Weaver's Week 2024-07-14

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We marked a century of game shows on Wednesday. Juvenile Competition Night had its one and only episode on 10 July 1924, and is the oldest broadcast competition in our database – unless you know better!

Some slightly longer-running competition programmes, as we continue our countdown of which game shows have made the most episodes. We're going from A to Z, in reasonably strict alphabetical order. Qualification for a full write-up is 500 episodes, or 100 primetime episodes, and we only count episodes aired before the end of 2023.

Last time, we had Cardiff Singer of the World, Come Dancing, and Catchphrase. This week, it's the favourite for the overall title.

Contents 1 The game shows with the most episodes (part 5 of a summer-long series) 1.1 Countdown 1.2 Criss Cross Quiz 1.3 The Crystal Maze 1.4 Dancing on Ice 1.5 Deal or No Deal 1.6 Dickinson's Real Deal 1.7 Dinner Date 2 Top show tables 2.1 Overall 2.2 Primetime shows 3 In other news

The game shows with the most episodes (part 5 of a summer-long series)

Countdown

Nine letters, six numbers, 30 seconds. A big clock to tick off another few moments of your life. A club for those who play in the studio, an informal club for us who play along at home. Channel 4 was nothing before Countdown, and any attempt to run Channel 4 without Countdown is unimaginable.

Countdown made a star of Richard Whiteley, introduced Gyles Brandreth to a wider audience, and gave Carol Vorderman her launchpad to fame. At one point it was Channel 4's powerhouse, securing 4 million viewers on a budget of about 24 new pence. Originally alternating in its teatime slot with Fifteen-to-One, Countdown has been year-round in 1996. Since then, the show's only been taken off air by Christmas, a world pandemic causing the entire civilised world to stop, and the sudden and unexpected death of Richard Whiteley.

Other hosts were good, but they weren't Richard; it took until the late 2010s, and Nick Hewer being about five years into the job, before someone felt as at home as darling Dickie. Current host Colin Murray brings energy and enthusiasm, always puts a smile on our face.

But how many episodes have there been? Countdown has tremendous fans, who record and notate each match in tremendous detail. It makes this column's quixotic quest so much easier. So, turning to the Apterous wiki, we get:

Calendar Countdown, the pilot series shown in Yorkshire – 7
Channel 4 main series – 8172 (to the end of 2023)
Countdown Masters, shown in the Channel 4 Daily – 490
Celebrity Countdown – 14
Special episodes shown in the regular slot – 44
Christmas special – 1
Other miscellania – 4

We're not including special games played on Saturday Night Takeaway or Celebrity Big Brother. Nor do we count the Richard Whiteley Gotcha, that was an element on Noel's House Party. And 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown has its own entry in part one.

That's a total of 8732 episodes.

Beat that!

Counterpoint is radio's most wide-ranging music quiz. Ned Sherrin originated the series, and presented it with a twinkle in his eye and joy in his heart. Paul Gambaccini has hosted for the last fifteen years, he brings deep knowledge and a refreshing earnestness. At our cut-off, 36 complete series of 13 episodes (but just 9 eps in the first three years) plus three heats in the new run, plus four special episodes with celebrity contestants (in 1996, 2004, 2006, 2011). That's 463 episodes, agonisingly short of the leaderboard. And if the Radio 4 Controller wants to plan in something for straight after the next-but-one final (early 2026, we reckon), a star-studded 500th Episode Special is there for you.

Crackerjack is the definitive children's show: comedy, entertainment, silly games, cabbages, and great hosts. Again, it falls a little short of the leaderboard – 471 episodes including the recent revival. Sam and Mark's series went out at 6pm, and meets our Primetime criteria, but is only 20 episodes.

Criss Cross Quiz

Noughts-and-crosses with questions chosen from 98 different categories. Every right answer earned you £10; make a line of three to win the game and retain your place. If the game was drawn then in the second round the challenger went first and the questions went up to £20.

Originally aired three times a week in summer 1957, then weekly on and off for ten years. The early weeks were a ratings phenomenon, newspapers gave blow-by-blow recaps of what happened on screen – we wouldn't see such pinpoint devotion to a quiz until Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

The show set records for big prizes – Rodney Challis Sowerby took home £2020 in December 1957. Then, after beating 16 challengers across seven episodes, journalist Rushworth Fogg of Glasgow of Glasgow won £2360 – something like three years' average earnings in 1958. Prizes were subsequently capped at £1000.

Like all bubble shows, Criss Cross Quiz soon fell from fashion. The series ran, on and off, into summer 1967. Because it's an ITV show, we can't use the BBC's Genome records, and have to rely on newspaper records. And newspaper records rely on the papers having survived, and been scanned, and the OCR being correct. ITV's various regional variations add a predictable layer of uncertainty. The racehorse called Criss Cross Quiz, which was moderately successful in 1966, is an additional handicap.

We reckon there were about 220 primetime episodes. We've assumed that no episodes were repeated on ITV (repeats of transient game shows would be most unusual, but there may have been a repeat series in summer 1961), and that any cancelled episodes are compensated by missing newspaper editions.

There's also Junior Criss Cross Quiz to consider; played for prizes rather than cash, and hosted by both famous "B" Bob Holness and footballer Danny Blanchflower. No fewer than 288 episodes, mostly in the "family viewing" block at 5pm. That gives a total of about 508 episodes.

Crosswits was a fun daytime show, light crosswords played by minor celebs. 435 episodes. One they could bring back.

The Crystal Maze

Alright, it's a two-minute game: summarise The Crystal Maze and its impact on culture.

Channel 4 tried to make The Keys of Fort Boyard, but rejected the pilot as not quite there yet. Instead, they built a series of fantasy chambers at a studio in Kent, and invited people to test themselves against the challenges. Yuppies tried to work their way around a mirror maze, or drive a magnetic space shuttle from underneath, or cross a rotating log without falling into the water.

Richard O'Brien from The Rocky Horror Picture Show hosted, and kicked down the fourth wall and brought us into the maze alongside him. He knew exactly what we were shouting at the telly, and subtly voiced it in his camp and sarcastic manner.

The Crystal Maze went out in the old Treasure Hunt slot on Thursday nights, and proved just as big a hit. As the years passed, the budgets went up, the quality of the games went right up, and the contestants made better telly. Richard left after four years, replaced by Ed Tudor-Pole; we would have loved Ed if we saw him first, but nobody could replace Richard in our hearts. The Crystal Maze ended after six years.

The show lived on in the hearts of a generation, and as reruns on the Challenge channel, and there was a crowdfunding campaign to build a real-life Crystal Maze that you can play. Hit its target in about one day, and opened in London the following year; they've since moved premises, and opened a second location in Manchester. A charity special went round the original London location, and inspired Channel 4 to make more episodes. The games were as great as they'd ever been, teams knew each other and had their own dynamics, but host Richard Ayoade was standoffish and distant and wasn't the best person for the job. Nickelodeon's version, starring Adam Conover, showed us what we were missing.

The Crystal Maze has had 124 primetime episodes; we don't include the 10 Nickelodeon eps – even though they were shot in Bristol – because they were made for the US market.

Another adventure show, The Cube, just misses our mark – it had 96 primetime episodes. Given the host's well-publicised private life, we don't expect another revival.

Dancing on Ice

Celebrities! Dancing! On ice! The first few episodes have the ever-present risk of the celebrity falling over and making a complete plonker of their own. After that, we get more and more impressed by the performances, and the only complete plonker is host Stephen Mulhern.

The show's been on and off air since 2006. Following the precedent set by Big Brother, we deem split shows across one night to be one programme – so we just count one for the performance at 6pm, results at 9.30 arrangement. Up to the end of 2023, there were 151 shows in the main series.

And then we come to the spin-offs. Dancing on Ice Extra With Stephen Mulhern went out on ITV2 during the first series (8 episodes).

It then gets more complex. Dancing on Ice Defrosted was parachuted onto the main ITV network in early 2007, when Paul O'Grady left and took his chat show with him. Andi Peters and Ben Shepherd slotted in at 3.30 and allowed Dale's Supermarket Sweep to shuffle to 5.30. There were 9 episodes on ITV2, and 25 daytime episodes on the main ITV network. That year also had This Morning Dancing on Ice billed as a separate programme, covering the results on Monday and training on Friday; 6 daytime episodes before it folded into Defrosted.

No spin-off shows in 2008 or 2009, and Dancing on Ice Friday went out at 8pm in 2010 – Ben Shepherd and Coleen Nolan fronted 11 episodes. Beyond the main series, there's also been a Championship of Champions (2007), Make Me a Star (2008, 4 episodes), Christmas (2008 and 2019), Ice Star (2009), Goes Gold (2012), and The Greatest Show on Ice (2021).

That adds up to 220 episodes, of which 189 primetime episodes.

Deal or No Deal

"A quarter of a million pounds... 22 identical sealed boxes... and no questions. Except one: Deal or No Deal?"

Noel Edmonds took this simple game of guesswork, and made it compelling viewing. That is Noel Edmonds' talent, he can make paint drying seem like the most interesting thing on television.

Deal or No Deal was a cornerstone of the Channel 4 schedule from 2005 until about 2011, then continued on goodwill and "is this still on" vibes until 2016. "They should bring it back" thought fans, and ITV did, just last year with Stephen Mulhern.

2975 episodes in the original Little Noely run, plus 15 celebrity episodes for charity. The Mulhern revival has a long way to go, 20 episodes and 1 celebrity special in 2023 (another celeb special went out on 7 January 2024, just after our cutoff, and apparently they've recorded another 60 by now). That's a total of 3011 episodes.

Although some episodes of Deal or No Deal were transmitted in primetime, they had the same structure and prize as the regular teatime episodes. Only the 16 celebrity eps were commissioned for primetime, and they're the only ones we count as primetime.

Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow ran for 215 splat-filled episodes on the CBBC channel, and five celebrity editions on BBC1. It was joined by 20 episodes of Da Dick and Dom Dairies, compilation episodes with new linking material, and a theatre tour last year. 240 episodes is outstanding for a children's show.

Dickinson's Real Deal

From the sublime to the risible. Members of the public bring their tat and old stuff to the local village hall. An independent valuer estimates the value of Maisie's teaspoon collection, or whatever it is. The collection is then passed to a dealer who specialises in antique cutlery. "I'll offer you six shiny milk bottle tops" says Tina Egbert. "But I wanted a skyful of stars" says Maisie.

At this point, David Dickinson injects himself into the conversation, and tries to give "advice" and a valuation he heard from a friendly valuer and generally mansplain his way into things. Eventually, perhaps to get rid of Dickinson, Maisie decides to accept the offer, and takes her shiny milk bottle tops. Or she might reject it, and put her teaspoon collection up for auction. She might get the skyful of stars, but she'll have to watch the bidding in Dickinson's company.

As you may have guessed, this column cannot stand Dickinson's Real Deal, it is even less interesting than watching paint dry. Nevertheless, enough people like it for 1025 daytime episodes to be made, with another 20 airing after our cutoff.

Dinner Date

A single person is given a list of five menus created by potential dates, from which they pick three, basing their decision purely on what they think of the menus. Over three consecutive evenings, the single person attends each potential date's home where the menu has been cooked. After visiting each potential date, and sampling their food, the single person must decide who they would like to take out for a romantic dinner.

Originally shown in ITV's daytime schedule (100 episodes from 2010 to 2012), Dinner Date found its natural home on ITVBe. They can't show The Only Way is Essex before the 9pm watershed – too much swearing and nudity – so something safe like Dinner Date will do nicely. 242 primetime episodes to June last year

Top show tables

Shows beginning with numbers, or AAA-DIW.

Overall

Show	Episodes
Countdown	8732
Bamboozle	5900
Big Brother	4183
Deal or No Deal	3011
Fifteen-to-One	2683
Come Dine with Me	2432
The Chase	2247
Bargain Hunt	2085
The Big Quiz (1)	2000
Brain of Britain / What Do You Know	1592
Blockbusters	1586
100%	1546
Brainteaser	1200
Call My Bluff	1047
Dickinson's Real Deal	1025
Antiques Road Trip	905
The Brains Trust	691
Can't Cook, Won't Cook	685
Coach Trip	630
Catchphrase	583
Criss Cross Quiz	508

All change at the top, and we wonder: how many of us had Countdown in the background, Bamboozle! in that teletext mix, watching two top games at once.

Primetime shows

Show	Episodes
Big Brother	4173
Call My Bluff	542
Catchphrase	531
The Apprentice	468
Come Dancing	431
Blind Date	416
The Brains Trust	416
Britain's Got Talent	383
Bullseye	369
Blockbusters	366
Blankety Blank	320
Celebrity Juice	271
Big Break	252
Dinner Date	242
8 Out of 10 Cats	232
Ask the Family	221
Criss Cross Quiz	220
Celebrity Squares	210
What Do You Know?	200
Dancing on Ice	189
Artist of the Year	175
The Chase	163
8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown	157
3-2-1	154
BBC New Comedy Award	149
Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway	141
Cardiff Singer of the World	141
Britain's Next Top Model	138
The $64,000 Question	137
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral	131
The Crystal Maze	124
Bob's Full House	117
Ask Me Another	109
Busman's Holiday	103

They don't seem to have made Dinner Date this year; maybe ITV wants to protect Celebrity Juice as its top digital original.

Next week, the Do's or Don'ts, the Doubles or Drops.

In other news

The week after Wimbledon normally brings us University Challenge. Not this year; we presume they're waiting for the Olympics to blow over, and UC to begin on 12 August.

A student quiz is back this week. The 3rd Degree has a new series on Radio 4 (Sun). Battle in the Box is a new challenge show on Dave (Tue). Catsdown returns (C4, Fri). There's an Olympics special of The Weakest Link (BBC1, Sat), and BBC3 begins Canada's Drag Race vs The World (Sat).

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