Great Big Quiz on Channel 5 (Argghhh!!!)

[Rebecca611]

Hey all who receive Channel 5. Have you had the time, or inclination to even attempt to experience The Great Big Quiz on Channel 5 in the early hours of the morning? I haven't yet tried to call the 0901 number but I'm just trying to work out how it works, well... you know 10-40,000 pounds is very tempting!! But apart from that I know it's a way of extracting money from all of us, however have you even tried to work out the puzzle on a scientific/mathematical/intellectual/...or ALIEN intelligence level? As it's impossible to watch the program till 5am we've recorded the program to find out what the answer is and then tried to figure out the calculation behind the question but it is still entirely impossible!!! Have any of you masterminds out there been able to figure the answer? Or , PLEASE, I'd appreciate any other comments you have!!
Thanks!!

[JackDanielsU]

All those programmes and theres a lot of them now seem to be very very ambigious in their answers - I shudder to think what phone bills are rung up by some people.

[LazyGun]

Hi Rebecca,

I had occasion to watch some of this show the other night - and I must admit, I was fascinated by the business model they use.It does seem like a licence to print money.
1.As a prospective caller, you face two random lotteries - The first is to be selected to be placed on hold. The second is to be the number put through to the studio from all the callers they have on hold, selected randomly. ( 10,50, 100, 200?)
2. Each call you make will cost you 75p, irrespective of whether you are successful in being placed on hold, or even more rarely getting through to the studio.
3. The presenters are very good at ratcheting up the excitement, with "call rushes", countdowns, and, of course, big prizes of �40-�60,000.
4. The puzzles, particularly the mathematical problems, are deliberately ambiguous, and any one puzzle can have multiple "correct" answers, depending on which interpretation of the question the producers have selected for that night... so as a caller, you face a 3rd lottery, which is to get lucky identifying which particular solution they have decided to use.
5. If you do plan to play, it would be worth your while watching it from the beginning and noting all the wrong answers... in the time I was watching it, at least 5 callers gave answers which had already been dismissed as incorrect!

[FoxLee]

You would imagine that there is a line of operators to take the calls on these phone in quizzes, not so. My sister read an article on one of them which said there was one operator who would go off on breaks so that no-one was there taking calls. You get the presenter urging people to phone in, it's double money, it's two answers at a time and no-one is put through for ages yet you know people are phoning and phoning. As has been said before, these shows are just a licence to print money. They rake in millions and give out a paltry few quid in return. It was said that they were going to be investigated but nothing appears to have been done yet.