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Challenge - June 2016 onwards

#ChallengeAccepted (June 2016)

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NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
I think last time this came up the 'The' didn't last long, probably six months if that.

It had definitely gone by January 2001 (see 3:30), as had the original final round structure (see 44mins in):


The musical sting going into it though was changed the following series and the money tree looked a bit fatter with a £ sign:


Any changes after this were relatively minor I believe. Can't find when the set appeared to get bigger, it may not have done, just the power of a camera lens could dictate otherwise.
Last edited by Neil Jones on 20 October 2019 8:40pm
IN
Interceptor
The last few years of the programme were filmed in Glasgow, could that have been the time the set got rather wider?
JO
Johnr
I used to co-run a Weakest Link fan site, back in the days when such things were cool and not made completely redundant by the likes of Facebook and Twitter!

There was I seem to remember quite the discussion when 'The' suddenly vanished!

http://web.archive.org/web/20030203042754/http://twl-online.com/

I also seem to recall a debate at the time as if to whether Anne actually quit due to it relocating out to Glasgow, and I just found this article which sort of comes to the same conclusion

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity-interviews/queen-mean-anne-robinson-reveals-11493641

In the later series it seemed to be rather common Round 1 resulted in a chain of 9 correct answers, and I can't remember how the 'weakest link' was worked out in such a circumstance!
PF
PFML84
Probably who took longest to answer their question. I think the strongest link was simply whichever player banked the money.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Probably who took longest to answer their question. I think the strongest link was simply whichever player banked the money.


Once the game gets moving and the number of players goes down, it becomes obvious that whatever calculation is being used to work out the weakest link seems to be weighted in favour of questions answered incorrectly. For the first round with nine correct answers somebody is probably just picked at random to fill the voiceover. However sometimes this is all arbitrary anyway due to the voting - would you rather get rid of Fred who's tall, dark, handsome, has added 95% of the money in the pot and is obviously going to win this unless you kick him off, or would you rather get rid of Shaggy who dresses in an awful shade of green, has a crap haircut, got the 2+2 question wrong, hasn't added anything to the pot and is somehow still here 7 rounds later?

See, more than a gameshow this Smile
JJ
Juicy Joe Founding member
I used to frequent TWL Online back in the day!! It used to be awesome with sound and video clips!! Shame it is not around anymore!!

Weakest Link Series 10 comes to an end on Thursday this week on Challenge. So either they are going to repeat it, or they will show another series? It has been a major coup for the station.
AS
AS 21
The Weakest Link has now been in the 6pm weekday slot for 5 weeks now, and from tomorrow goes to double episodes at 6pm & also 7pm.

Is that a sign its been doing rather well on Challenge??

I have been enjoying watching it again, and would like Challenge to go further back than series 10 and show early 2000 episodes....i.e..Anne pre-facelift.

Goodbye😉

According to BARB ratings it has made it into the Challenge top 15 for the first 2 weeks of October.
Would be nice if they had celebrity editions on at the weekend like they used to
WH
what
So an episode of The Crystal Maze is on Sky Two currently, but with a frontcap from the current Challenge look added at the start. They haven’t aired it on Challenge in a while from what I can tell, but I’m assuming from this that Sky still have the rights. What’s holding them back? Ratings?
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
what posted:
So an episode of The Crystal Maze is on Sky Two currently, but with a frontcap from the current Challenge look added at the start. They haven’t aired it on Challenge in a while from what I can tell, but I’m assuming from this that Sky still have the rights. What’s holding them back? Ratings?


The maze gets to start airing for about seven episodes and then gets replaced by something else, this has happened two or three times on the trot now. I suspect Challenge are just using it as a filler (since its previously only appeared to fill a gap before something else came along), and I suspect Sky are just using it to prop up Sky Two ratings wise.
JA
JAS84
And to promote Challenge - hence that frontcap.
PE
peterh
They seem to be using the maze on sky two - a right hodgepodge of a channel now awaiting replacement soon

9 days later

AS
AS 21
All Star Family Fortunes with Vernon Kay comes to Challenge next Sunday at 7:30pm.

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