Poker Face, ITV’s new quiz show stripped across last week, looked relatively promising on paper. A head to head general knowledge quiz where, after five questions, the two contestants have to judge if they have done better than their opponents, and potentially out-bluff them if they had. On paper it worked well. The million pound finale was an absolute disaster.
The problems were manifold. Contestants were able to watch previous rounds to see how much their opponents have bluffed. Contestants were told the answers to the questions so they knew how much they had right. The betting differential went up far too far in the final (both were risking about £80,000 to make a gain of a million). And funereal presenters Ant & Dec (in their black ties) had already sensed the game was a dud.
Interestingly thought the human drama of the game in the show seemed almost secondary to the real point. Is this a format that ITV can flog around the world. In this age of dwindling manufacturing industry, one of the few exports we can be proud of is TV show formats. This one was a touch too derivative of the Weakest Link and Millionaire in its set dressing (just look at that podium name). I don’t think this will sell well – and has nothing to do with Poker. And I think Ant & Dec knew it too.
Good luck to the Trekkie who won though. She wants to buy the moon! Well at least she’s not buying breast implants or anything.