Unanimous (British TV series)

Last updated

Unanimous
Unanimous C4 Show.PNG
Presented byAlex Humes
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of episodes8
Production
Running time45 minutes
Release
Original network Channel 4 (2006)
Original release27 October (2006-10-27) 
15 December 2006 (2006-12-15)
External links
Website

Unanimous is a United Kingdom-based game show broadcast on Channel 4 from 27 October 2006 to 15 December 2006. It was based on an American game show titled Unan1mous .

Contents

Unanimous: The Fallout, was shown on E4 later at night after Unanimous. It was hosted by comedians Paddy McGuinness and Olivia Lee and featured regular guest Karl Daly, played by Tom Bennett.

The 'Host' of the show was Alex Humes. Although fairly unknown, Humes starred in the reality TV programme Space Cadets , also for Channel 4, where he played one of the Russian pilots. The voice-over for the programme was provided by Phil Gallagher. [1]

The show was not live but was recorded many weeks before airing. Contestants were not informed of the rules or objectives of the game before it started only that they were going to be playing in a game show with a substantial prize fund, and they would be filmed non-stop in an enclosed environment.

Concept

Nine strangers are locked together in a bunker and told they cannot leave until they unanimously choose to award one of them the grand prize money. Contestants are isolated from the outside world, and have no access to any time references. If a contestant leaves the bunker, the amount of the available prize is cut in half.

Votes are cast by each contestant taking a ball and selecting the name of one of the other contestants via a roller inside of it (a person's own name is not included in their ball). If a vote is not unanimous, something negative happens to the players in order to increase the pressure to reach a unanimous decision. Throughout the course of the game, these were the "punishments" the players received:

The Bunker

Cast and vote table

ContestantAgeOccupationEpisode 1 [notes 1] Episode 2 [notes 2] Episode 3 [notes 3] Episode 4 [notes 4] Episode 5 [notes 5] Episode 6 [notes 6] Episode 7 [notes 7] Episode 8 [notes 8] Final status
VoteOtherVoteOutcastVoteOutcastOutcastVoteOtherVoteOutcastOtherVote
Sian21 Law student 002Lusipher26Lusipher7Winner (£106,562)
Beverley33 Art dealer 020Lusipher210Active
Kamran38 Property developer 1Secret2XPipXVoted in [notes 5] 10Active
Kelly25 Lap dancer 1Secret21Andy201Runner up [notes 9]
Lusipher31 Unemployed 011Andy11Halved prize [notes 7] 0Active
Alex22 Law student 201Andy2Voted out [notes 5] XXOutcast
Pip37 Nurse 311AndyXXXOutcast
Andy22 Athlete 013PipPipXXXOutcast
Anna44 Business woman2Worst secretXXAndyXXWalked
  1. Anonymised secrets (revealed to the audience to be about Kelly, Kamran and Anna) were selected randomly and read out loud. The secret chosen as worst was revealed to be Anna's, so she was made an outcast. This was that she had slept with their best friend's partner behind their back. Anna then claimed that she had lied during her interview, and that this was false.
  2. Kamran was voted as outcast. [ citation needed ]
  3. On being voted outcast, Andy was given access to a safe. The contents of this were not revealed to the viewers.
  4. The contents of the safe were revealed to be a slip of paper telling Andy to nominate another participate to become an outcast. He selected Pip. There was no vote. At the end of the episode, the group were ordered to select a participate to take a lie detector test. This person was not revealed to the viewers.
  5. 1 2 3 Alex was selected to take the lie detector test. He told the truth on all but one question. Asked if he would stick with the group's decision if it decided to vote in a certain way, he answered yes, however this was revealed to be a lie. Ultimately, the outcasts voted for him to join their group, much to the discontent of Pip. However, there was a twist to this episode - one of the outcasts got voted back into the game, as chosen by the contestants left in the game. The outcast elected back into the game turned out to be Kamran.
  6. Sian was chosen as a "leader", and led the group in discussions etc. before the vote. As leader she had to choose a participant to vote as outcast. She chose to make Lusipher an outcast, however he was given the option of staying in the game but this would cause the prize money to be cut in half.
  7. 1 2 Lusipher accepted the offer to remain active, causing the money to be cut in half. He also revealed the information that no more outcasts will be made active again, and Anna chose to leave, cutting the money in half again. Beverley, Kamran and Lusipher decided that they were unlikely to win, so the group focussed on trying to decide between Kelly and Sian. There was no vote during this episode. During this episode, the prize fund dropped from £746,275 down to £133,447 (A decrease of £612,828).
  8. The final 5 seem to have become a final 2, Sian vs. Kelly. Kamran is considered after a family message is shown, mentioning that Kamran is flat broke, but this is quickly dismissed. At the end of the episode, a vote is cast at £106,562, and a Unanimous decision is made, for Sian, the young mother, to win the remaining money.
  9. Kelly became runner up after receiving one vote in the final episode.

Reception

Unanimous did not attract high ratings and could therefore be considered commercially unsuccessful. The opening episode attracted just 990,000 viewers, falling to under 450,000 by episode four and less than 350,000 by episode seven. The final episode attracted just over 370,000 viewers. Such a sharp fall in ratings could be largely due to the time-slot change from 9pm to 8pm from episode four onwards, thus forcing the show to compete for viewers with EastEnders on BBC One.

Related Research Articles

<i>Win Ben Steins Money</i> American television game show

Win Ben Stein's Money is an American television game show created by Al Burton and Donnie Brainard that aired first-run episodes from July 28, 1997, to January 31, 2003, on Comedy Central. The show featured three contestants who competed to answer general knowledge questions in order to win the grand prize of $5,000 from the show's host, Ben Stein. In the second half of each episode, Stein participated as a "common" contestant in order to defend his money from being taken by his competitors. The show won six Daytime Emmy awards, with Stein and Jimmy Kimmel, the show's original co-host, sharing the Outstanding Game Show Host award in 1999. The show was produced by Valleycrest Productions, Ltd. and distributed by Buena Vista Television, both subsidiaries of The Walt Disney Company.

<i>Double Dare</i> (1976 game show) American television game show

Double Dare is an American television game show, produced by Mark Goodson—Bill Todman Productions, that ran from 1976 to 1977 on CBS. The main game pitted two contestants in isolation booths attempting to correctly identify a person, place, or thing based on one-sentence clues. The bonus round then pitted the champion of the main game against a panel of three Ph.Ds, referred to as the "Spoilers". Alex Trebek was the host, with Johnny Olson and later Gene Wood announcing. The show was created by Jay Wolpert.

<i>Twenty-One</i> (game show) American quiz show (aired 1956-58)

Twenty-One was an American game show originally hosted by Jack Barry that aired on NBC from 1956 to 1958. Produced by Jack Barry-Dan Enright Productions, two contestants competed against each other in separate isolation booths, answering general-knowledge questions to earn 21 total points. The program became notorious when it was found to be rigged as part of the 1950s quiz show scandals, which nearly caused the demise of the entire genre in the wake of United States Senate investigations. The 1994 movie Quiz Show is based on these events. A new version of the show aired on NBC in 2000 with Maury Povich as host.

<i>Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?</i> (British game show) British television quiz show

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is a British television quiz show, created by David Briggs for ITV. The programme's format sees contestants taking on multiple-choice questions based upon general knowledge, winning a cash prize for each question they answer correctly, with the amount offered increasing as they take on more difficult questions. If an incorrect answer is given, the contestant will leave with whatever cash prize is guaranteed by the last safety net they have passed, unless they opt to walk away before answering the next question with the money the cash prize they had managed to reach. To assist in the quiz, contestants are given a series of "lifelines" to help answer questions.

<i>Deal or No Deal</i> (British game show) British game show

Deal or No Deal is a British game show, hosted by Noel Edmonds, which aired from 31 October 2005 to 23 December 2016 on Channel 4. Based on the original Netherlands format of the game show, each episode sees a contestant choosing one of 22 boxes, each containing a cash amount between 1p to £250,000, and then attempting to win as much as possible either by gambling on having a high amount in their chosen box, or making the game's hidden operator, named "the Banker", offer a considerable cash sum for their box regardless of what is inside. The amount a contestant wins is determined by pure luck – cash amounts are randomly allocated to each of the boxes before each game, with contestants required to open a specific number of boxes per round of the game to eliminate the cash amounts their chosen box does not contain, in turn affecting how much is offered by the Banker. Games always end with the player opening all of the boxes, including their own, regardless of how they intend to make money.

The Family is a reality television series that aired on ABC spanning one season in 2003. It starred ten members from an Italian-American family, who were each fighting for a $1,000,000 prize. The show was hosted by George Hamilton.

<i>Treasure Hunt</i> (American game show)

Treasure Hunt, also known as The New Treasure Hunt during its 1970s run, is an American television game show that aired throughout the 1950s, 1970s, and 1980s. In the show, contestants selected a mystery package in the hopes of winning cash or prizes.

Unan1mous is an American reality television program that premiered on the Fox Network on March 22, 2006 and ran for one season. The host of the series was J. D. Roth.

Raise the Roof was a British television game show which ran from 2 September 1995 to 13 January 1996 for ITV and hosted by Bob Holness.

<i>Midnight Money Madness</i>

Midnight Money Madness was an interactive game show on TBS, hosted by Jerilee Bonner, Danny Seckel and Craig J. Jackson. Featured in the two-hour program were interactive games where the viewers can win cash prizes. The show aired around 12 a.m. - 2 a.m, in two separate feeds Monday through Thursday.

<i>Weakest Link</i> (American game show) American television quiz show

Weakest Link is an American television game show that made its debut in 2001. It is an adaptation of the British television series of the same name.

<i>The Mint</i> (Australian game show)

The Mint is an Australian phone-in quiz show based on the British program of the same name, and broadcast on the Nine Network in selected areas in the late night time slot (post-midnight).

<i>The Chase</i> (British game show) British television quiz show

The Chase is a British television quiz show broadcast on ITV and hosted by Bradley Walsh. Contestants play against a professional quizzer, known as the "chaser", who attempts to prevent them from winning a cash prize.

<i>Hip Hop Squares</i>

Hip Hop Squares is an American television game show originally hosted by Peter Rosenberg, which debuted on MTV2 on May 22, 2012. The show is a licensed format of CBS Television Distribution's Hollywood Squares featuring mostly rappers. The MTV2 version of the show was taped in Brooklyn, New York. The VH1 version was taped in Hollywood, California.

<i>Are You the One?</i> American reality television series

Are You the One?, sometimes abbreviated as AYTO?, is an American reality television series on MTV, in which young singles try to find love. A group of men and women are secretly paired into couples by producers, via a matchmaking algorithm. Then, while living together, the contestants try to identify all of these "perfect matches." If they succeed, the entire group shares a prize of up to $1 million. All couples in the first seven seasons were male-female, while in the eighth season a contestant's match could be someone of any gender.

<i>Winsanity</i>

Winsanity is an American television game show broadcast by Game Show Network (GSN). The series, hosted by Donald Faison, premiered June 9, 2016.

Divided is an American television game show broadcast by Game Show Network (GSN) based on the British series of the same name. Each episode consists of four contestants playing as one team who must agree on answers to questions they are given. The longer it takes the team to come to an agreement, the less money the team earns for each question. The series, hosted by Mike Richards, premiered January 19, 2017, with some critics believing that the show's name and timing were appropriate given the tumultuous preceding presidential election and its premiere date coming the day before the inauguration.

The first series of The Circle began on 18 September 2018 on Channel 4, and concluded after 21 days with a live final on 8 October 2018. This series was hosted by Alice Levine and Maya Jama on both the launch and the final, and was narrated by Sophie Willan. Ahead of the series it was announced that players would be competing against each other to become the most popular, but would never actually meet. Instead they would communicate through a specially designed app and be able to portray themselves in any way they choose. The series launched with a total of 1,607,000 including +1 catch-up services. It concluded with 1,125,000.

The second series of The Circle began on 24 September 2019 on Channel 4, with a live special hosted by Emma Willis, and concluded on 18 October 2019 after 22 episodes. The series was confirmed on 18 January 2019. Sophie Willan returned as narrator for the second season. The series launched with 1,975,000 viewers. It concluded with 1,209,000 viewers, which was a +67% increase on the first season's final number of viewers, and attracted the biggest share of 16-34 year old viewers from 10 to 11:35 p.m.

References

  1. "Profile: Phil Gallagher (1)". Second Skin Agency. Archived from the original on 22 August 2006. Retrieved 17 March 2010.