Five Launches New Weekday Quiz Format
Five has announced the launch of a new primetime TV quiz programme, which will transmit on weekday nights from Tuesday 29 May at 6.30pm.
Produced by Two Four Productions and hosted by radio star Colin Murray, Payday will give eight players the chance of winning one of their fellow contestants’ annual salaries.
“What excites me about Payday is that it combines traditional questions and answers with a unique game of strategy and, more importantly, we finally get to ask people how much money they earn without getting slapped!” said Murray.
The eight contestants, who know nothing about each other’s lives, will come from a variety of working backgrounds, with wage packets ranging from £10,000 to £100,000.
Five’s deputy commissioning editor of features and entertainment, Alex Menzies, said: “We’re all intrigued by the incomes of others, and equally you just can’t help but have an opinion when it comes to what a stranger might do for a living or who might earn the big bucks.
“Every game tests whether players are right to judge a book by its cover and it’s this compelling twist, the life-changing cash prize and the general knowledge element which make Payday such an exciting format for Five.”
Television quiz shows earn big money for broadcasters, but recently publicised cases of phone-in irregularities and uncounted interactive votes have damaged viewers trust in the format.
GMTV has been involved in the scandal (see GMTV Claims It Had No Idea Of Apparent Phone-In Problems), as have programmes like BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen, ITV1’s The X Factor (see ITV Joins Vote Scandal List For X Factor Overcharging), and Five’s existing quiz formats Brainteaser and Quiz Call (see Breach Of Broadcast Code Adds To Phone-In Scandal).
Icstis, the premium rate phone lines regulator, recently introduced tough new rules for television quiz shows which include insisting on better pricing information and greater transparency about how likely calls are to get through (see Icstis Gets Tough With New TV Quiz Rules).
Meanwhile, communications regulator Ofcom is conducting its own review of premium rate phone-ins and interactive services after receiving complaints about 23 different programmes (see Ofcom Announces Phone-In Investigation).
Payday will move in to the timeslot currently occupied by Friends spin-off Joey, which has of late performed poorly for the station (see Good Weather Melts Sunday Viewing), with Friday’s viewing figures showing the programme to have had an average adult audience of less than 250,000 (a 1.6% share).
Five: 020 7550 5555 www.five.tv