Golden Balls
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the British game show. Golden Balls is also an informal nickname for English footballer David Beckham and an alternative name for the movie Huevos de oro.
| Golden Balls | |
|---|---|
 Golden Balls titles |
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| Format | Game Show |
| Directed by | Julian Smith |
| Presented by | Jasper Carrott |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 288 (as of 18 Dec 2009) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Endemol |
| Location(s) | BBC Television Centre |
| Running time | 60 mins (including adverts) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Picture format | 16:9 |
| Original airing | 18 June 2007 |
Golden Balls is a British daytime game show on the ITV Network, presented by Jasper Carrott. It is filmed at the BBC Television Centre. From 25 February 2008 to 13 February 2009, the show was sponsored by ITV Bingo (powered by Party Gaming). Golden Balls Ltd licensed their name to Endemol for the game show and merchandise.
Contents |
[edit] Gameplay
[edit] Round 1
At the back of the studio is the "Golden Bank", a giant contraption like a lottery machine. Inside it are 100 golden balls, containing cash values, ranging from £10 to £75,000. Twelve of these golden balls are randomly drawn from the machine and four "Killer" balls are added by Amanda Grant, the "Balls Assistant". These sixteen golden balls are split equally and randomly among four contestants, who place two golden balls on their front row and two on their back row. The golden balls on the front row are visible to all contestants, with the golden balls on the back row being secret to their owner.
The contestants in turn announce the contents of the golden balls on their back row. They can either tell the truth or lie about their amounts. After each contestant has done this, they discuss who they think is lying and try to establish who has the worst set of golden balls, either in terms of having the lowest amount of money or the most Killer balls.
The contestants then secretly vote for which of them they would like to leave the game. In the case of a tie, the contestants must try to reach a consensus in open discussion. If this does not occur, who is eliminated is decided at random. This is decided by giving each contestant involved in the tie another golden ball, one being a Killer ball and the others empty. The contestant who had the Killer ball is eliminated. At the end of the round, each contestant reveals the contents of the golden balls on their back row and the eliminated contestant's golden balls are "binned", namely they are out of the game for good.
[edit] Round 2
The three remaining contestants' golden balls are put back into the ball machine, along with two more cash balls chosen at random from the Golden Bank, as well as one more Killer ball, leaving fifteen golden balls in play. These fifteen golden balls are split among the remaining three contestants randomly and equally, with two golden balls on their front row and three on their back row.
As with Round 1, the contestants reveal the contents of the golden balls on their front row and must announce what is in the golden balls on their back row, again, able to lie. The contestants then discuss the veracity of the others' claims and vote another player off in the same fashion as in Round 1.
[edit] Bin or Win
The two remaining contestants' golden balls are again put back into the ball machine and one more Killer ball is added, leaving eleven golden balls in play. The two contestants sit at a desk with the eleven golden balls between them. In turn, starting with the contestant who brought the most money into the final, the contestants pick a golden ball to "bin" (eliminate from the game) and pick a golden ball to "win" (add to the jackpot). If a Killer ball is picked to be won, then the accumulative value of the jackpot is divided by 10. For example, if the jackpot stands at £10,000 and a Killer ball is chosen to go into the Golden Five, the jackpot is reduced to £1,000. This process is repeated five times.
It should be noted that, unlike the previous and subsequent rounds, the 'Bin or Win' segment of the game is dependent entirely on random chance, and contains no elements of skill or gamesmanship whatsoever.
[edit] Split or Steal
After five golden balls have been won, the contestants have to choose one last decision to make over the final jackpot total. They are each presented with two golden balls. One has "split" printed inside it and the other has "steal" printed inside it.
- If both contestants choose the split ball, the jackpot is split equally between them.
- If one contestant chooses the split ball and the other chooses the steal ball, the stealer gets all the money.
- If both contestants choose the steal ball, they both leave empty-handed.
The table below shows how much of the jackpot is gained by each contestant with the different combinations of choices:
| Result | Split | Steal | ||
| Split | 50% | 50% | 100% | 0% |
| Steal | 0% | 100% | 0% | 0% |
This is similar to the prisoner's dilemma, a well-studied problem in game theory. The dilemma is that the Nash equilibrium for the contestants is actually a worse outcome than if both of the contestants were to cooperate.
The "Split or Steal" game element was also used on Shafted, a previous Endemol production, and U.S. game show network game Friend or Foe?.
[edit] List of Golden Ball values
At the beginning of each game, the audience is told there are 100 golden balls in the Golden Bank. Below are the 111 cash values seen at least once up to 13 December 2009:
| £10 | £20 | £25 | £30 | £40 | £50 | £601 | £70 | £75 |
| £80 | £90 | £1001 | £1251 | £1501 | £1751 | £2001 | £2501 | £3001 |
| £350 | £4001 | £4501 | £5001 | £5501 | £6001 | £650 | £7001 | £7501 |
| £800 | £850 | £9001 | £9501 | £1,0001 | £1,1001 | £1,2001 | £1,2501 | £1,300 |
| £1,400 | £1,5001 | £1,6001 | £1,700 | £1,750 | £1,8001 | £1,9001 | £2,0001 | £2,5001 |
| £3,0001 | £4,0001 | £5,0001 | £5,5001 | £6,0001,2 | £6,5001 | £7,0001 | £7,5001 | £8,0001 |
| £8,500 | £9,0001 | £9,5001 | £10,0001,2 | £11,0001 | £12,0001 | £13,000 | £14,0001 | £15,0001 |
| £16,000 | £17,000 | £18,0001 | £19,000 | £20,0001 | £21,000 | £22,000 | £23,000 | £24,000 |
| £25,0001 | £26,000 | £27,000 | £28,000 | £29,000 | £30,000 | £31,000 | £32,000 | £33,000 |
| £34,000 | £35,000 | £36,000 | £37,000 | £38,000 | £39,000 | £40,000 | £41,000 | £42,000 |
| £43,000 | £44,000 | £45,000 | £46,000 | £47,000 | £48,000 | £49,000 | £50,000 | £51,000 |
| £52,000 | £53,000 | £54,000 | £55,000 | £57,000 | £60,000 | £61,000 | £62,000 | £65,000 |
| £67,000 | £70,000 | £75,000 | ||||||
1Amount was observed in duplicate on a particular programme.
2Amount was observed in triplicate on a particular programme.
In the unaired pilot, the two highest valued golden balls were £200,000 and £100,000.[1]
[edit] Popularity
The first show opened with 1.6 million viewers and continued to climb to a steady 2 million viewers.[1] In the same 5:00pm timeslot, eight of the first 11 episodes beat Channel 4's Richard & Judy and The Weakest Link on BBC Two also took a dent from the show's success.[2]
[edit] Transmission guide
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1 September 2009 - 4 September 2009 |
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[edit] Viewer's competition
For series 3, a viewer's game was introduced. Four golden balls appear on the screen at the first two commercial breaks. One contains £3,000, the other three are Killer balls. They are shuffled and you have to find the cash ball.
From series 4 onwards, there were multiple formats for the viewer's competition, including the one used in series 3. In addition, the prize per day ranged from £2,000 to £4,000.
[edit] Records
- The biggest amount won in the first series was £61,060 on 6 August 2007, when contestant Helen stole all the cash from her opponent Sam, having taken through a £164,500 potential jackpot.
- The highest potential jackpot so far was £168,100 on 11 February 2008, as two of the eleven golden balls contained the top two amounts, £70,000 and £75,000. The actual jackpot, £93,250, was stolen by contestant Klara.
- The lowest potential jackpot so far was £5,000 on 29 May 2008, astonishingly low considering only two of the eleven golden balls were Killer balls. The eventual jackpot was £768, which was stolen by both contestants, hence not given away at all.
- The largest jackpot so far was featured in the second series on 14 March 2008. The accumulated jackpot was £100,150 and the entire jackpot was stolen by contestant Sarah, making her the biggest winner on the show to date. All four contestants in the game (Chloe, Stephen, Sarah and Darren) were returning contestants from previous games who all split where their opponent stole.
- The largest split/split win was £43,950 (from a jackpot of £87,900) on 21 March 2008, the last episode of the second series.
- The largest jackpot ever to be wasted due to a steal/steal outcome was £92,330 on 5 November 2008. This is also the third highest jackpot ever, but as both contestants, Mark and Martin, stole, they each left with nothing.
- The smallest non-zero win was £1.83, won by both contestants on 2 February 2009, as they both split the jackpot of £3.65.
- The lowest overall jackpot was £2.85 (stolen by Hannah on 14 May 2009). This narrowly beat the previous lowest jackpot, which stood at £3.
- Only on one occasion has the final jackpot equaled the potential jackpot at the start of Bin or Win. This was achieved on 9 July 2007 when the top five golden balls, which added up to make a £50,500 jackpot, were selected to Win. The chances of archieving the maximum potential jackpot from the final eleven golden balls available are 1 in 462. Contestant Michael stole the entire jackpot from his opponent Clare, making him the second highest winner of the first series.
- Only on one occasion have all the top five golden balls been selected to Bin at the start and to the end of Bin or Win. The jackpot turned out to be £31.50, won by both contestants, Maria and Michelle, who then went home with £15.75 each on 10 July 2007.
[edit] Merchandise
[edit] Video Game
The Video Game has been released on the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms.
[edit] The Mobile Game
In 2007 Gameloft released Golden Balls, The Mobile Game.
[edit] The DVD Game
An interactive DVD game has been released[3]
[edit] The Board Game And Card Game
A board game has been released[4] A card game was also released by the same company as the board game. This was available exclusively to Amazon, but has since been discontinued[5]
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Golden Balls - UKGameshows", UKGameshows.com
- ^ {{cite news Series 2 went on to average 2.1 million viewers in early 2008. As of Summer 2009, the show's popularity has fallen, and now attracts around 1.2m. | title = ITV Strikes Teatime Gold | publisher = MediaGuardian.co.uk | date = 3 July 2007 | url = http://media.guardian.co.uk/overnights/story/0,,2117502,00.html | accessdate = 2007-07-28}}
- ^ Golden Balls: DVD Game
- ^ Golden Balls: Board Game
- ^ Golden Balls: Card Game
[edit] External links
- Golden Balls at itv.com
- Golden Balls Official Endemol UK Site
- Golden Balls at crashthatch.com
- Golden Balls Mobile Game Official Gameloft UK Site
- "Golden Balls Game Online" - Review of where to play Golden Balls Online
