PokerFace

PokerFace

Created by	Anthony McPartlin Declan Donnelly
Presented by	Ant & Dec
Narrated by	Tim Caple
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	14
Production
Location(s)	Fountain Studios
Running time	60mins (inc. adverts)
Production company(s)	Gallowgate and Talkback Thames
Distributor	FremantleMedia
Release
Original network	ITV
Picture format	16:9
Original release	10 July 2006 (2006-07-10) – 3 March 2007 (2007-03-03)

PokerFace is a British game show broadcast on ITV, where one person is guaranteed to win £1 million. The show was created by Ant & Dec, who also host it. As implied by the title, PokerFace, is based on the bluffing aspect of poker games. The contestants do not necessarily need to get the questions right in order to win, and can bluff their way through the game and pressure their opponents into folding in order to win.

The show was originally going to be called The Con Test, but the name was changed just weeks before the show began. However, the Australian version is called The Con Test. Series 1 of the show was aired nightly for seven consecutive days (the seventh show being the final), whilst series 2 saw the show moved to a Saturday prime-time slot, lasted for seven weeks.

Format

On each show, 6 contestants compete for a prize of £50,000 and a place in the £1 million final.

The show opens with "The Grilling". This is where the 6 contestants (5 in some versions) are introduced, and tell the other contestants about themselves. The viewers can see whether a person is telling the truth or not by the 'TRUE' and 'BLUFF' prompts on the screen. After all 6 contestants have been introduced and grilled, the game begins. Each contestant sits in front of a screen, and they can only see their own score.

In Round 1, there are 8 multiple choice questions with three possible answers, one of them being the correct answer, worth £500 each. Every contestant will have 5 seconds to lock in their answer. After the answer to each question is revealed, viewers at home can see which contestants got it right or wrong by a series of gold ticks and red crosses appearing on the pictures of each contestant. At the end of each round, viewers at home see the leaderboard, and more importantly, who's in last place. Ant & Dec then ask the contestants in turn how they think they did in that round.

After the round has finished, the face-off begins. The contestants stand in front of red buttons that rise from the floor, and a 10-second countdown starts. There are 2 possible outcomes:

A contestant folds by pressing the button. They'll lose their place in the game, but take home with them their winnings.
Nobody folds. The player with the least money will be removed from the game and they'll leave with nothing. If there is a tie at the bottom, then the person who answered their questions the slowest is out.

In either case, the losing contestant is briefly interviewed and asked to justify their decision. The contestant is then shown a leaderboard which reveals how the other contestants are doing.

There are 5 rounds in total. In each subsequent round, there are just 5 questions, but the prize money increases by £250 each round.

During the final, the £50,000 won in the heats was used as stake money, and the amount on offer per question was doubled. In the final of the second series, the final countdown for the £1 million face-off was also extended to 15 seconds.

Series 1

Sunday 16 July - Sarah Lang (also known as Sarah Price) - £1 million (her total from the questions was £84,500).

Sarah is possibly Britain's biggest game show winner in total, having also won £32,500 on The National Lottery: In It to Win It within the previous year. She also appeared on The Weakest Link and Wipeout in 2001, 19 Keys in 2003 and Didn't They Do Well in 2004.^[1]

Runner-up - Julian Sperring-Toy - £0 - did not fold so lost £75,500.
3rd - Amy - £66,000
4th - Geoff - £59,500
5th - Bill - £54,500
6th - Kim - £51,000

Series 2

The second series of PokerFace began on Saturday 20 January 2007.

Winners

Show	Date	1st	Amount	2nd	Amount	Folded?	Decision
1	20 January	Dominic	£12,750	Antonia	£14,000	Yes	N
2	27 January	Del	£13,750	Daniel	£12,750	Yes	Y
3	3 February	Shane	£14,750	Hilda	£11,750	Yes	Y
4	10 February	Victoria	£14,250	Georgeia	£14,250	Yes	N
5	17 February	Andy	£15,500	Donna	£14,500	Yes	Y
6	24 February	Colin	£19,250	Philippa	£19,250	Yes	Y

Final

The final aired on 3 March. The result was as follows:

Position	Name	From show	Amount	Folded?	Decision
1st	Dominic	1	£76,000	No	Y
2nd	Colin	6	£73,500	Yes	Y
3rd	Andy	5	£65,000	Yes	N
4th	Victoria	4	£63,000	Yes	N
5th	Del	2	£55,500	Yes	Y
6th	Shane	3	£53,000	Yes	N

Notes

The two eventual finalists, Dominic and Colin, were the first and last contestants to be introduced in the course of the heats - Dominic as the first person in 'The Grilling' of Show 1, and Colin as the last person in 'The Grilling' of Show 6.

Also, in both series, the winner of Show 1 has won the final. Both winners made it through their heat by making the other contestant fold when they should not have done, but have then won the finals outright.

International versions

Country	Name	Host(s)	TV station	Regular top prize in local currency	Super final prize in local currency
Australia	The Con Test	Andrew G Brigitte Duclos	Network Ten	A$50,000	none
Brazil	O Jogador	Ana Hickmann Britto Junior	Rede Record	R$50,000	none
China	王牌碟中谍 Wangpai die zhong die	Shen Tao Hua Shao	ZJTV	CN¥26,500	CN¥38,250 and a free trip to Antarctica (2013) or a car (2014)
Colombia	El Jugador	Andrea Serna Claudia Bahamon	RCN	CO$200,000,000	none
Hungary	PókerArc	István Vágó Balázs Sebestyén	RTL Klub	2,000,000 Ft	7,000,000 Ft (Sunday weekly final) 50,000,000 Ft (super final) 20,000,000 Ft (In the 2nd series, the game was only a week long with this prize in super final.)
India	PokerFace: Dil Sachcha Chehra Jhootha	Sharman Joshi	Real TV	none	Rs. 10,000,000
Indonesia	Duel Poker	Charles B. Sirait Conchita Caroline	NET.	none	Rp. 200,000,000
Mexico	Doble Cara	Rodrigo Murray	Azteca Trece	MX$100,000	none
Norway	PokerFjes	Øyvind Fjeldheim Cathrine Riis Lilleaas	TV2	KR100,000	KR1,000,000
Poland	Wielki Poker	Cezary Kosiński Paweł Burczyk	TVP2	50,000 zł	250,000 zł
Portugal	Jogo Duplo	José Carlos Malato Ana Galvão	RTP1	€10,000	€50,000
Slovakia	Veľký hráč	Peter Kočiš Ján Dubnička	TV JOJ	TBA	€45,000
Sweden	PokerFejs	Gry Forssell Adam Alsing	TV4	KR200,000	KR1,000,000
Vietnam	Đấu trí^[2]	Nguyễn Tùng Chi Lại Văn Sâm	VTV3	15,000,000₫	30,000,000₫ (semi-final) 60,000,000₫ (final)

The UK show also aired on TV3 in Ireland.
The UK original hosts Ant & Dec attempted to sell the show in the United States to ABC without success, according to an online article on A2 News Central's website that instead referenced the US launch of Wanna Bet?/You Bet! for the same network (a program they will host).
Although, some versions have just one host on stage and the other host in the interview room, the Mexican and Indian versions are the only versions with only one presenter. "El Jugador" (the Colombian version) is the first version with two female presenters.
The Hungarian version runs as a three-round tournament over six weeks. At the end of the sixth week, the six weekly winners compete in the super final.

References

↑ Daniel Lombard. "Oh my God... I've won a million!". South Wales Argus.
↑ (in Vietnamese) Đấu trí – gameshow mới của VTV3 sắp trình làng, October 29, 2007.

External links

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