Friday 6 January 2012

Old Show on Challenge

I’ve not been very well over the last week or so. It’s only a chest infection – and being as this is still the school holidays for me it’s a waste of a good illness as far as I’m concerned. Still, I haven’t been getting out of the house a great deal over the last few days, and so I’ve been watching some stuff in the daytime that I wouldn’t normally watch. I was flicking through the channels yesterday lunchtime, and I came across a show on Challenge TV which I’ve never encountered before. I dont often watch Challenge - they put on my disastrous Millionaire show again recently , which was below the belt.

The show was called Dirty Money, and according to the oracle ( UKGameshows.com ) it went out on Sky One in 2002. It was a quiz for non pro MOPs ( members of the public ) and there was a relatively small amount of money on offer – 3,000 pounds. Now – don’t misunderstand me here – that’s 3 times more than I’ve ever won on telly, and I wouldn’t turn my nose up at it, but it’s not life changing. It worked like this. 6 contestants start. Each one has £500. Questions are asked, and contestants have to buzz in to give the answer. If they’re right, then they steal money from another contestant of their choice. At the end of the round – 90 seconds or something like that – then the contestant with the least money is out, and he or she has to nominate which contestant they want to give their remaining money to. That way the £3000 stays in play all the time. When we’re left with 1 contestant, then that person has 90 seconds to answer 6 questions correctly. If they do, happy days. The money is theirs. If they can’t , well, then they have to pick one of the other 5 to give the money to.

The host, Marcus Bentley ( the voice of Big Brother ) was never seen – something of a throwback to 100%, which was another show of that particular genre which I used to like. Little enough time was wasted on getting to know the contestants at all, and the show moved pretty quickly. I didn’t bother to count, but I’d guess that there were well over 50 questions asked in the course of a half hour show which isn’t bad going at all.
I have to say that I enjoyed it – so much that I sat through two shows back to back. Maybe it’s because my defences are low because I’ve been unwell, or maybe I’m just going soft in my old age.

3 comments:

DanielFullard said...

Ive caught this a few times on Challenge.....Quite like it too


Have you ever caught Defectors or Stake out on there?>

Londinius said...

Hi Daniel

No, they're new ones on me. As I say, I don't watch Challenge a great deal, but I'll keep my eyes open

DanielFullard said...

As far as I know whenever they show Defectors its on daft times. Basically theres 4 players and you have to win audience support. The audience vote on who they think will win the round.....so if you get 72% of the audience backing you you get 72 points a questions, if you only get 5% its 5 points. Good questions too and not easy.

Stake Out is a strange one as the same 4 players could be on for weeks on end as it never really end or if it does I havent seen it. You all get some money when you start and when its your go you pick who to play against and for how much, first buzz in wins. questions are good too.