It's in the Bag (game show)

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For other meanings see It's in the Bag

It's in the Bag was a long-running New Zealand radio and, later, television game show, initially hosted by Selwyn Toogood in both media. Toogood popularised the classic kiwi phrase "by hokey!" and also entered "the money or the bag?" into New Zealand lexicon.

Unlike other game shows instead of being filmed in a single studio the show went on the road to a different town each week and the set was assembled into a local community town hall. The contestants were locals (usually simple country folk) who came to watch the show live, and who frequently surprised viewers with their lack of basic general knowledge.

How the show worked is contestants were chosen from the audience to participate in the show, each contestant would be called onto the stage and asked 3 (typically very easy) questions and if all 3 questions were answered correctly the contestant had the chance to play for the money or the bag. The presenter would then call out a small dollar value and the contestant could either take the money now or the bag, if the contestant chose the bag he or she would then be given a higher dollar value and this continued until either the money was taken or reached a limit where then the contestant would win the prize in the bag. The prize could be something typical for a game show such as home appliances or a booby prize worth less than the money offered.

On television in the 1980s, John Hawkesby took over when Toogood retired.