The People's Quiz

The People's Quiz
Genre Game show
Presented by Jamie Theakston
Starring William G. Stewart
Myleene Klass
Kate Garraway
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 1
No. of episodes 12
Production
Running time 60 minutes
Production company(s) Fever Media
Broadcast
Original channel BBC One
Picture format 16:9
Original run 24 March 2007 – 23 June 2007
Chronology
Preceded by 1 vs. 100
Followed by Who Dares Wins

The People's Quiz is a BBC National Lottery game show that was broadcast on BBC One from 24 March to 23 June 2007. The programme was hosted by Jamie Theakston.

Auditions

Auditions were held throughout January 2007 all around the UK.

The quiz was open to nearly everyone, in that the only excluded categories were:

Round 1

The first round of the audition consisted of contestants turning up at six major venues in the UK: Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester, Belfast and London. Contenders had to get ten questions in a row correct to progress to the second round.

Contestants were allowed multiple attempts to qualify but organisational problems meant that this was not always possible at the earlier venues.

Round 2

On the evening of 5 February 2007, all surviving contestants rang a phone line to receive a randomly selected 20 question quiz. The contestants were split into six categories based on age and sex. The top eight in each category qualified for the final audition round.

Round 3

The 48 survivors turned up for what had been billed as a three day quiz boot camp on 16 February 2007. The contestants were split into a male and female group and further subdivided into three age categories:

Each contestant was given a Mastermind style two minute general knowledge round (interrupting the question master was allowed) and each contestant was then summoned back in front of the judging panel to hear of their fate: four in each category went through and four did not.

Audition Controversies

The open auditions were clearly a very ambitious and time-consuming process and teething problems were inevitable. In particular a thread on the Quizzing.co.uk website has led to over 400 posts, many of them from disgruntled contestants.

Complaints ranged from long delays at the early auditions through to being effectively kept in solitary confinement at Pinewood Studios.

Studio phase

Rules of the Game

Ten players compete in each show.

The first round is called "Only the Strong survive" and is played four times to find the four qualifiers for round two.

Each time this game is played the competitors start with one life and are eliminated by getting a question wrong. At the end of the allotted time period - 2 minutes (or 90 seconds in the final show) - all the survivors get an "On the Buzzer" question. A correct answer qualifies a player for round two. A wrong answer to the "On the Buzzer" question also eliminates the player and a new question must be asked.

The Second round is called "Brain Chain"

Here, the four contestants who qualified from "Only the Strong survive" take turns to try and make a chain of questions in 90 seconds. Whoever makes the longest saved chain goes through to the head-to-head play-off called "Do or Die".

The winner of "Brain Chain" selects who s/he thinks will be the weakest competition out of the other nine for the final round. The winner qualifies for The Grand Final, the loser is eliminated from the competition. There are 12 categories on the screen - five of them have a 'Q' hidden behind it and seven do not. The winner of "Brain Chain" starts by picking a category, and then the fastest person to buzz in and get the answer right gets to see if there is a 'Q' behind that category. If there is, the contestant gets the Q and whoever gets three Qs wins and will win their round and qualify for the final. The next week, the eight contestants from the start who didn't play in "Do or Die" are joined by two of the other survivors from the Final Audition Weekend.

Finalists

He defeated Amanda 30 (60 on questions answered) on 21 April 2007 and was the first contestant to go through to the grand final.

He defeated 16 year old Danielle Winter-McQue 30 (60 on questions answered) on 28 April 2007 and was the second contestant to go through to the grand final.

He defeated Ben Phillips 32 (66 on questions answered) on 5 May 2007 and was the third contestant to go through to the grand final. With only one question left it was 22, and Mick buzzed in a fraction of a second before Ben, getting it right.

He defeated Lucy 32 (93 on questions answered) on 19 May 2007 and was the fourth contestant to go through to the grand final. He answered 6 questions correctly before getting a Q. At the end, it was 22 and there was one category left. Lucy buzzed in and answered incorrectly, and David then got it right.

He defeated Barbara 30 (51 on questions answered) on 26 May 2007 and was the firth contestant to go through to the grand final.

She defeated Martin 30 on 2 June 2007 and was the sixth contestant to go through to the final.

She defeated Carol 30 on 9 June 2007 and was the seventh contestant to go through to the final.

She defeated Cate 31 on 16 June 2007 and was the eighth contestant to go through to the final.

He was the winner of the People's Quiz Wildcard series on BBC2, taking the last available place at the last available minute.

Final

In the Grand Final only Stephanie, Mark, Mick, and Will respectively qualified from "Only the Strong survive" and into "Brain Chain". Will and Mick both managed to save a chain of zero meaning Mark and Stephanie only needed one to qualify. Stephanie did just that, but Mark managed a score of six giving him an advantage into the final.

Mark and Stephanie went on to battle in the final "Do or Die" round of the series. Stephanie won with three 'Q's to Mark's one, taking home the £200,700 prize money. This was, and as of 2009 still is, the largest cash prize ever awarded on a BBC quiz or game show.

Quizmasters

The quiz has three celebrities making up the Quiz Panel: William G. Stewart, Kate Garraway and Myleene Klass.

Ratings

Episode Viewing figures from BARB.[1]

Episode
no.
Airdate Viewers
(millions)
BBC One
weekly ranking
1 24 March 2007 5.07 13
2 31 March 2007 6.61 8
3 7 April 2007 5.46 13
4 21 April 2007 4.52 21
5 28 April 2007 5.03 18
6 5 May 2007 N/A N/A
7 19 May 2007 4.27 28
8 26 May 2007 N/A N/A
9 2 June 2007 N/A N/A
10 9 June 2007 N/A N/A
11 16 June 2007 N/A N/A
12 23 June 2007 4.40 21

International versions

Country/Region Name Host Network Questioneers Premiere Prize
Arab League Arab World [2] مسابقة الجماهير
Musabaqet El Jamahir
Ashraf Hamdi MBC 1 George Kurdahi
Mona Zaki
Sarah El Dandarawi
11 January 2011 SR2.000.000
Belgium Belgium [3] Le Grand Quiz Des Belges Jacques van den Biggelaar RTL-TVI Philippe Malherbe
Sabrina Jacobs
Julie Taton
13 January 2009 100.000
France France [4] Le Plus grand quiz de France Sandrine Quétier TF1 Jean-Pierre Foucault
Mareva Galanter
Christophe Dechavanne
Alexia Laroche-Joubert (Season 1)
6 November 2009 250.000 + 10.000
Spain Spain [5] El gran quiz Nuria Roca Cuatro Marta Sánchez
Jaume Figueras
Carlos Blanco
16 April 2008 400.000
Turkey Turkey [6] Bir milyon kimin Unknown Show TV Okan Bayülgen
Bülent Özveren
Gülben Ergen
September 2013 TR1.000.000

References

External links