranburu who physically looked more like Anne Robinson, because Nuria was too busy acting. The version lasted for a few more seasons and was then canceled.
Spanish "El Rival Más Débil" was the first of a lot more Spanish spoken Weakest Link versions, all with the same title, logo and graphics, including the Mexican and Chile editions.
Russia has a version called ''Slaboe Zveno'' hosted by Maria Kiselyova. It airs on
ORT . The top prize is 400,000
Rubles . The show ended in 2005.
The show aired on
BKTV as ''Najslabija karika'' from 2002 until April 2006 when the station's terrestrial licence got revoked by Serbian authorities. It was hosted by Sandra Lalatović. The top prize was
RSD 3 million, which according to the exchange rate fluctuations in that period came in the range between
€ 37,500 and
€ 50,000. The show may return to the airwaves this year on either
B92 or
RTV Pink .
In Turkey, En Zayif Halka was shown during only one season on ShowTV. Hulya Ugur Tanriover took the job and met on each episode 9 contestants. Top prize money was TRL100,000,000,000TL.
Hahulia Halalasha started in 2002.
The version of the programme in Isael has been hosted by both Pnina Devorin
link and Hanna Laszlo [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0489713/].
At Hanna Laszlo's start, the format also changed and went back from the 9-contestant version to the format with only 8 participants.
BBC Worldwide licensed 83 prime time episodes of Weakest Link to the NBC network in the US. The British host of the BBC version, Anne Robinson, was part of the deal and presented all the episodes, including several celebrity specials.
After three seasons, when the success of the prime time version on NBC had come to an end, a syndicated version of Weakest Link hosted by George Gray was shown five days a week and also enjoyed success, though the format had been modified for a US half-hour slot, with fewer contestants and less banter.
Brazilian
TV Globo bought ''Weakest Link'' from the BBC in October 2001. It was decided that Fausto Silva would host the two pilots, recordered with the title of ''Ponto Fraco''. However, after the pilots were made, the show did not make it to the air, and was replaced by the more popular ''
Big Brother ''. The host was supposed to be Pedro Bial.
Chile also had its own version (El Rival Más Débil) for a 6 month run in 2004 hosted by local actress Catalina Pulido on
Canal 13 . The top prize was 10,000,000 Chilean pesos.
- (airs the British version on UK.TV )
- (can access the Russian version on the NTV network)
- (aired the NBC USA version on CTV )
- (airs the British version on ASTRO Channel 26 BBC Entertainment )
- (Aired the USA version)
- (Aired the Portugal version on RTP Internacional)
- (aired the NBC USA version on BBC first, later on Challenge )
- (airs the British version on BBC America )
- 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. "Anne-Droid" also appeared in the Doctor Who special of the quiz, recorded on November 21 , 2006 at Pinewood Studios , which was broadcast on the March 30 , 2007 . The real Anne pulled the plug out of the droid before hosting the show for real.
- There has been a Christmas special in which Christmas actors were questioned, including '' Basil Brush ''. Basil Brush has since become the only puppet to win ''Weakest Link''.
- The 1000th UK daytime edition was recorded at Pinewood on 1 November 2006 in front of an invited audience of past contestants, and broadcast on 18 December the same year, followed by a half-hour documentary going behind the scenes of the show. The contestants for the 1000th edition included the winner of the very first episode and memorable celebrities who have appeared on previous editions. The show began with Anne bursting from a giant cake to deliver her opening spiel. Though there was an audience, contestants played for the daytime jackpot of £10,000, complete with the podiums used on the daytime studio. After a disappointing final with not a single correct answer whatsoever until Sudden Death, eventually the strongest link became Miss Evans, who won £2,710. At her request, the prize money was shared between her and co-finalist Basil Brush, who each donated their respective half of the money to charity - at which point Anne announced that since it was the 1000th edition, £1,000 was added to the total prize money.
- '' Dead Ringers '' (a satire produced by the BBC) also made a spoof of Weakest Link, calling it The Weakest Disciple. The contestants were all disciples of Jesus (with Judas banking the most money - 30 pieces of silver). There has also been the Weakest Trappist Monk, they are all Trappist monks, they bank nothing and are silent when Anne Robinson insults them (due to their vow of silence), although that doesn't stop them from writing profanic insults to her (the weakest Trappist monk has written on his card "F
- you" as he was doing the walk of shame).
- Music is played throughout the show, uninterrupted, from the opening theme to the closing credits.
- All of the hosts wear black clothing (or sometimes dark colours with black). One notable exception, however, came on an April Fools Day episode in the UK version, when Anne Robinson appeared in pink clothing, and was nice to the contestants for most of the show. As the end of the show neared, she declared that she was bored with being nice, as the contestants were all "so stupid."
- Most versions have disciplinarian female hosts.
- The highest total ever achieved on the daytime version was in the £5,000 range. The lowest amount won was £750.
- ---On the primetime version with a £50,000 jackpot, the highest amount won was in the £25,000 range. The lowest amount won was in the £4,000 range.
- The United States version was once parodied on an episode of Saturday Night Live . Rachel Dratch played the host, Anne Robinson, and other cast members played random contestants. The game mainly consisted of Anne insulting the players in her questions throughout the round rather than giving legitimate questions, and going as far as Giving One Of Her Contestants The Finger . After the round, the contestants interrogated her, wondering why she was so cold. Robinson then has a flashback of her family leaving her as a child, deeming her the Weakest Link of the family.
