Do RTE produce any trivia-based quiz shows at all?

dark crystal

Being a bit of a trivia geek, I decided to apply for the BBC quiz show Pointless. Unfortunately, they only accept applications from residents of the U.K.
Looking at a few others, i.e; Eggheads etc. and no luck there either.

Do RTE produce any knowledge and trivia based quiz shows at all, or is it just buying a scratch card that'll give you any chance of winning money on a TV show here?

Surely my head full of useless information could be utilised for monetary gain somewhere in this country!

El Weirdo

From AH ====> Television.

Eathrin

BBC have produced many good trivia based shows over the years, no idea why RTE don't do the same. After sport, it's my favourite television.

dark crystal

I remember when we had our own version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and it never got past one or two series, I think.

Such a shame, as Ireland has a great tradition of pub quizzing etc.

Sure, isn't yer man off Eggheads, Pat, Irish?

joshrogan

I'd like to see an Irish version of Pointless, probably my favourite triva show atm.

larchielads

the chase(itv) is good but really hard to win anything though but your right, no trivia, gen knowledge type game shows

Skid

joshrogan wrote: »

I'd like to see an Irish version of Pointless, probably my favourite triva show atm.

Pointless is a great show, but it wouldn't be half as good without Alexander and Richard.

Maybe they could do some episodes with Irish contestants and sell them to RTE or TV3?

bijapos

With the massive popularity of quizzes and pub quizzes in this country I find it bizarre that RTE don't do some sort of quiz show open to the public as you mentioned.

A perfectly good example was the failed Put Em Under Pressure last autumn. A quiz show, very flashy, expensive set but instead of making it open to the public they put on celebs. The format was weak, there was too much chat and fake banter and not enough questions which is what the viewer wants as they like testing themselves on them. The viewing figures fell and it was pulled from the screens after 8 episodes.

Compare that to the success of Know your Sport from the 80's and 90's. RTE should reintroduce this format, have a team from every county, that's 32, then a knock out format up to a final, giving 31 programmes. I guarantee if they ran that from September to Easter it would be a success and cost them sweet feck all. Plenty of questions, little chat, that's what a significant number of people want in this country.

They could try an Irish version of Mastermind or Cross Country Quiz or something, cheap entertainment that costs little to produce and would be more enjoyable than another repeat of Showhouse or Roomers.

It's very easy to get your own format together and not be spending scarce money on buying in syndicated stuff like Who Wants to be a Millionaire. The fact that they ditched the All Ireland Talent Show for The Voice and spent a small fortune on TV rights and building a new set shows how bereft of ideas they are in RTE.

pinkypinky

Agree with what the above people are saying - I love trivia quizzes. Telly Addicts was my favourite as a kid. I also liked that geography one (er, where in the world?) I was on blackboard jungle but they'd cancelled Challenging Times by the time I was in college.

I think Mastermind allows non-UK residents but the cost of travelling if you did well would become prohibitive, and despite the kudos, you don't win money on it.

Surely they're cheap enough to produce?

smurfs5

They should ditch the awful Winning Streak and introduce a quiz-based show like the BBC's National Lottery games, In It To Win It and Who Dares Wins. I honestly can't understand how people can sacrifice an hour of their Saturday night to watch people completing mundane tasks to win huge money. It is boring and the presenters are horrendous. Surely people want to see people working to get money and have an entertaining, dramatic, risky show, which a quiz show would provide. I want to see a risk that the people could lose all their money, not merely picking a number and getting a holiday to a tropical destination for nothing.

efb

The National Lottery games must be games of chance, not skill. That's why.

smurfs5

efb wrote: »

The National Lottery games must be games of chance, not skill. That's why.

I don't see your point. They aren't strictly refined to a chance game. If there was a quiz show in which every question was multiple choice, as per In It To Win It, that combines both aspects.

Paparazzo

Pointless is the best quiz show ever. Only problem is, the prize is a bit small. It should start at about 3k and go up 1k each day

Welsh Megaman

With 'The Daily Show' gone, there is a perfect timeslot available for a quiz show. OP, you should contact RTE and suggest it. Demand is there, cheap to produce, gap in the market and what-not!

But who will present?

wp_rathead

I quite liked Million Pound Drop- if there could be an Irish version which would mean minus Davina and stupid tabloid based questions- could be quite good

National Lottery could surely throw together some sort of Quiz show

mike65

A Quicksliver revival is just what the nation needs.

Cheap telly for all the family.

corkonion

mike65 wrote: »

A Quicksliver revival is just what the nation needs.

Cheap telly for all the family.

stop the lights

smurfs5

wprathead wrote: »

I quite liked Million Pound Drop- if there could be an Irish version which would mean minus Davina and stupid tabloid based questions- could be quite good

National Lottery could surely throw together some sort of Quiz show

Oh, please God, no. The Million Pound Drop Live is my absolute favourite quiz show. I don't want another cheap Irish remake. I think Irish TV stations have proved that they are incapable of adapting or maintaining a high-quality foreignl format suitably.
P.S. I love Davina !!!

brian_t

Skid

smurfs5 wrote: »

I don't see your point. They aren't strictly refined to a chance game. If there was a quiz show in which every question was multiple choice, as per In It To Win It, that combines both aspects.

Yes they are.

All National Lottery games consist of flashing lights and rolling balls games in which a Gorilla named Gerald would have an equal chance as Biddy from Bundoran.

TellyBingo (three times a week, televised on RTE)
In addition, the National Lottery produces non skill based lottery TV Game Shows in which a number of games are played, utilising both mechanical as well as software driven game machinery. There are two TV gameshows during the course of a year – “Winning streak” and “Big Money” which run for a total of 52 weeks in a year.

http://www.ga.etenders.gov.ie/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=OCT275695&catID=16


But as others have said, you don't need big prizes for good quiz shows. There is a clear gap in the market for a General Knowledge based show. They can be relatively cheap to make, and the correct format can fill make many hours of entertaining television.

ejmaztec

The closest they get is the Oireachtas Report, which is probably quite similar to Pointless.

lookitsme

tv3 are going to do Mastermind, but i dont know if you win money on it. Someone should remake "going for gold"

dark crystal

wprathead wrote: »

I quite liked Million Pound Drop- if there could be an Irish version which would mean minus Davina and stupid tabloid based questions- could be quite good

The problem with The Million Pound (Euro?) Drop, is that RTE would argue they wouldn't have same sort of funds available as Channel 4, so giving away €1,000,000 just wouldn't be tenable - especially in the current economic climate. Not entirely sure, but I think that's the reason they cancelled WWTBAM.

A quiz show in the vein of Pointless, Eggheads etc. however, would cost relatively little to produce and the prize money isn't huge, either.

Now if we could poach back a good Irish presenter from the U.K - say Wogan or Norton - I think it would make great ratings. It would also be a good way for the TV licence payers to win back some of the money they've paid to RTE over the years!

For a TV station to be taking in revenue from both Licence fees and advertising, it seems incredibly unfair not to have at least one show designed to give some money back to the public.

smurfs5

dark crystal wrote: »

Now if we could poach back a good Irish presenter from the U.K - say Wogan or Norton - I think it would make great ratings

Somehow, I don't think the BBC's top-rated presenter will take a step backwards in his career by doing a show for little old RTE. :rolleyes:

dark crystal

smurfs5 wrote: »

Somehow, I don't think the BBC's top-rated presenter will take a step backwards in his career by doing a show for little old RTE. :rolleyes:

Ah, I know that! 'twas merely a musing on my part. It's just that I can't think of many current RTE presenters with the charisma or humor to front a quiz show is all.

salad dodger

Bring back Rapid Roulette with Maxi I say

darkdubh

RTE haven't done a decent quizz show in years.I suppose it woulden't suit their current agenda of dumbing down and producing cheap knockoffs of British reality shows.

Yakuza

I was on Fifteen-to-One many, many moons ago. Now there was a show - utterly simple in concept and addictive to watch (for me at least ). No issues at all with RoI residents; they had a pre-screening in the Gresham, and they paid for a return flight and one night in a hotel for those of us that were selected to record a show in the studios in Wandsworth.

If RTE were to do a show like that, I wouldn't have pay to my TV Licence through gritted teeth.

kingtiger

Yakuza wrote: »

I was on Fifteen-to-One many, many moons ago.

what number did you get too?

Yakuza

kingtiger wrote: »

what number did you get too?

I survived the first round, getting one question wrong, but got very short shrift in the knockout round. I'll never forget the question that booted me out - "What word describes writings devoted to the lives of saints?" - Hagi-bleedin'-ography. I had never heard of it before, haven't forgotten it since. I had learned off all my US state capitals and the UK monarchs, alas to no avail

squonk

The thing is, RTE were great at quizes in the 70's and 80's. As said there was QuickSilver but 80's kids will no doubt remember Where In The World with Teresa Lowe - always worth a watch, as well as the quiz... boom boom tish . They also had Murphy's Micro Quiz'em which was general knowledge and gaming skill. I really enoyed the quizes myself. I never took to the stuff in the 90's though, like Challenging Times and especially Kevin 'Oh I'm so pissed off Trinners didn't win that' Myers and the non braniac quizes got very dumb.

I do like Mastermind a lot but we're well capable of doing our own thing. Back in the day the prizes were **** but everyone had a good time. Murphy's one used to have a star prize of a Ford Escort that I'd say they were praying nobody would win.

Yakuza

What was the one with Jonathan Philbin Bowman (RIP)?
Edit: Never mind - "Dodge the Question".

I liked Murphy's Micro Quiz-m and where in the world. I seem to remember one of the top prizes being a Dragon 32 home computer, which they prayed wasn't won as they ran the cheesy graphics on it