Eggheads (TV series)

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This article is about the British game show. For other uses, see Egghead (disambiguation).

Eggheads
Format	Game show
Presented by	Dermot Murnaghan
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC One (10 November 2003 - 16 December 2004) BBC Two (23 May 2005 - Present)
Picture format	16:9
Original run	10 November 2003 – Present

Eggheads is a BBC Two quiz game show presented by Dermot Murnaghan. The Eggheads are a team, made up of five British quiz champions who compete against a new panel of challengers each episode.

1 Quiz champions
2 Title sequence
3 Format
4 History
5 Subjects
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Quiz champions

The quiz champions who compete on the show are:

Kevin Ashman: winner of British Quiz Championship, European Quiz Championship, World Quizzing Championships, Fifteen to One, Mastermind, Brain of Britain and Mind Sports Olympiad.
C. J. de Mooi: winner of BrainTeaser, 100% and The Weakest Link as well as having been Mensa chess champion.
Daphne Fowler: winner of Fifteen to One, Brain of Britain and Going for Gold.
Christopher Hughes: winner of Mastermind, International Mastermind and Brain of Britain.
Judith Keppel: first British winner of one million pounds on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

In May 2008, auditions began to be held for a sixth person to join the Eggheads team.[1] [2]

[edit] Title sequence

The title sequence consists of a voiceover by host Dermot Murnaghan, stating 'These five people are amongst the greatest quiz players in Britain. Together they make up the Eggheads, arguably the most formidable quiz team in the country. The question is: can they be beaten?' The five Eggheads are displayed in revolving egg-shaped frames, with a blue background.

[edit] Format

There are four main rounds, in which the challengers are given a category, and choose one of their players to play against an Egghead of their choice, and they choose whether or not to go first — all aspects designed to give the challengers an advantage. They are asked three multiple choice questions each; if these result in a tie, non-multiple choice questions are asked in pairs, in a sudden death fashion. Possible categories for these rounds are Arts & Books, Entertainment, Food & Drink, History, Geography, Politics, Science and Sport. The contestants do not know the categories or their order in advance, but are guaranteed that at least one of Entertainment or Sport will come up.

After the main rounds the final takes place, in which the losing players from the main round are not allowed to compete and a dominant team could thus have a 5–1 advantage. All remaining players are allowed to confer and the category is always General Knowledge.

Should the challengers win, they receive £1,000 plus a further £1,000 for each day the Eggheads had previously gone undefeated. Defeat usually leads Murnaghan to ask "Congratulations Eggheads, can anyone beat you?", although, after being beaten on quite a few occasions, the phrase became "Congratulations Eggheads, who will beat you?" The Eggheads have a tendency to show off somewhat, often giving extra information or using obscure cross-references to some of their answers.

[edit] History

The show has been running for six series, represented by the same five Eggheads. The teams that have defeated the Eggheads include:

The Unicorn Inn from Canterbury, Kent, who won the thirteenth edition on 26 November 2003 in a sudden death tie break.

Spaghetti, a group of mensans from the West Midlands, who won £19,000.

Second Class, a group of postmen won £37,000 on the 27 September 2006, which remained the highest win ever for just over a year.

Beer Today, Gone Tomorrow, a group of students from Oxford Brookes University won £75,000 on the 28 September 2007, the highest prize won on the show so far ^[1]. Despite only two of them being in the final round versus four Eggheads (minus Chris), they won by correctly answering the question "Which EU capital city is farthest south - Lisbon, Valletta or Nicosia?" the answer being Nicosia in Cyprus. The Eggheads answered the following question incorrectly, believing that eight states in the United States officially sanction the death penalty (the correct answer being 38). At the end of the programme, the winners stated that they plan to treat themselves by travelling to Nicosia.

Preston Quizmasters, won £3,000 on 3 October 2007.

A team from the Museum of London and the Museum in Docklands won £33,000 on 20 November 2007. The challengers had just two members in the final round versus four Eggheads (minus Judith), but managed to win after the Eggheads answered one question incorrectly in the final round, believing that actor Jeff Goldblum had appeared drunk on US chat show The View in November 2006 when in fact it was Danny DeVito.

A team from a Manchester City website - Blue Vibe - beat the Eggheads on 7 December 2007, winning £12,000

Beer and Skittles, a Leicestershire pub team from The Unicorn Lutterworth won £5,000 on February 12, 2008. Two remaining team members beat the 4 Eggheads (minus Chris) in a sudden death tie-break. The Challengers correctly answered that a liger is the offspring of a male lion and a tigress, but the Eggheads incorrectly said that the Hindu god of dance was Krishna. The answer was Shiva.

Weakly Players, a Cardiff-based amateur dramatics team won £27,000 on March 20, 2008. The Eggheads (minus Daphne) got their final multiple-choice General Knowledge question wrong. The Eggheads believed that Radio Happy Isles and Radio Happy Lagoon were broadcast in Samoa, not the correct answer, which was the Solomon Islands.

Sean and the Sheep, a team comprised of four Welsh people and an Englishman called Sean won £20,000 on 17 April 2008.

Tapheads, a team of work colleges at Welsh Water, who won £13,000 on 06 May 2008. In the final round the Eggheads team contained only Daphne and Chris; in 'sudden death', they incorrectly believed the heads side of a coin was called the reverse. The correct answer is the obverse.

Occasionally, the show has had some well-known people on the challengers' team. Multi-World Darts Champion Phil Taylor has appeared, as well as the England Women's Cricket Team and reality TV celebrities Jade Goody and Eugene Sully.

[edit] Subjects

There are eight possible subjects in the head-to-head rounds. Contestants are guaranteed that either Sport or Entertainment (or both) will be one of the chosen four subjects. The other six are: