Do you remember the Peoples Quiz?
It was aired back in 2007 and featured a whole raft of the giants from the quizzing world. Have a quick check on Youtube and around Wikipedia if you need more information but the reason Im mentioning it today is that I have discovered that the BBC website for the show is still active.
The site contains actual questions used in the show and a decent little quiz game. HERE
Hi Daniel
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I remember this strange hybrid - I've known Mark the chaser for years, and he came runner up. The basic premise was a combination of x-Factor style audition show, and big money quiz. I will admit that I had some problems with this show. I have no problem with calling William G. Stewart a quiz god - he earned it with 15 to 1, but Kate Garroway and Myleene Klass ? Come on. Both very attractive ladies, and highly intelligent I've no doubt,but come on. Having these two pass comment on the performances of real quizzers got up my nose a bit. Then there was the randomising factor of the endgame, where answering questions wasn't enough, you had to find those with Qs behind them. I still remember the show where Mastermind finalist David Buckle kept answering everything, and not finding any qs, while his hapless opponent only got 2 questions right in the whole game - and found Qs behind both . Not that I'm saying it was fixed, but please - you either wanted to find the best quizzer of the bunch, or you didn't - and they said they did.
Not that the show was completely without any redeeming feature. Olav Bjortomt's performance in qualifying for the final was awesome. Full marks to the Beeb for offering their biggest ever quiz/gameshow prize to real quizzers as well. But in the end the show was neither one thing nor the other. It fell between two stools, and as I've said before, things which fall between two stools tend to end up doing just that - they fall.
Hi David
ReplyDeleteIn 2007 when this was on I was just finishing Uni so must have been doing other things whatever night this was on as it had passed me by. I saw it on Youtube for the first time last year when Mark Labbett mentioned it in a radio interview.
Similar thoughts to you from what I had seen, the inclusion of Klass and Garraway was odd.
I assume it was not a ratings hit then as it hasn't returned?
Well, it's all a little bit complicated. What I've gathered from what I've heard or read is that the BBC hated it- it was supposedly the lottery people themselves who came up with it.You can even before it was first screened - I don't understand all the ins and outs, but I think they were contractually obliged to go ahead with it. You can see the Beeb's lack of enthusiasm over the fact that they stopped updating the website before the series ever finished. No , I don't think that the ratings were ever very good.I don't know that the BBC were ever that comfortable giving that amount of money away to a single winner either.
ReplyDeleteStill, at least the People's Quiz Book wasn't a bad effort.
Ill have to hunt ebay for that one
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ReplyDeleteSorry about that ! Technical glitches. Right
ReplyDeleteAvailable for 1 penny on Amazon Used and New - plus postage and packaging - here's the URL
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Peoples-Quiz-Book-2007/dp/0593059093/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335459504&sr=8-1