The National Lottery: In It to Win It

Not to be confused with Minute to Win It.
The National Lottery: In It to Win It
Genre Game show
Created by Andrew Brereton
Sarah Edwards
Gail Sloan
Presented by Dale Winton
Narrated by Alan Dedicoat
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 18
No. of episodes 161 (as of 25 April 2015)
Production
Location(s) BBC Television Centre
(2002–11)
BBC Pacific Quay (2012–)
Running time 45 minutes (2002–6)
50 minutes (2006–)
Production company(s) 12 Yard
BBC Scotland (2012–)
Distributor ITV Studios
Broadcast
Original channel BBC One
Picture format 16:9
Original run 18 May 2002 – present
Chronology
Preceded by Jet Set
Followed by Wright Around the World

The National Lottery: In It to Win It, is a BBC National Lottery game show broadcast on BBC One since 18 May 2002. The programme is hosted by Dale Winton. It is the longest running game show to accompany the UK lottery draws; as of 2015, it has been running for thirteen years.

Format

Five contestants wait on the right side of the studio, hoping to be randomly picked to play by joining 'winners row' by way of a lottery machine filled with balls of various colors. When in ‘winners row’, players are given multiple choice questions to answer. £5,000 is added to the prize fund if a question is answered correctly. However, in the event of the player getting the question wrong, they are sent to the ‘red area’, situated in the middle of the studio.

At this point, another player is randomly selected to join 'winners row'. However, before they are asked a question, the player in the red area is given one more chance to be on 'winners row' by answering a non-multiple choice question correctly. If they fail to answer correctly, they'll go back to the beginning row of contestants.

After 20 questions, a klaxon sounds, signalling the end for anyone not in 'winners row'. At this point, each player in 'winners row' has to answer one more multiple choice question to gain an equal share of the prize fund. Players who get their question wrong push up the winnings of those who have answered correctly. In the event of no-one getting their final questions right, no-one goes home with the money.

The maximum prize fund is £100,000 (twenty £5,000 questions answered correctly), although every time a player gets their question wrong, they'll effectively reduce the maximum possible total by £5,000. The top prize was finally won single-handedly by Eleri Owen, on 29 July 2006, who answered all twenty questions and her final question correctly, to walk away with the top prize of £100,000. The £100,000 top prize was won for a second time by Toni Cox on 24 January 2009. The £100,000 top prize was in sight for Olly Lewin on 15 May 2010, who had got to the end single-handedly, however, his last question was to name the year that Richard Pryor, Bruce Lee and John Lennon were born. The options were 1935, 1940 and 1945. After much deliberation, he wrongly answered 1945, losing everything. The actual correct year was 1940.

One question was edited out on 27 February 2010. It concerned the fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who had died between the show being recorded and broadcast. After the unfortunate death of David Elias, Kevin Ashman began to set the questions for the show in 2007.

The programme includes the Saturday night Thunderball and Lotto draws. Originally, the entire show was pre-recorded with Dale Winton presiding over the Lottery draws live, however, now, the programme is fully recorded with a presenter at 'Lottery HQ' conducting the live draw.

John McGivern from Northern Ireland is the youngest winner in the shows history, winning £50,000 at 18 years old. The show was broadcast on 4 September 2004.

Transmissions

Series Start date End date Episodes
1 18 May 2002 20 July 2002 9
2 26 April 2003 12 July 2003 12
3 1 May 2004 4 September 2004 15
4 9 July 2005 15 October 2005 15
5 22 July 2006 16 September 2006 9
6 25 November 2006 6 January 2007 7
7 22 September 2007 3 November 2007 7
8 12 January 2008 9 February 2008 4
9 27 December 2008 14 February 2009 8
10 2 January 2010 27 February 2010 8
11 8 May 2010 10 July 2010 8
12 25 September 2010 5 February 2011 8
13 25 June 2011 13 August 2011 8
14 10 March 2012 23 June 2012 12
15 5 January 2013 20 July 2013 16
16 12 April 2014 14 June 2014 10
17 6 September 2014 2015 8
18 2015 2015 8[1]

Ratings

Episode viewing figures from BARB.[2]

Series 1 (2002)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 18 May 2002 7,680,000 10
2 25 May 2002 5,660,000 17
3 1 June 2002 5,580,000 13
4 8 June 2002 5,350,000 28
5 15 June 2002 6,490,000 14
6 22 June 2002 5,710,000 16
7 29 June 2002 5,540,000 17
8 6 July 2002 5,110,000 17
9 20 July 2002 5,970,000 9

Series 2 (2003)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 26 April 2003 7,160,000 8
2 3 May 2003 5,480,000 18
3 10 May 2003 6,270,000 11
4 17 May 2003 6,920,000 11
5 24 May 2003 5,140,000 20
6 31 May 2003 4,790,000 25
7 7 June 2003 6,280,000 11
8 14 June 2003 5,290,000 18
9 21 June 2003 6,370,000 9
10 28 June 2003 7,460,000 5
11 5 July 2003 6,520,000 6
12 12 July 2003 4,690,000 21

Series 3 (2004)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 1 May 2004 6,420,000 8
2 8 May 2004 7,580,000 9
3 15 May 2004 4,670,000 19
4 22 May 2004 6,360,000 9
5 29 May 2004 8,240,000 5
6 5 June 2004 7,000,000 7
7 19 June 2004 Under 4,580,000 Outside top 30
8 26 June 2004 5,980,000 16
9 3 July 2004 7,710,000 11
10 17 July 2004 5,970,000 10
11 24 July 2004 5,240,000 14
12 31 July 2004 5,660,000 13
13 7 August 2004 5,570,000 11
14 14 August 2004 6,120,000 12
15 4 September 2004 5,100,000 21

Series 4 (2005)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 9 July 2005 4,810,000 15
2 16 July 2005 5,860,000 8
3 23 July 2005 6,130,000 7
4 30 July 2005 6,670,000 8
5 6 August 2005 6,070,000 9
6 13 August 2005 6,490,000 7
7 20 August 2005 5,240,000 10
8 27 August 2005 4,960,000 15
9 3 September 2005 5,520,000 13
10 10 September 2005 5,780,000 11
11 17 September 2005 5,310,000 17
12 24 September 2005 5,380,000 13
13 1 October 2005 5,170,000 16
14 8 October 2005 5,060,000 18
15 15 October 2005 6,590,000 14

Series 5 (2006)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 22 July 2006 5,600,000 9
2 29 July 2006 6,630,000 8
3 5 August 2006 6,270,000 8
4 12 August 2006 6,890,000 7
5 19 August 2006 7,270,000 6
6 26 August 2006 7,090,000 5
7 2 September 2006 6,820,000 5
8 9 September 2006 6,580,000 7
9 16 September 2006 5,970,000 9

Series 6 (2006–07)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 25 November 2006 6,740,000 9
2 2 December 2006 6,550,000 9
3 9 December 2006 6,050,000 11
4 16 December 2006 5,470,000 12
5 23 December 2006 7,120,000 13
6 30 December 2006 7,100,000 15
7 6 January 2007 6,970,000 10

Series 7 (2007)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 22 September 2007 4,830,000 18
2 29 September 2007 5,160,000 17
3 6 October 2007 6,350,000 7
4 13 October 2007 5,210,000 19
5 20 October 2007 4,510,000 23
6 27 October 2007 5,980,000 8
7 3 November 2007 6,220,000 8

Series 8 (2008)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 12 January 2008 7,070,000 6
2 19 January 2008 7,750,000 5
3 2 February 2008 7,800,000 5
4 9 February 2008 7,390,000 7

Series 9 (2008–09)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 27 December 2008 6,030,000 23
2 3 January 2009 5,860,000 18
3 10 January 2009 6,890,000 6
4 17 January 2009 7,000,000 7
5 24 January 2009 6,960,000 5
6 31 January 2009 7,530,000 4
7 7 February 2009 7,810,000 4
8 14 February 2009 6,130,000 11

Series 10 (2010)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 2 January 2010 5,930,000 21
2 9 January 2010 6,500,000 20
3 16 January 2010 5,900,000 17
4 23 January 2010 6,400,000 11
5 30 January 2010 6,020,000 10
6 6 February 2010 6,480,000 9
7 20 February 2010 6,880,000 6
8 27 February 2010 6,270,000 11

Series 11 (2010)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One Weekly ranking
1 8 May 2010 Under 4,240,000 Outside top 30
2 15 May 2010 4,280,000 29
3 22 May 2010 5,290,000 13
4 5 June 2010 Under 3,470,000 Outside top 30
5 12 June 2010 Under 4,020,000 Outside top 30
6 19 June 2010 4,480,000 19
7 26 June 2010 Under 3,870,000 Outside top 30
8 10 July 2010 4,790,000 15

Series 12 (2010–11)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 25 September 2010 Under 4,030,000 Outside top 30
2 2 October 2010 Under 4,300,000 Outside top 30
3 9 October 2010 Under 4,140,000 Outside top 30
4 8 January 2011 6,170,000 14
5 15 January 2011 6,240,000 14
6 22 January 2011 6,180,000 13
7 29 January 2011 6,690,000 12
8 5 February 2011 6,540,000 11

Series 13 (2011)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 25 June 2011 4,860,000 12
2 2 July 2011 4,780,000 15
3 9 July 2011 5,350,000 11
4 16 July 2011 5,460,000 11
5 23 July 2011 5,600,000 8
6 30 July 2011 4,550,000 15
7 6 August 2011 4,910,000 14
8 13 August 2011 5,690,000 13

Series 14 (2012)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 10 March 2012 5,590,000 8
2 17 March 2012 5,760,000 11
3 24 March 2012 4,270,000 26
4 31 March 2012 4,180,000 23
5 7 April 2012 4,450,000 22
6 14 April 2012 4,340,000 24
7 21 April 2012 4,550,000 20
8 28 April 2012 4,580,000 21
9 5 May 2012 4,430,000 20
10 12 May 2012 Under 3,820,000 Outside Top 30
11 19 May 2012 4,410,000 22
12 23 June 2012 Under 3,680,000 Outside Top 30

Series 15 (2013)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 5 January 2013 5,900,000 16
2 12 January 2013 5,540,000 16
3 19 January 2013 5,480,000 25
4 26 January 2013 5,200,000 22
5 2 February 2013 4,970,000 25
6 9 February 2013 4,880,000 28
7 16 February 2013 5,440,000 17
8 2 March 2013 4,500,000 28
9 9 March 2013 4,500,000 29
10 16 March 2013 Under 4,700,000 Outside Top 30
11 1 June 2013 Under 3,600,000 Outside Top 30
12 8 June 2013 Under 3,110,000 Outside Top 30
13 29 June 2013 4,090,000 20
14 6 July 2013 4,020,000 27
15 13 July 2013 4,070,000 17
16 20 July 2013 3,090,000 30

Series 16 (2014)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 12 April 2014 Under 3,700,000 Outside Top 30
2 19 April 2014 Under 3,910,000 Outside Top 30
3 26 April 2014 Under 4,000,000 Outside Top 30
4 3 May 2014 Under 3,880,000 Outside Top 30
5 10 May 2014 Under 4,010,000 Outside Top 30
6 17 May 2014 Under 3,730,000 Outside Top 30
7 24 May 2014 3,750,000 30
8 31 May 2014 Under 3,590,000 Outside Top 30
9 7 June 2014 Under 3,220,000 Outside Top 30
10 14 June 2014 Under 4,200,000 Outside Top 30

Series 17 (2014–15)

Episode no. Airdate Total viewers BBC One weekly ranking
1 6 September 2014 Under 3,450,000 Outside Top 30
2 13 September 2014 Under 3,210,000 Outside Top 30
3 20 September 2014 Under 3,490,000 Outside Top 30
4 11 April 2015
5 16 May 2015
6 25 April 2015
7 2 May 2015
8 9 May 2015

References

  1. ↑ "BBC announces entertainment commissions". BBC Online. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  2. ↑ http://www.barb.co.uk/

External links

The Youngest Winner of The National Lottery In It To Win It http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY7UinYU-_U