[JAS84]

maybe that's the thing. These days you just stand in front of a podium, answer a few questions and if you play your cards right you come away with the dosh. There is no other outcome - either you win everything or you lose everything.

To come back to Bullseye again you pretty much made your own destiny with that, and that's probably what made it more appealing in terms of the prize board and the 101 in 6. You could always make a total hash of the prize board with one prize, yet score 101+ in two darts (or vice versa).

In other words - the linear gameplay was unpredictable. More modern shows as you say feel more contained and trapped in the format, and then you had the likes of Strike It Lucky/Rich where the game was effectively an afterthought, especailly once it had got going after two or three series.

And whether you win or not is down to dumb luck rather than skill anyway, since you had a 1 in 3 chance of hitting a hotspot with every move in the endgame. Hit too many and you lost.