Challenge TV - Printable Version

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RE: Challenge TV - bbctvtechop - 21-02-2024

(21-02-2024, 09:02 AM)Neil Jones Wrote:  I don't think it was ever stated that the first series of Millionaire was live. It may have looked like it could have been live, but it wasn't.

IIRC they kept the playing area/hot seat in place all throughout the first series bar maybe Fastest Finger first, and then it kept appearing and disappearing in later runs on the wide shots.

Chris Tarrant mentioned it multiple times in the first and second episodes, both explicitly ("You're playing live for £32,000") and implicitly (one of the Phone A Friends was introduced by saying "I know you can't see your TV right now")

I remember watching with my family (I would have been 13) - it was genuine event television. My uncle was always confused how the Phone A Friends couldn't have seen the question a few minutes earlier ("surely they're watching their TV!") and done a bit if research before the call came.

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RE: Challenge TV - Neil Jones - 21-02-2024

(21-02-2024, 09:06 PM)bbctvtechop Wrote:  Chris Tarrant mentioned it multiple times in the first and second episodes, both explicitly ("You're playing live for £32,000") and implicitly (one of the Phone A Friends was introduced by saying "I know you can't see your TV right now")

But "live" in that context doesn't mean its happening on TV right there, right now. I mean I'm writing this post "live" now, but I'm not on TV. I hope.

And the "I know you can't see your TV right now" also doesn't mean its "live" as in happening right here right now. Its technically true though - they can't see their TV set. They could be in a pub toilet for all you know.

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RE: Challenge TV - XIII - 21-02-2024

Millionaire was recorded close to transmission but it didn't do live episodes until much later. \

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RE: Challenge TV - tellyblues - 21-02-2024

It's clear Chris Tarrant was referring to (or trying to make it appear) the show being live as opposed to the context of the contestant playing the game live otherwise presenters would say it all the time, but the reason they don't is because people don't need reminding of the simple fact that something is happening in a particular moment. WWTBAM were promoting the show as being live so that's why "live" was used.

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RE: Challenge TV - Brekkie - 21-02-2024

It was never a secret at the time it was filmed the night before and I never remember any pretence that it was "live" - they'd just reference the day as pre-recorded shows which know when they're being transmitted often do. It was "live" perhaps in the sense that Big Brother and Love Island are live - the series is being filmed as it's being transmitted, but not transmitted live.

I think the quick turnaround remained whilst ITV stripped it across a couple of weeks three or four times a year but once it switched to airing 2-3 nights a week over most of the year the show was recorded more in advance.


I may be wrong but it feels like game shows sit on the shelf longer now before they are transmitted - covid kind of gave that away with "new" episodes of The Chase actually being up to two years old for example.

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RE: Challenge TV - tellyblues - 21-02-2024

Tarrant wouldn't have used the word live unless he was under the impression that the show was going out live or that he had a responsibility to make viewers feel as if the show was "live" (as most people would understand it), because the word isn't used on TV unless to make people aware of something being live and that it is happening at that exact moment it is first being shown, or in this case, if a show wants people to believe it is "live".

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RE: Challenge TV - PJamo - 21-02-2024

And when they had their first Millionaire they gave up any pretence, trailing the show all day as 'you really don't want to miss this one' etc.

I distinctly remember all my university housemates crowding into my room (I was the only one with a TV) to watch it such was the publicity that day. There was no way they were pretending the episode was live that night.

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RE: Challenge TV - Happy2001 - 21-02-2024

(21-02-2024, 11:28 PM)PJamo Wrote:  And when they had their first Millionaire they gave up any pretence, trailing the show all day as 'you really don't want to miss this one' etc.

And the fact that it had been leaked out before transmission (\unsurprisingly).

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RE: Challenge TV - VMPhil - 21-02-2024

(21-02-2024, 11:28 PM)PJamo Wrote:  And when they had their first Millionaire they gave up any pretence, trailing the show all day as 'you really don't want to miss this one' etc.

I distinctly remember all my university housemates crowding into my room (I was the only one with a TV) to watch it such was the publicity that day. There was no way they were pretending the episode was live that night.

Well that was also because it was a spoiler against the final episode of One Foot in the Grave.

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RE: Challenge TV - lookoutwales - 22-02-2024

Don't really recall any explicit reference to it being 'live' in those early series, though recording it that close to TX allowed Tarrant to be a little more topical with his links (even referred to News at Ten's first demise in the second episode of Series 3)

First I heard about Judith Keppel's win was when that bastion of hard news, GMTV, led with it on their bulletins that Monday morning (complete with a voiced package of library behind-the-scenes footage)

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