Sophie Shaw Wins “Red or Black?” £500,000 Jackpot; Show Debuts to Four Million Viewers
Red or Black?, ITV’s controversial game show, debuted its second series last night and already gave away its jackpot. Sophie Shaw, a travel agent, won the £500,000 jackpot after playing the new end game “Vortex”. She has to correctly predict which color the spinning ball would land on by the time it hit the floor…red or black? Sophie correctly predicted Red. Next weekend the jackpot will, again, be £500,000. The new series of Red or Black? debuted to millions less than previous series premiere. The 7:15PM show averaged 3.4 million viewers and the 9:15PM show had 4 million viewers. This is at least three million viewers less than the last series.
Check out the big win here.
I watched it and while Red or Black? series two is while marginally a better show, it’s still severely lacking. The end game was the most hysterical claim of “skill” I’ve ever heard. You get to practice it once before, yes, but it’s still total luck if you’ll win or not. You have no say over what the ball decides to do inside the Vortex. It was also far less exciting than the roulette wheel. It’s far from the worst thing we’ve seen but I do keep thinking of the numerous great shows we’ve seen like The Exit List which get shoved to the side for an ultra-budget show like this. It didn’t work the first time. It got nearly-unanimously derided. How did we think it was going to be a success this time? It’s time to let the show go away, ITV. Flashy set pieces and an ungodly budget do not make for a good game. It’s why The Chase, even giving away just thousands, is still a better show.
Sources :
Bother's Bar: http://www.bothersbar.co.uk/?p=6119&cpage=1#comment-43433
Ratings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_or_Black%3F#Ratings
It’s a good job the trailer at the end shows other episodes have been recorded because if they hadn’t been made at great expense already, I’m quite sure this would have picked up the Rich List treatment of instant cancellation with those numbers. 4m with these production costs and the reputations of ITV’s biggest stars on the line, not to mention the biggest lead-in in British television from The X-Factor?
I’m only watching again if The Vortex (which, by the way, is in my opinion very similar to the roulette wheel – just as reliant on blind luck, but also pretty much as exciting as the ball slows down) gets played for over £1m. Nobody’s won more than £1m on British television before, and I want to see a historic moment if it happens. With the exchange rate and the lack of taxation on winnings, even a £1.5m win would top anything ever seen on US television – around $2.35m, all tax-free, and that would be at least up there with KJ’s all-time winnings. (Wouldn’t be a world record, though, as I understand the old 10m guilder jackpot on Miljoenenjacht pre-2002 – when the endgame was a straight quiz rather than what we’d later know as Deal or No Deal – was won once. That’d be about $4m I think, taxed as capital gains at 25%.)
*SPECULATIVE SPOILER*
Well, assuming the production staff is not double bluffing us, there’s a chance we could see a prize record. We know the prize goes up by 500k pounds every time its not hit, and during the coming soon plug, Dec says one contestant could ‘walk away with the biggest prize in British TV history’. That would mean there’s at least 2 in a row where the contestant gets it wrong in the end, and a show where the game is played for at least 1.5 million pounds. Assuming, of course, they’re not trying to bluff us with that line.
*END SPECULATION*
As for the new end game, since the contestant would have had one practice go at it before they play it for real, and since the sequencing supposedly never changes, in theory you can time and power set a skill shot and get your color. That’s a lot to do right though, so my guess is it probably won’t be won that way. But that’s why its supposedly less luck and more skill than the roulette wheel.
I still think this season is a downer compared to the first one.
I miss the announcer with the deep voice explaining each of the games. I miss the awesome theme music they had for the first season.
And most of all, I miss seeing them narrow down the hundreds of contestants to just 8 for the in-studio games. Now, they just start off with 8 people right away. :(
Yay….someone from Plymouth won! (looks to the side…..Plymouth England? whhoops….) Still…yay!
I realize this is like complaining about scratched paint on a Ford Pinto, but I really thought the spelling bee was a missed opportunity. They got Carol Vorderman, one of Britain’s most famous math geniuses, and instead of giving her a math challenge, they have her spell words. Countdown’s letters round isn’t even about spelling in the first place.
And for some bigger complaints:
First, the contestants are rubbish. They’re like the brainless central casting contestants that have been plaguing the US for years now. Picking Red because the guy had better hair? Seriously? And the first four people to lock in on the explosion pattern ALL got it wrong, when the pattern wasn’t rocket science. Adjusting the power for Vortex? Any idiot should know that you should adjust the release timing. With just one test run, you have no clue how much longer it will take if you increase the power. But if you release the ball 0.5 seconds slower, you can at least land about 0.5 seconds later in the sequence. I knew that when I was 6 years old playing carnival games, for crying out loud. Assuming the ball is consistent (which I think the show should’ve worked to ensure beforehand and then state on the air, but I’m guessing they didn’t, which makes the game luck-based anyways), she should’ve set it to minimum power (or maximum power, if there is no consistent minimum setting), released her test run right as the light swapped, then look at the result, pick the color she got on the trial run, and do the exact same thing on the real run. Also, in Duel, if given the choice, picking choice of turn and going first is the obviously better strategy. Choice of color is worthless, because you can just watch for the 5 red slices. If you end up getting black, just *avoid* the slices you know are red. All you need is to remember 5 numbers, not all 10 slices, because you know the other 5 are the opposite color.
Which brings me to my second complaint: Randomly giving the choice to one of the contestants for Duel is also bad, because with optimal play (which isn’t that hard, I played along and had the whole pie right), the contestant who gets the choice will win. They could at least have brought back the tiebreaker round to decide who gets the choice.
Then there’s the tiebreaker round itself. I think they should’ve given each player a couple practice tries (perhaps with tape stopped, then mention it on-air) because it seemed to me like there was a tiny bit of lag on the button, and if the second player noticed, it could give them an advantage.
In conclusion: Still rubbish. Slightly less so, but still rubbish. I’m locking in Red. For the show’s net income, that is.
Hahahaaaaa…. the fact you have written such a lengthy complaint merely shows:
1. for someone who hated the show, you have obviously watched it over and over and
2. have nothing else better to do with your time than be pedantic (in a sad and juvenile kind of way)….
Who’s the ‘idiot’ now??? Hilarious!
Any fool would realise that the show is EDITED!!!!! yes…. edited!!! I will explain, just to ensure you have fully understood the definition…. it means that the viewers (that’s you) havent seen everything that was said/done!!!
Also, how much time do you realistically think there is between the duel and the vortex???
It is ridiculous to expect someone…ANYONE…who is not only ‘normal’ but who has never been in that situation before to think scientifically…. especially in front of an audience and more especially because the vortex is what stands in the way of the contestant winning the money….!!!
It is a gameshow….that’s all…. not about world peace or finding a cure of cancer!!!
Why do people get so bitter??? It comes down to arrogance of the writer…. Pathetic… my advice is…. dont watch it!!! you wont be missed!!!
So you don’t believe that Poochy.EXE is perfectly entitled to express those perfectly valid opinions of his/hers…
That must mean you’re a troll.
*facepalm*
And does that mean i cant express my opinions either?? Hmmm… Double standards…. Pipe down ….
I think Duel could be fixed with a rule change.
1) The goal would be to find your 5 colored pieces first. However, if you turn over a piece that is not your color, the game is automatically won by your opponent.
This would even out the 1st/2nd dilemma as currently there is no benefit to going second. With the above system, there would be pros to being first and second. Go first if you think you would be able to memorize all the locations. Go second if you are unsure with your memorizing capabilities.
Are the episodes only 1/2 hour? Seems like a waste of a million dollar prize for only a half hour episode.
Nvm, I guess each episode is two episodes? Either way its a waste of a prize fund.
The episodes are shown in 2 parts on the same night. Each episode is 45 minutes, with part 1 being the cut from 8 to 4 and part 2 going from 4 to 1 as well as the final spin. Their shown before and after The X Factor.