Review: Weakest Link

WEAKEST LINK (Daytime)
George Gray Premiere: January 7th, 2002
Host: George Gray
Announcer: Lisa Friedman

GAME PLAY
Same as the nighttime version, with a few differences. Six players compete. They have 1:45 to go around the players. Each in turn answers a question. If they get it right, the chain climbs. The chain looks something...like this:
$12,500
$5,000
$2,500
$1,000
$500
$250

When a player calls "bank" the money in the chain is put into the bank. If a question is answered incorrectly, the chain breaks. Banking the $12,500 target ends the round.

At the end of a round, each player votes which opponent they feel is "The Weakest Link". The player who collects the most votes leaves the show and the next round begins.

Rounds 2, 3 and 4 are the same - except fifteen seconds is taken off the clock each time. The two remaining players play round 5 for double the stakes, and then a showdown.

In the final round, contestants answers questions back and forth, best out of three. The player with the most correct answers wins the entire pot banked throughout the whole show, a possible $75,000. The other leaves with nothing.

NOTES
Host George Gray previously presided over "Extreme Gong" on Game Show Network.

The same set from the Anne Robinson version is used with the two outer podiums removed.

In the show's second season, the $12,500 step was replaced with $25,000. The final doubling round was removed, allowing George more time to joke with the players. The theoretical maximum was $100,000.

MY THOUGHTS
George Gray showed us what would happen if the Americans did the show first and it wasn't as smarmy. The play is better than the network version (although that may have to do with there being only six answers for a complete chain rather than eight) and the humor is evident. A quick and easy watch while it lasted and barrels of fun.

JAY SAYS...
Cast - 2.0
Game - 1.5
Bells and Whistles - 1.5
Prize - 1.5
Tilt - 1.5

[ 08.0 ]
Slight points off for the oddly-progressing chain and the even weirder money increase in season two. It gave us more time to joke around, but at the expense of the fifth round. It made the fourth round vote different, and not neccesarily for the better.

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