The Mint (game show)

The Mint
The Mint logo
Starring	Several presenters
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Production
Running time	Various
Release
Original network	ITV ITV2
Original release	1 April 2006 – 15 February 2007
Chronology
Related shows	The Mint Extra

The Mint was a live, late night, interactive quiz show with celebrity guests and live studio contestants filmed on a large extravagant set designed to look like the inside of a mansion. The programme, which was dogged by criticism that its questions were ambiguous and arbitrary, aired on ITV and ITV2, Sunday to Wednesday. On 26 February 2007, ITV announced that The Mint would return to screens later in 2007, however an announcement on 12 September 2007 confirmed that the show, along with similar late night phone ins, would not be returning.

The Mint was produced by Ludus:ETV, and was one of the main programmes showing nightly on ITV and ITV2. It was written, produced and directed by Ken Korda. Other noted directors included Andrew Rigney of Essex. One of the criticisms levelled against the programmes makers ITV, is that the presenters created an illusion that the lines were "open" for calls when in fact the programme continued to take vast numbers of calls from so-called contestants.

Cash prizes on offer were usually larger than other British phone-in quizzes and the programme gave away large sums of money (usually £10,000–£30,000 for top answers depending on the bonuses they were doing at the time e.g. Top money – £10,000 but on quadruple money it would be £40,000).

The programme was first shown early in the morning on Saturday 1 April 2006 (Late Friday night). It typically lasted for anything from 2 hours to 4 hours, depending on ITV scheduling. In order to win money viewers had to either call in at a cost of seventy five pence (previously sixty pence) from a BT landline, text the word 'MINT' to a special number or enter through the ITV website and, if selected, would be issued a freephone number and PIN valid for one entry. If they were successful they would be placed on hold then, if the computer selected them at random, they would be transferred live to The Mint mansion, where they went on to give their answer.

The titular 'Mint' was a large vault situated at the back of the themed set and inside was a £100,000 prize. £1 was added to the £100,000 jackpot for every minute the programme was on air without finding a winner. A chance to play for the jackpot was given to winners of the standard games whenever a correct answer was given, the jackpot prize was awarded if players could guess the 4-digit code that opened The Mint. This code was locked in the computer and only changed when someone had won the prize. No-one in the studio or on the production team knew the code. After a number of wrong guesses the producers would reveal the first number and later, the second, leaving viewers having to guess the remaining digits.

On 12 May 2006, the last two numbers were guessed correctly and over £108,000 was won.

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