Duel or WWTBAM?

WIth Duel having being tipped as WWTBAM's eventual replacement and ITV having high hopes for this new Nick Hancock presented programme, it has been struggling in the ratings since its launch with ratings below 3 million viewers on a primetime Saturday night! Embarrassig really! Yet ITV still haven't pulled the plug on it yet!

With noone having won anything last Saturday and noone looking likely to get anywhere near winning the jackpot by winning 4 Duels, it has very little to offer to make the viewing public tune in week after week. In fact, the game is very repetitive and arguably, very boring.

WWTBAM, on the other hand, refreshed itself last year, with new revamped music and titles and a new money tree. Yet still, after 9 years, it still manages to rack up the tension and provides a challenge for everyone of all ages. Tonight, a gentleman won £150,000 by getting to question 9 out of 12 and the atmosphere was tense, chilling, yet exciting and I was willing him to go all the way. But alas, it did not happen. Yet WWTBAM is still gettting respectable viewing figures of 4-5 million and is great stuff on a Tuesday night!

Yet in Duel, the contestants seem to change every 10 minutes or so and the programme does not seem to go anywhere or move forward.

But which is better? Duel or WWTBAM? You decide! Fight!

Personally, I believe WWTBAM has far more to offer in excitement, lastability and playability than Duel and whoever at ITV thought this new show would eventually outperform WWTBAM must be off their rocker!

What do you reckon? :

Goldenballs.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Don't watch it that much but when it's on it's a great show to watch.

I gave Duel a go last week and I couldn't make head nor tail of it, it made Goldenballs look easy, and had a hint of Winner Takes All in it. Again Goldenballs I just cannot get into, Jasper Carrott should be doing stand-up not this, although it seems to be popular.

Although Who Wants to be a Millionaire is long past it, I'd rather watch that than Duel.

Oooh, interesting.
I've only just got into Duel by watching the Saturday afternoon repeats on ITV2, it wasn't something that I wanted to watch, but I like the idea, and the format, and even a group of friends sat and watched it for the first time on Saturday and all seemed to enjoy it, and add comment on how thick they were.

But on the other hand I've watched more Millionaire since it's return, whether it be because it's now on Tuesday night, or because of the changes made to it, and I enjoy it. The only thing is that I wish ITV would get back behind the programme, give them a secure slot (it may seem secure now, but surely it's filling for the lack of Champion's League) so that they can go back to recording a show a week, and either on the day before or earlier in that day to bring back the tension and take the papers out from circulating if somebody does win.
And I still think that viewers enjoy Millionaire as it's simple, and it isn't on everyday of the week.
Saying that, part of me does miss it being on for a week or two every three months or so.
Would Millionaire get more viewers if they increased the question amount back to 15, and give contestants the chance to go to £2million, £5million and then £10million?

I still believe that Duel isn't right for Saturday night, as I don't think the right audience is watching after Primeval, and as was pointed out in another post at another point in time, maybe they should have put Duel on between the parts of Dancing on Ice on a Sunday night.

Whether the ratings will change when Ant & Dec return is a different matter.

I do like the fact that although the programmes haven't got the best of audiences for the new season that they're now learning and are airing the whole series of programmes rather than the early 2000's of pulling a programme to replace it with A Touch of Frost or Midsummer Murders if it wasn't doing so well.

Numberwang.

I'd rather watch Quizzlestick.

QI.

WWTBAM is so far past it's sell-by date for me that Duel wins by default.

Well, there's only one thing for it....
"FIGHT!!!!!!!!"

Duel is much better now than Who Wants to be a Millionaire - a quiz killed off by celebrity specials.


Ratings though have been very disappointing, though considering none of ITV's new commissions have topped the 5m mark, perhaps 3m isn't as bad as it first looks.


I'd be surprised if Duel lasted it's full 12 week run though, although to be fair despite a very weak schedule ITV haven't pulled anything from it so far. It might even be worth playing the last 5 episodes out for a week at 5pm just to see if the format had potential to capture a daytime audience and return with a lower prize.

Nick Hancock is eponymous.