Quizmania

In 2004, while working for E4 as anchor presenter on the United Kingdom version of the German-produced live phone-in television quiz show 9Live filmed in Munich,[1][2] presenter Debbie King joined with producers Chuck Thomas and Simone Thorogood to pitch a similar idea to UK production company Nation 217. After commissioning, the show was produced as Bowling For Bucks.[1]

Approached by FremantleMedia, the trio were commissioned to create a similar show called Quizmania. Initially shown in the Autumn of 2005 in a five-hour per night slot on satellite channel Information TV, after 4 months it was picked up by ITV for their night time slot.[3]

E4 continued with a new production team, which transmitted 9Live from late 2004 in the same timeslot as Quizmania, but stopped in early 2005.

The original run of Quizmania was broadcast from 10 pm to 1 am, weeknights on ITV Play. In order to win money, viewers had to ring in at a cost of 75p from a BT landline (previously 60p). If they were successful they would be placed on hold, then transferred live to the studio if they were selected, where they went on to deliver their answers. Prizes usually ranged from £50 to £25,000. The biggest prize to be won was £28,000 on 22 March 2006. Once £100,000 was available as a prize, but was not won. According to an article in The Times, Quizmania earned ITV over £1.2 million during the first two weeks of transmission on the ITV Network.

The original TV series ended on 14 January 2007, but was revived some 18 months later with a new mass participation online format. The first online season involved trivia games where players attempted to select correct answers to sets of multiple choice questions in the fastest time. The second online season featured additional games from the first such as word searches, anagram solving and maths based games. The revival was short-lived.

One of the show's unluckiest players, "Tornado Tom", made it through to the studio on 97 consecutive shows without a single win. He eventually broke his losing streak with a £75 win on 12 December 2006.

On the other hand, regular player "Rob from Norwich" became the show's first big money winner, winning £6,700 on 14 January 2006.[8] Some fifteen months later he went on Sky News to defend quiz TV channels and programmes amid mounting controversy of such output. Stuart King from East Calder was also a big winner in March 2006, winning £8,000.

Crazy Nige rang the studio on a regular basis using his catchphrase, "Loving the style of everything, except Greggles".

The Quizmania studio reflected the show's main colour theme, bright pink with elements of blue. In the main section of the studio was a large door, which was set in a low-angled pink wall. This door was where the presenters enter the show from at the start, and sometimes when another presenter arrives to take over.

From the viewer's perspective, to the left of the studio was a bar section, with various odds and ends on it. Going further to the right was a large noticeboard-like wall, which had a large gold frame (nicknamed "Quizframia") where viewer submitted photographs were pinned up. Also in the left section was a flat screen TV, where an animated Quizmania logo was displayed for most of the show. When special events happened on the show (e.g. Double money, speed round), large text was displayed on the screen. The screen was also used to display video clips as part of some games.

To the right of the main section was another main bar section with a flat screen TV in the background, which displayed the same picture as the other TV. The bar had a gumball machine on it, and a large selection of random props and items that viewers sent in. It also had two picture frames, for the "King and Queen of Quizmania". The bar also had some things underneath it that the presenters often got out, but the actual back of the bar was never seen by viewers. Going further right, there was a 'podium of love' (a nickname started by Debbie) that the presenter would 'mount' when a speed round happened. The podium had a backdrop of large white bulb lights on a black background, and the lights were often flashing.

On 31 July 2006, the studio was redesigned into a summer theme. The large door was painted yellow. The left side of the studio was turned into a seaside-like setting, complete with deckchair, bucket and spade, some artificial palm trees, and a barbecue. Meanwhile, the right side was also changed, with the bar given a different colour, and the frame around the TV painted yellow. The podium / speed round area of the studio received new blue and red lights and the podium received a new paint job. Additionally, a large jukebox was placed at the back of the main studio area.

In December 2006, the set was changed again into a snowy, Alpine Lodge theme which was the last theme for Quizmania's run on ITV Play.

A smaller version of the original studio was built for the online series with the technical gallery regularly appearing in-vision.

Quizmania was revived as an online-only version. The first publicly released news of plans to revive the series was seen on the Quizmania website, on 18 December 2007 stating: "Yakkabakakkas! Quizmania could be on its way back like you've never seen before!".[9]

On 11 January 2008, those who had signed up to the Quizmania mailing list received an e-mail offering "a huge fluffy pink thank you to everyone for getting in touch." As for the rumours of a return:

Well, it's true we're looking at ways we can bring back the show in a completely different (but hopefully equally wadgetastic) way. It's not 100% certain yet and there are still details we need to scratch our heads over ...

The show finally returned online on 17 July 2008. This show was preceded by a pre-launch pilot edition, which was streamed live on 12 July 2008, with 100 winners of an e-mail competition allowed to take part. The show was originally due to stream every Thursday, Friday and Saturday until 9 August 2008 as a test run. On 31 July 2008, it was announced that the programme would continue beyond that period, although the Friday and Saturday shows were axed at the end of the four-week test run. The final weekly edition of the present series was streamed on 16 October 2008 and was followed by two specials on 4 November 2008 to mark the USA presidential election. The second series of the online revival began at 12 pm on Wednesday 23 September 2009.

Quizmania launched a beta version Facebook application of the show on 8 February 2012 with straight quiz games and guess what the majority of players would choose games. This was closed when makers ScreenPop were merged into ITV Interactive at the start of April 2012.

The TV format of Quizmania have also been produced and broadcast in various countries.

Country	Title	Network	Host	Date aired
Australia	Quizmania	Nine Network	Katrina Conder Nikki Osborne Amy Parks Suze Raymond Brodie Young	July 25, 2006 – June 24, 2007
Colombia[10]	Quizmanía	RCN	Valentina Sánchez Leonardo Millén	2007
France[11]	Quizmax	NRJ 12	?	2007
Poland	Quizmania	Polsat	Dorota Kacprzak Marcin Mańka	February 28, 2006 – August 31, 2006
Portugal	Quando o telefone toca	SIC	Vanessa Palma Patrícia Henrique Raquel Henriques Iva Lamarão	August 20, 2007 – August 13, 2008