Take It or Leave It (2)

Synopsis

Three couples vie to win "up to £50,000" (but see below). One couple definitely get to play, decided by a method we're not let in to. Their first decision of the night is to select their opponents - there are two couples backstage. Team one are shown a couple on the video wall and given a brief description. They must choose to take them, or indeed, to leave them and face the unknown quantity.

With their opponents selected, it's time for the game proper. As couple number one, they begin in control of the game. The idea is to make it up through the ten sections of the path answering a question on each section. If they're right, they earn money for the bank and move on up the path. If they are wrong, they are relegated to the Sin Bin and the other couple get to continue the journey. No money is won. Whoever is in control of the game after the tenth and final question is the winner and get to play for everything accumulated thus far.

The questions are general knoweldge, and with each question they are shown an answer. The couple must decide between them whether it's the right answer (and so they should "Take It")...

...or whether it's the wrong answer (in which case they should "Leave It", in which case they are forced to accept the second answer as their own).

In the main, the questions and choices of responses are well pitched, usually initiating discussion amongst contestants and viewers alike, and there are even some real stinkers waiting to trap the unwary and overconfident.

So, provided they've given a correct response the wall of twenty computerised safes is bought up.

Eighteen contain cash amounts ranging between 1p and £15,000. Two of the safes contain Booby Traps.

Pick one of those and you're out on your ear, and your opponents get in for free (unless it's in the second selected safe and you took the first one). Each teammate selects a number. The contents of the first safe are revealed - once again, they must choose to take it (and add the money in the bank) or reject it for what might be in the second chosen safe. If they take the first safe, the contents of the second one are revealed anyway to rub their noses in it/whatever the opposite of that is.

Whichever team survives question ten moves on to the final where they can win the money that's been accumulated throughout the game. It's hiding in one of six different coloured safes which have risen up from the ground. The contestants are asked a further five questions, but the answers aren't revealed until after they've done them all. The computer then reorders the questions, randomly placing all their correct responses first followed by their incorrect ones. The contestants go through the questions in the order the computer gives them. If they are confident of an answer, they can lock it in. If they're correct, one of the safes sinks into the floor - it definitely didn't have the money in and it's eliminated. The contestants continue in this vein until a) they've validated all five questions, they're all correct and there's only one safe left. They've won! b) They've decided to stop validating. In that case, they must select one of the remaining safes. If the money is in there, they've won, and if not, they leave empty handed. c) They validate a question, but they've given the wrong answer. The game ends there, they've lost without even picking a safe. Harsh.

Richard Arnold is perfunctory as host. The studio is nice and big, but a bit spartan and lacking the necessary classy neon. And at an hour, it's just too drawn out and slow for us to completely recommend it. There are the grains of a decent show in there though.

Key moments

As with Bullseye, one of either two pieces of music are played over the end credits. The standard theme tune if the couple failed to win, or the celebrating theme if the couple wins.

One of the losing contestants swearing on the show, and getting subsequently bleeped.

The highest amount won was £49,300.50 by Joakim and Chioma. They got every question in the main game correct, and every question in the final correct. However, they didn't play the fifth question, but guessed correctly on the resulting 50/50 gamble.

Catchphrases

"Do you want to Take It or Leave It?"

"There's no going back..."

"That's the nature of the beast of Take It or Leave It."

"Will it go green? We would like it to go green..."

Inventor

Intellygents for 2waytraffic.

Theme music

Will Slater

Trivia

A celebrity special show from the first week of series 2 had to have its future repeat showings pulled because an eagle-eyed viewer noticed that one of the questions was wrong. It stated that the Cerne Abbas giant was in Wiltshire when in fact it is in Dorset. Challenge and the production company stumped up that episode's winning amount, £31,000, to the charity of the "losing" celebrities to make amends. Unfortunately, Challenge compounded the error by repeating the show the very next day...

The claim that you can win up to £50,000 on the show was originally wrong. You could win a maximum of ten safes, and the highest possible combination (namely: £15,000, £12,500, £7,500, £5,000, £3,500, £2,000, £1,000, £900, £750 and £600) only totalled £48,750. From series 3 (2008), some safe amounts were changed, so a couple could win the promised £50,000. The ten most valuable amounts for series 3 were £15,000, £12,500, £7,500, £5,000, £3,500, £2,500, £1,500, £1,000, £800 and £700, which add up to £50,000. But them amounts seem a bit odd, don't you think?

Pictures

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