LL
Ask the Host will be all well and good until Clarkson makes a misjudgment and Twitter gets up in arms claiming he deliberately mislead them.
CW
I wonder if allowing contestants to set their own second safety net rather than being at £32K was designed to benefit the programme makers more than the contestants.
I'm assuming the contestant would have to set the second safety net either at the start or upon reaching £1000. I'd imagine quite a few contestants will opt to set a lower safety net, meaning in theory lower wins if the contestant falls back to the safety net compared to when it was at £32K. Similarly if the contestant opts to set the safety net higher than in the original series and fail to reach that then the programme makers only have to give away £1000.
Also in the original series the questions tended to get much harder after the £32K point. With this safety net point gone I wonder whether questions might get a bit tougher sooner.
Charlie Wells
Moderator
So the ‘twists’ for the new version are a new lifeline ‘Ask the host’ & the ability for contestants to set their own safety net (after the £1,000 safety net).
https://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/who-wants-be-millionaire-returns-itv-saturday-brand-new-twists
https://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/who-wants-be-millionaire-returns-itv-saturday-brand-new-twists
I wonder if allowing contestants to set their own second safety net rather than being at £32K was designed to benefit the programme makers more than the contestants.
I'm assuming the contestant would have to set the second safety net either at the start or upon reaching £1000. I'd imagine quite a few contestants will opt to set a lower safety net, meaning in theory lower wins if the contestant falls back to the safety net compared to when it was at £32K. Similarly if the contestant opts to set the safety net higher than in the original series and fail to reach that then the programme makers only have to give away £1000.
Also in the original series the questions tended to get much harder after the £32K point. With this safety net point gone I wonder whether questions might get a bit tougher sooner.
AA
It explains how the safety net works at the bottom of that release. It looks like after every question after £1000 they are asked if the following question is to be the safety net amount. So you can't say at question 6 you want £250k to be your safety net because you haven't got there. You have to then get the subsequent question right for the net to be set
I'm assuming the contestant would have to set the second safety net either at the start or upon reaching £1000. I'd imagine quite a few contestants will opt to set a lower safety net, meaning in theory lower wins if the contestant falls back to the safety net compared to when it was at £32K. Similarly if the contestant opts to set the safety net higher than in the original series and fail to reach that then the programme makers only have to give away £1000.
It explains how the safety net works at the bottom of that release. It looks like after every question after £1000 they are asked if the following question is to be the safety net amount. So you can't say at question 6 you want £250k to be your safety net because you haven't got there. You have to then get the subsequent question right for the net to be set
CH
Not overly convinced Ask the Host will work.
Changing the safe haven is interesting but from a presentation point of view will no doubt mean the music cues won’t be as interesting. You can’t have the music at its heightened pitch and tension at £16000 when actually they’ve chosen it as their safe haven and are guaranteed that money.
Changing the safe haven is interesting but from a presentation point of view will no doubt mean the music cues won’t be as interesting. You can’t have the music at its heightened pitch and tension at £16000 when actually they’ve chosen it as their safe haven and are guaranteed that money.
JO
High Stakes with Jeremy Kyle (yes that was more than just a nightmare, it actually happened!) made a big deal of asking Jeremy for help. It seems if you need help for anything, just make sure you have a mate called Jeremy on hand basically.
I'm glad they've gone back to the original money tree, the 12 question one always seemed to have an invisible brick wall around the £20,000 mark.
Although you can have all the lifelines in the world...
I'm glad they've gone back to the original money tree, the 12 question one always seemed to have an invisible brick wall around the £20,000 mark.
Although you can have all the lifelines in the world...
RD
Surely as host and therefore being on the contestants side, with a lifeline like this Jeremy is likely to allude (albeit subtlety) if the contestant hints at choosing that lifeline and he genuinely doesn't know. Especially if we're talking big money.
They really could do with an 'Ask the Expert' lifeline or equivalent to keep the person behind the lifeline completely independent from the gameplay.
And I don't get the 'set your own safety net' feature. What is that supposed to do for the contestant? I don't really get the merits if they set the safety net early on as opposed to setting it later on and vice versa. I guess it just means they can risk losing more earlier on if they set it at a later stage or set it early and they'll risk losing more at a latter stage of the game if they get there. Still not quite sure what overall benefit that really has for the contestant.
Surely most contestants are likely to go down the middle of the road and set it at the £32,000 anyway.
So the ‘twists’ for the new version are a new lifeline ‘Ask the host’ & the ability for contestants to set their own safety net (after the £1,000 safety net).
https://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/who-wants-be-millionaire-returns-itv-saturday-brand-new-twists
https://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/who-wants-be-millionaire-returns-itv-saturday-brand-new-twists
Surely as host and therefore being on the contestants side, with a lifeline like this Jeremy is likely to allude (albeit subtlety) if the contestant hints at choosing that lifeline and he genuinely doesn't know. Especially if we're talking big money.
They really could do with an 'Ask the Expert' lifeline or equivalent to keep the person behind the lifeline completely independent from the gameplay.
And I don't get the 'set your own safety net' feature. What is that supposed to do for the contestant? I don't really get the merits if they set the safety net early on as opposed to setting it later on and vice versa. I guess it just means they can risk losing more earlier on if they set it at a later stage or set it early and they'll risk losing more at a latter stage of the game if they get there. Still not quite sure what overall benefit that really has for the contestant.
Surely most contestants are likely to go down the middle of the road and set it at the £32,000 anyway.
Last edited by RDJ on 2 May 2018 1:45am
RD
So the trailer ahead of the first show in 1998 about being able to ask the host finally comes true.
For the last 20 years I wondered if I'd imagined hearing that on the trailer, but after seeing your comment I found this, and Tarrant does indeed say "I'll even help"...
One of the YouTube commenters thinks it refers to the fact that Tarrant had the correct answer on his screen in Series 1 and the whole show was essentially a mind game, with the contestant trying to work out if Tarrant's comments about their provisional answer were truth or lie.
It's an interesting theory but I don't recall that ever being a part of the show's ethos. If Tarrant made them wobble I think that was just his role of adding drama, rather than specifically being their opponent and trying to make them fail.
Ask the Host will be all well and good until Clarkson makes a misjudgment and Twitter gets up in arms claiming he deliberately mislead them.
So the trailer ahead of the first show in 1998 about being able to ask the host finally comes true.
For the last 20 years I wondered if I'd imagined hearing that on the trailer, but after seeing your comment I found this, and Tarrant does indeed say "I'll even help"...
One of the YouTube commenters thinks it refers to the fact that Tarrant had the correct answer on his screen in Series 1 and the whole show was essentially a mind game, with the contestant trying to work out if Tarrant's comments about their provisional answer were truth or lie.
It's an interesting theory but I don't recall that ever being a part of the show's ethos. If Tarrant made them wobble I think that was just his role of adding drama, rather than specifically being their opponent and trying to make them fail.
LL
One of the early questions in the first episode was about which boot was named after a Duke. The intonation of Chris's voice when he read out "Wellington" was enough of a giveaway if you happened to not know the answer. There was also the subtle laughter from the audience over the years that would help you rule out a wrong answer based on how silly it was.