Have you ever been a contestant?

Kolodny · 12-07-2006 11:50am #1

Just curious.

I haven't myself. My mum was on Fifteen to One on Channel 4 a few years back. She did really well too, got to the last round.

Anyone here have a game/quiz experience? Were you any good?

Ruu_Old · 12-07-2006 12:43pm

I wish I was a contestant! A few people my Mam knew were in Winning Streak *shudder* and there was some secondary school quiz show (not BB Jungle). I think it was called Gridlock, people from my class were on that.

fuzzywiggle · 12-07-2006 1:25pm

No! Don't even know anyone who has

mikedragon32 · 12-07-2006 4:05pm

I was on Gerry Ryan's Secrets, but not as a contestant. I was one of the "experts" who demonstrated a skill which the contestants had to copy.

It was a really great day. Fed, watered and paid too!

pokerwidow · 12-07-2006 5:21pm

My husband was on the Irish ...millionaire. He never got past the fastest finger

. We still have the bottle of champers with the millionaire logo on it. He had a great day up there and he said Gay was alright to them :eek: .

Mike what was your skill and how much an hour do you charge?

mikedragon32 · 13-07-2006 2:07pm

pokerwidow wrote:

My husband was on the Irish ...millionaire. He never got past the fastest finger . We still have the bottle of champers with the millionaire logo on it. He had a great day up there and he said Gay was alright to them :eek: .

Mike what was your skill and how much an hour do you charge?

That all depends on who is asking!

_blank_ · 21-07-2006 4:33pm

I was in Blackboard Jungle. Team captain.

The school we were against, by some co-incidence, was a school that the teacher who had "trained" us used to teach in.

Anyway, this was around the time that Ken Doherty won the World Snooker. For one of the questions the other school had his picture popped up on the screen. Ray asked a question, but stumbled over his lines, and they had to do a re-take with a different question. The answer to the new question had been included in the first one. We lost because of that.

We got a tape walkman - no radio, which is still in it's box, along with my BBJ Nametag.

Ruu_Old · 21-07-2006 4:35pm

seansouth wrote:

I was in Blackboard Jungle. Team captain.

The school we were against, by some co-incidence, was a school that the teacher who had "trained" us used to teach in.

Anyway, this was around the time that Ken Doherty won the World Snooker. For one of the questions the other school had his picture popped up on the screen. Ray asked a question, but stumbled over his lines, and they had to do a re-take with a different question. The answer to the new question had been included in the first one. We lost because of that.

We got a tape walkman - no radio, which is still in it's box, along with my BBJ Nametag.

Brilliant! What was the top prize? I think it was a minibus or something, yes?

_blank_ · 23-07-2006 3:56pm

Minibus for the school. Can't remember the individual prizes.

monkeyfudge · 24-07-2006 1:40am

I was on Talkabout many years ago.

That was the one presented by Alan Hughes in a tacky suit... the whole set and title sequence was super gaudy.

I got bad food poisoning in the RTÉ canteen during the day, so I wasn't totally on form... ha... But I still managed to get more laughs than the pathetic warm up act.

Myself and my friend were really just using the show as a political platform though... he was running in the general election that year for Galway West.

But the whole show was rigged. The people who won were paid actors... they were actually the warm up act... It actaually even says the show is rigged in the small print of the end credits... I did walk away with a dictionary which I had Mr. Alan Huges autograph for me.

angeldelight · 26-07-2006 6:05am

My only claim to fame was going on the furry green telly quiz with my best friend when I was 10

Have to say the prizes were fairly cool at the time for two 10 year olds.

My parents were on Where in the World, won us a nice week in Kerry! They won lots of quizzes in the 80s but afaik that was the only tv show they went on

Nightwish · 27-07-2006 8:11pm

My sister was on the Yes No Gameshow on the Den, 10 years ago. She made a holy show of me by saying on tv "I'd like to say hello to my sister, who's going to the orthodontist this afternoon". Anyway she won a huge box full of great prizes. I got to have the cool Levi's DenTv denim jacket because it wouldnt fit my sister.

Ruu_Old · 28-07-2006 9:51pm

Nightwish wrote:

My sister was on the Yes No Gameshow on the Den, 10 years ago. She made a holy show of me by saying on tv "I'd like to say hello to my sister, who's going to the orthodontist this afternoon". Anyway she won a huge box full of great prizes. I got to have the cool Levi's DenTv denim jacket because it wouldnt fit my sister.

Haha brilliant!

They seemed to get a heap of prizes for kids on that show alright. I bet you were proud:)

Roar · 05-08-2006 3:18pm

I was a team captain on Eureka about 12 years ago, the irish quiz show for primary school students. With the beardy guy, cant remember his name. My team won... Lost the video though which im quite annoyed about... Great day though..

Ruu_Old · 08-08-2006 12:20am

Roar wrote:

I was a team captain on Eureka about 12 years ago, the irish quiz show for primary school students. With the beardy guy, cant remember his name. My team won... Lost the video though which im quite annoyed about... Great day though..

Remember that one alright (all those wacky coloured couches), no idea the name of that chap who hosted it.

iFight · 08-08-2006 12:35am

I would love to some day be on a show, they are so cool, big fan.

Some people got good stories on here. VGood thread

Ruu_Old · 10-08-2006 6:25am

I would have loved to been on Supermarket Sweep although that oompa loompa Dale Winton is cringeworthy!

holly_johnson · 11-08-2006 9:15pm

I was on Dodge the Question years ago.. something like 1996.

It was hosted by Jonathan Philbin Bowman.
Needless to say I was rubbish!

I only got on it by a bit of blaguarding(sp?). Basically they were looking for contestants and sent a mail around the civil service. You had to ring a phone number and answer 10 questions. If you got enough right you were then called to UCD on a Saturday for more quizzing and then if you passed that, you got on the show.
Anyway, a colleague rang up the number. The questions were mad hard, and he didn't get enough right. I thought it would be a laugh, so he wrote down the questions, I got the answers and rang the number. Surprise, surprise, they were the same 10 questions, which I got all right! I was asked to the UCD thingy where I was abysmal. I was told I wasn't getting on, but then got a phone call as there weren't enough women to men. I went along (more fool me), got nothing to drink or anything like that (really scabby RTÉ tbh), went on the show, lasted 1 round and was dispatched home with a plaque.

Shameful, but worth a few drinks from the lads in the office that Friday night.

Rabies · 11-08-2006 9:18pm

I was on a 2fm quiz. Won a hamper of cheese :eek: Some other luck bastard got the holiday.

Tar.Aldarion · 29-08-2006 5:39am

My lovely cousin was on Winning Streak, she spun the wheel and all. :P

Nightwish wrote:

She made a holy show of me by saying on tv "I'd like to say hello to my sister, who's going to the orthodontist this afternoon".

That shoutout was to you? I remember laughing my ass off at poor unfortunate you then.

Seansouth, that really sucks, I may have seen you, watched that a lot.

fifib · 30-08-2006 1:11pm

My mum was on Winning Streak the time of Mike Murphy. She went on for my grand uncle n won £15,000. They record it during the day so we stopped off in a pub on way back to Galway when the show was on TV n freaked all the ole fellas sitting at the bar out by being able to "predict" who would win what..then they saw my mum n copped on!

DMC · 18-09-2006 3:46am

Blackboard Jungle vet here, campaign of the summer of '92... captain of the platoon, won the group, got to the last 12, got a personal CD player... very cool prize at the time.

Ray recorded something like 6 or 8 episodes a day, 5 days a week, for the months of July and August. At the time, BBJ went out 3 nights a week for 36-40 weeks from September to June. Some effort.

DMC · 18-09-2006 3:48am

Roar wrote:

I was a team captain on Eureka about 12 years ago, the irish quiz show for primary school students. With the beardy guy, cant remember his name. My team won... Lost the video though which im quite annoyed about... Great day though..

Brian Reddin? Used to present other kids programmes on RTÉ? (Scratch Saturday)

Ruu_Old · 22-09-2006 8:35pm

Any video evidence of this BBJ appearance laying around, DMC?

FutureGuy · 25-09-2006 11:19am

I was on the Weakest link a few years badck with Eamonn Dunphy, pretty nerve racking really, but great fun. Was called the weakest link by friends for 2 years after :rolleyes:

DMC · 20-10-2006 10:23am

Ruu wrote:

Any video evidence of this BBJ appearance laying around, DMC?

I personally went into the RTÉ archive with a flamethrower.

Yakuza · 31-10-2006 5:30pm

I was on Fifteen-to-one in 1999. I got to the second round (I basically got 1 out of 4 questions right

). I was a bit gutted as I am reasonably good at pub quizzes.

Hagiography. That was the answer to the question I went out on. I'll never forget it. (The question was something like "what's the word that describes writings that glorify the lives of saints?").

I'd love to have gone on it again, but you had to wait 5 years between attempts (unless you won a program). By the time 2004 came around the programme had stopped as William G Steward had retired.

The experience itself was great - Channel 4 paid for my flight from Dublin to Gatwick, as well as putting me up for the night. (I brought my dad along for the trip, as well as a bit of support!).

The TV studio was tiny (it looked bigger on camera) it still fitted the contestants, the one or two folks each contestant brought, as well as 3 cameras, a production crew, and, of course, Mr Stewart himself.

He was a nice bloke, took a few minutes to chat to each contestant - he visits Ireland a lot, apparently

The operation was very slick and professional. They recorded 3 shows a day, so we were in and out in under 2 hours. I had a great time, and it was very interesting to see what went on behind the scenes. I'd be banging their door down if they ever ressurected it.

amen · 09-11-2006 10:14pm

was on JoeMaxi (rte kids program) years ago must be about 1989

Ruu_Old · 09-11-2006 10:45pm

^ Jaysus, showing your age there.

No video evidence of that either I suppose?

TMX Elmo · 28-11-2006 3:30am

I was on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire back in 2000

Got to €64k - money aside, it was actually a fantastic experience - Gaybo was great

Nunu · 28-11-2006 4:03am

I was on a game show on RTE called 'Delegation'. Must have been 3 years ago - it was the day Charlie Chawke was shot. The floor manager told us. I live in Goatstown where it happened , so it was fairly startling news!

Anyway, the show was hosted by that stocky chap who started out on TG4, can't think of his name?

We were the last team standing and I was delegated to answer the final question, the category being the Olympics. €12,000 hinged on it(€2,000 each). I answered incorrectly and we went home empty handed.:(

The fateful question was: Where were the 1968 Olympics held? I could trace back to 1972 definetly, and spent what seemed like an eternity deliberating on my answer. I finally answered Rome, and for a couple of seconds actually thought I was right. The answer was Mexico City.

I can safely say I never would have guessed that, so I didn't feel too bad afterwards. My brother Stephen knew, but wasn't delegated so you can only imagine how he felt. He actually said he was a breath away from shouting out the answer when he realised I didn't know in the vain hope they'd reshoot with a differnt final question!:D

The amazing thing is in the canteen before hand we were going through categories and we were naming the hosts and years of the World Cup and then a mate of mine Patrick said 'Right lets go through the Olympics now'. His Dad said 'Or what about capital cities?'. So we started rattling them off instead! That is not a word of a lie.

Have you ever been a contestant?

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