The Million Pound Drop
| The Million Pound Drop | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Genre | Game show |
| Presented by |
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| Theme music composer | Marc Sylvan |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series |
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| No. of episodes |
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| Production | |
| Running time | 60–120 minutes (inc. adverts) |
| Production company(s) | Remarkable Television |
| Distributor | Endemol UK |
| Release | |
| Original network | Channel 4 |
| Picture format | 576i 16:9 (SDTV) |
| Original release | 24 May 2010 – 20 March 2015 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Million Dollar Money Drop (U.S.) |
| External links | |
| Website | |
| Production website | |
The Million Pound Drop (formerly The Million Pound Drop Live) was a BAFTA-winning game show which broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. The show began on 24 May 2010 and ended on 20 March 2015 with Davina McCall having presented the show's eleven series.
The show used social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to find contestants, and also to promote the show. David Flynn, managing director of Endemol's Remarkable Television, which produced the show, said: "The plan was to create buzz and an air of mystery around the show by trickling information about auditions via Twitter and Facebook, giving fans a level of exclusivity."
On 8 March 2016, Channel 4 announced that they had axed the show, in a bid to save money. Reruns of the old series are currently broadcast on Challenge.
Contestants, alone or in pairs for the first series, or only in pairs for all subsequent series, are given one million pounds in £50 notes at the start of the show, banded in 40 bundles of £25,000. They must then answer eight questions in an effort to keep as much of their money as possible. Many questions are heavily focused on current or recent events (even events that occur during the airing of the show) with the words of "this week", "today" even "right now", to push the fact that the show is broadcast live.
At the beginning of each round, the contestants have to pick a category of two choices they are given. If the contestants take too long to choose, a coin is flipped to decide. Each question is multiple-choice, with the first four questions having four choices, the next three questions having three, and the final question having just two choices. Unlike a traditional quiz where the contestants pick one answer, however, it is possible for the contestants to hedge by placing money (in multiples of £25,000) on multiple answers in proportion to how confident they are on the answer. However, one answer must always be left with no money on it, which ensures that on the final question, only one answer can be chosen. Contestants who leave the money on all of the answers are generally disqualified from the game, except in some international versions of the show. After the answers and question have been read out, the contestants have one minute to physically move their money onto trapdoors (called "drops") corresponding to the answer(s) they choose. If contestants are sure of their answer, they may choose to stop the clock before the time limit is up to carry on with the answers.
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Wikipedia