Head Hunters
Contents |
Host
Broadcast
Tuesday's Child Scotland and BBC Scotland for BBC One, 7 October to 15 November 2019 (30 episodes in 1 series)
Synopsis
In the beginning, three Head Hunters emerge from a "talent pool" of quizzers, following quick qualifying questions. Four options, one is right, fastest finger wins.
Here are the twenty contestants before today's show.
At the end, to win the jackpot, the Hunter is to answer a question correctly from each of nine categories in 90 seconds.
Between these, the Hunter has the opportunity to hire extra brains. Win the jackpot, and the Hunter has to pay for the hired help. The extra brains emerge through the Candidate round: fastest to answer another Fast Finger question is the Candidate, then each Hunter picks a category for them to answer questions. In each category, there's an easy question (for £50), medium (£100), and a stonkingly difficult one (worth £150). Should the Candidate not know the answer, any one of the Hunters can buzz in.
All the money goes into a communal jackpot - with three candidates each facing three questions, the jackpot increases by about £1200 per episode. The Hunters place cash offers for each Candidate, before the Candidate chooses which Hunter's team to join.
There's a lot of talking about a general knowledge quiz that all of the contestants sat before filming, and they reveal the scores with the maximum of fuss. The general knowledge scores stay on screen for the rest of the show, and it can be quite confusing with so many numbers flying about.
Victoria has upped her bid from £750 to £1000. She has already hired Róisín for £1025 (67% on the test) and Charlotte for £450 (29% on the test). Victoria scored 68% on the test, and the £1000 will be deducted from her fund of £2975. Well done if you got that at home.
After three Candidates have been hired, there's an elimination round. The first Hunter to qualify chooses an opposing team to face questions, and which subject they'll be quizzed on. Again, it's three questions, easy medium and hard. Each team has five lives, and as soon as the fifth life is gone, so is the Hunter. Last team surviving wins; if there's more than one team left when all categories are used, they'll ask a quickfire question to find a winner.
The winning Hunter can now buy up the contracts of Candidates on losing teams, for the original value. Their team then goes forward to the final game, answering a question from each category in 90 seconds. It's difficult, particularly without the ability to interrupt, but gets won about once a week.
The studio: green is the colour.
Returning contestants allow for some continuity from one episode to the next, and plot lines like a small soap opera.
The general consensus is that this is a good idea, but slightly failed in the execution. We don't get to see the questions selecting the Hunters, the results are just shown in flashback. The elimination round is just a bit too long. But fix these, and the show could go places.
Key moments
Serial game show contestant Michael Burton withdrawing his offer after the candidate said they weren't looking in that direction. Good for him.
Rob trying to get away with pronouncing the name of the fashion designer Givenchy phonetically and being corrected by several candidates in unison.
Trivia
A repeat run from 23 November 2020 took nearly six months to air, due to Politics Live running long to cover the Chancellor's Spending Review, BBC2 airing Lockdown Learning during the third national COVID-19 lockdown, Easter schedules, the death of Prince Philip, highlights of The Masters and live coverage of the World Snooker Championship; its final episode was repeated on 6 May 2021. A subsequent run was a little more efficient, running from 22 September to 5 November.
