Quizmania

Quizmania
File:Quizmania-logo.gif Quizmania logo
Created by	Chuck Thomas, Debbie King, Simone Thorogood
Starring	Several presenters
No. of episodes	N/A
Production
Producer	FremantleMedia
Running time	Various
Original release
Network	ITV1, ITV2, Information TV and Life Showcase TV
Release	12 August 2005 – Present
Related
Quiz Call

Quizmania is a late night interactive quiz show showing on ITV1 and several Sky channels. Created by Chuck Thomas, Debbie King and Simone Thorogood (formerly of Neun Live and Bowling For Bucks). In a similar vein to other premium-line call in shows such as Quiz Call, viewers are encouraged to phone a premium-rate number in order to provide an answer to a quiz question.

The show typically lasts anything from 2 hours to 5 hours, depending on ITV scheduling. In order to win money, viewers must ring in at a cost of 60p from a BT landline. If they are successful they will be placed on hold, then transferred live to the studio if they are lucky, where they go on to deliver their answer. Prizes range from £100 to £25,000 on certain nights. The biggest prize to date is £28,000 won on March 22 2006.

In certain games, if a caller delivers a correct answer they get a chance at the jackpot game. This formerly consisted of guessing two digits at the end of a cheque (£5,000.XX), and now consists of choosing a key between 1-50 to open a box, which has effectively doubling your chances of winning the jackpot.

Quizmania originally began broadcasting on 12 August 2005. The show now appears on Sky Digital channels 139 (Life Showcase TV) and 181 (Information TV) from 9pm. Quizmania began simulcasting with ITV1 on 16 December 2005.

According to an article in The Times, Quizmania earned ITV over £1.2million in the first two weeks of transmission.

Quizmania will stop showing on ITV1 at the end of March but will be moving across to sister channel ITV2 from March 31 2006. ITV will be launching the new ITV Play service on ITV1 from March 31 with new, interactive quiz show entitled The Mint.

Popularity

Despite the critisisms, Quizmania became the first live and interactive quizshow to broadcast on terrestrial television.

Quizmania has been so successful for ITV, that it was announced on March 8 2006 [1], that they would be launching a new channel and branding for their interactive gameshows, entitled ITV Play.

Games

Some of the games played on Quizmania include:

The Tower

This is the flagship Quizmania game. It consists of 8 blank spaces increasing in value, ranging from anywhere up to £25,000. At the top of the tower, will either be a phrase with a missing word or a topic to guess. For example, one game could be HOT _____, viewers could call in and guess hot weather, hot water, hot pants, etc. Alternatively, the game could be "Boys Names Beginning With T" and viewers could call and guess Trevor, Timothy, Thierry, etc.

Games of this type have come under particular criticism because they appear specifically designed so as not to have any solid 'right or wrong' type answers. For example, the viewers might simply be asked to "name a rock band", while a graphic will appear on screen with 10 spaces to represent the 10 bands that need to be named. The problem with this is that there is no way to verify in advance what bands were actually on the list - essentially, it is down to the discretion of the quizmania team to declare which bands are and are not on the list.

Country

Rarely seen nowadays, on screen will be shown the name and flag of a country with a few letters missing. Viewers must guess the country to win £250.

Word

Another rarity, this consists of a 9 letter word which is broken into parts and re-arranged in a 3x3 grid. For example:

M O T

I R O

S T S

The answer would be Motorists.

Criss-Cross

Another game, is when the viewers are given three words with the first letters missing. People would then have to guess what the word going down would be. For example:

_REE

_PPER

_UILD

The word would be TUB (Tree, Upper and Build).

Etc.

There are many other variations on games played on Quizmania, including other fill in the blanks, guessing games, etc.

Incentives

Periodically, an incentive to call in will be displayed on the screen. These include,

• Next caller receives 2 guesses or Buy One Get One Free.

• Bonus round when the next caller will be offered a certain amount of extra cash if they win.

• Speed round, where many calls are taken with no banter.

• Caller every 30 seconds. (The time can vary)

Catchphrases

The show holds many catchphrases by many of the presenters.

• The Big QM - Nickname given to the show
• Quizmaniacs - Nickname given to fans of the show
• There's no answerphone, no call back service, it's just you, me and the game, baby - Catchphrase of Debbie King, said when somebody hangs up without giving their answer.
• Hanging up is like going to the supermarket, buying some asparagus and throwing it into the mud - Said by Debbie King when somebody hangs up.
• Hanging up is like going to the supermarket, buying a bag of sprouts, and rolling them individually down a hill - Variation on above.
• Let's mount the podium of love - When a speed round is to take place.
• Any other leading chain would do - Whenever a brand name is mentioned.
• Yakkabakkas - Greg Scott's catchphrase
• Mariella?

Presenters

• Debbie King
• Greg Scott
• Lee Baldry
• Lottie Mayor
• Nigel Mitchell
• Chuck Thomas
• Kirsty Duffy
• Lee Clark

Fire

At around 02:10 am 30th of March 2005 a fire alarm went off during Greg's last show on ITV1(the show moved to ITV2 on the 1st of April). The studio had to be evacuated for 40 minutes during which time ITV showed "Classic Sports" to fill in until it was safe to return to the building. The fire, according to Greg Scott was in the basement. Ever the professional, once the show came back on, Greg was carrying on the Camerawoman Jess, while he had soot on his face and his collar open and no tie, which of course was a joke, implying Greg had saved Jess.

There were some claims on internet forums that the fire alarm was just a publicity stunt, however this was quickly denied on air by Greg.

Deaf Callers

Greg's last show had a deaf caller who used a Telecommunications Relay Service, the call was taken by a typetalk operator who relayed what Greg said to the deaf person and vice versa.

Criticisms

An article on the BBC website noted that "Icstis - the organisation that regulates premium rate telephone services in the UK - had acknowledged that the growth in the number of puzzle channels has been "matched by an increase in complaints about them".

According to this article, "nearly 10% of all enquiries about premium rate services received by Icstis between September and November last year were specifically regarding television contests".

External links

• ITV webpage
• Official website
• Interviews and Behind The Scenes Footage
• Interview with Debbie King
• BBC article with complaints about this genre of tv program
• Times article - notes that "The company [ITV] earned £1.2 million from a late night quiz show, Quizmania, in the first two weeks of its transmission".
• 'Roll up, roll up for multichannel television's latest moneyspinner, Guardian, 2005'[2]