The Colour of Money (game show)

The colour of money
The colour of money logo.
Presented by	Chris Tarrant
Starring	Millie Clode
Narrated by	Jon Strickland
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	7 (Originally 8, one episode unaired)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Andy Culpin Michael Mannes Matt Walton David Young
Location(s)	The London Studios
Running time	60 minutes (including adverts)
Production company(s)	12 Yard
Distributor	ITV Studios
Release
Original network	ITV, STV, UTV
Picture format	PAL (576i, 16:9)
Original release	21 February (2009-02-21) – 11 April 2009 (2009-04-11)

The Colour of Money is a British game show, broadcast on ITV between 21 February and 11 April 2009. The programme was produced by 12 Yard, and hosted by Chris Tarrant and Millie Clode. The format was originally devised by Paul Brassey and Daniel Moody in 2006, and developed by Jim Cannon, Andy Culpin, Samuel Pollard and David Young.

A total of eight episodes were produced but only seven of these were broadcast, due to poor viewing figures. Subsequently, the programme was axed by ITV on 12 June 2009. The game-show later survived as a board game manufactured by games-giant Drumond Park.^[1]

Format

In the studio, are twenty stylised "cash machines", each with a different coloured screen (hence the title of the show). Before each game, each machine is loaded with a different amount of money. These amounts range from £1,000 to £20,000 in increments of £1,000. The contestant, hosts, audience and viewers are all unaware of which amount of money is in which machine.

At the beginning of the game, the contestant is given a choice of three "cash cards", each of which has been credited with a cash value from £50,000 to £100,000. The value on the card the contestant selects becomes their target for the game.

The contestant proceeds to select cash machines one at a time. At this point, the entire studio changes colour to the relevant colour that the contestant selects. The host starts each machine, at which point, the money inside begins counting upwards on the screen, at a rate of £1,000 per second. When this figure passes, the total amount that the machine contains it 'locks down', signified by an alarm and flashing screen. The contestant must stop each machine before it locks down by shouting the word "stop". If the contestant stops the machine, then, the amount displayed on the screen at that point is added to a running total. If, however, they fail to stop the machine before it locks down, then, no money is added to the total.

The contestant can select up to ten of the twenty machines. If they add enough money to their total to reach their target, then, they'll win the game, and get to take the money home. If they fail to reach their target after selecting ten machines, or if at any point in the game, it'll become mathematically impossible for them to do so, then, the game ends, and the contestant gets relegated from the show with nothing.

Co-host Millie Clode provided contestants with a statistical rundown between the machines being played – informing them of their running total, how much money they still needed to take, how many machines they could still select and how much money they needed to take, on average, from each of these remaining machines to reach their target.

Each episode of the show featured two consecutive games.

Series

The series was filmed at The London Studios, with the first episode airing at 6:35 PM on Saturday, 21 February 2009. The second, third (postponed on Saturday, 7 March) and fourth episodes were broadcast at the slightly later time of 6:45 PM. The fifth episode aired on Saturday, 28 March at 8:20 PM. The sixth episode aired on Saturday, 4 April at 7:55 PM. The seventh episode aired on Saturday, 11 April at 9:15 PM. The eighth and final episode that was scheduled to air on 18 April was rescheduled for 29 December, but again was not shown.^[2]

Contestants

Reception

Ratings

Episode viewing figures from BARB:

Prior to the show going on air, former ITV controller of Entertainment Duncan Gray, writing in The Independent, suggested that ITV executives were hoping for an audience of around 5 million viewers.

Critical reaction

The programme received a largely negative response from critics. The Times said that it was "tedious", while The News of the World branded it "exactly the kind of cynical crowd-pleasing guff we’ve come to despise ITV for". One of the few positive reviews came from Charlie Brooker, writing in The Guardian, who called the show "so compelling, tense and yet ultimately random, it's likely to be a huge worldwide hit.". In his review of 2009, Brooker described this as the "most off-the-mark prediction" of the year. Readers of ukgameshows.com named it the worst new game show of 2009 in their "Hall of shame" poll.^[3][4][5]

References

External links

• The Colour of Money at UKGameshows.com