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 (2007-03-24) – 23 June 2007 (2007-06-23)
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:

BBC Employees
Under 16's
Those with a criminal conviction in the last seven years
Bankrupts or people with a County Court Judgement in the last five years

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:

Under 25s
Over 40s
Those in between

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

Olav Bjortomt

He defeated Amanda 3–0 (6–0 on questions answered) on 21 April 2007 and was the first contestant to go through to the grand final.

Mark Labbett

He defeated 16 year old Danielle Winter-McQue 3–0 (6–0 on questions answered) on 28 April 2007 and was the second contestant to go through to the grand final.

Mick McCarthy

He defeated Ben Phillips 3–2 (6–6 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 2–2, and Mick buzzed in a fraction of a second before Ben, getting it right.

David Buckle

He defeated Lucy 3–2 (9–3 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 2–2 and there was one category left. Lucy buzzed in and answered incorrectly, and David then got it right.

Will Cudmore

He defeated Barbara 3–0 (5–1 on questions answered) on 26 May 2007 and was the firth contestant to go through to the grand final.

Stephanie Bruce

She defeated Martin 3–0 on 2 June 2007 and was the sixth contestant to go through to the final.

Julia Hobbs

She defeated Carol 3–0 on 9 June 2007 and was the seventh contestant to go through to the final.

Judith Searle

She defeated Cate 3–1 on 16 June 2007 and was the eighth contestant to go through to the final.

Alan Morgan

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 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 ^[3]	Le Grand Quiz Des Belges	Jacques van den Biggelaar	RTL-TVI	Philippe Malherbe Sabrina Jacobs Julie Taton	13 January 2009	€100.000
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 ^[5]	El gran quiz	Nuria Roca	Cuatro	Marta Sánchez Jaume Figueras Carlos Blanco	16 April 2008	€400.000
Turkey ^[6]	Bir milyon kimin	Unknown	Show TV	Okan Bayülgen Bülent Özveren Gülben Ergen	September 2013	TR1.000.000