Think you’re an avid TV viewer? Try this quick puzzler

Quiz shows are part of our TV world and always have been. Currently, there’s a bunch of them, almost one for each free-TV channel: The Chase Australia on Seven, Millionaire Hot Seat on Nine, Hard Quiz on the ABC and Mastermind Australia on SBS. SBS also persists with reruns of Letters and Numbers, which it unwisely axed in 2012. Meanwhile, Ten has announced plans to reboot Family Feud – again.

That’s one of the things about quiz shows: they’re durable and malleable. They can be revived, rested and revamped. New host, new set and potentially a new generation of viewers and away they go again. They’re TV’s reliable quiet achievers.

Sometimes, a new one makes a flashy arrival, or an existing format is cleverly resuscitated and the attention gets hotter. That happened in 1999 with the first Australian incarnation of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, which was, even back then, hosted by Eddie McGuire, who was at the time better known as a sports guy. He made his move into the mainstream with a show that became a prime-time sensation.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire winner Paddy Spooner with host Eddie McGuire in 1999.Credit:Nine

The origins of that format are detailed in the three-part drama Quiz (BBC First), which also focuses on the cheating scandal that subsequently engulfed the production. Deftly directed by Stephen Frears and starring Matthew McFadyen, who’s making an intriguing specialty of playing beta-males, it follows the 2001 triumph of Major Charles Ingram and the raising of suspicions that he’d been tipped off to the correct answers.

But before that, it charts the creation of Millionaire in scenes that identify the appeal of quiz shows. ITV was seeking “event” television: blockbusters that could engage the nation. Millionaire became the response to that quest for several reasons, one of them evident in its title. The million pound grand prize was promoted as a “life-changing” jackpot.

And the quiz show’s creator, Paul Smith (played in BBC First’sQuiz by Mark Bonnar, a master at evoking tightly wound nerviness), was excited by what he saw as a foolproof recipe for success, pointing to the popularity of pub quizzes and noting they “combine two of our greatest inventions: drinking and being right”.

Matthew McFadyen and Michael Sheen in the BBC drama Quiz.Credit:BBC First

In Smith’s game, the victor of a speed-test round is propelled into the hot seat to answer a possible 15 questions. Their winnings double as they progress, but they also risk losing it all, so there’s inbuilt tension: quit while you’re ahead, or go for more? The answers are multiple choice, so even those watching who have no clue about the correct response can have a stab. There’s also the option of assistance: phone a friend, ask the audience or use the 50-50, which eliminates two of the four possible answers.

It’s a clever construction and with it came a visual design that also worked to heighten the suspense. No light, bright, welcoming studio set for Millionaire: the contestant sat under a spotlight in a darkened arena, facing the host, as if engaged in verbal combat. As for the sound, no jaunty, upbeat music but pounding, like a thudding heartbeat.

Aside from these innovations, a key element that accounts for the appeal of quiz shows is neatly demonstrated in the scene where Smith pitches his creation to ITV’s program director. Initially, the executive is unconvinced that a humble quiz show could be the kind of attention-grabber he’s after. So Smith invites him to play the game: he tries to answer, fails, and yells out to his underlings for assistance. But it’s clear that he’s quickly hooked: mission accomplished.

Most quiz shows invite viewers to scream answers from their couches; Tom Gleeson (centre) on the set of the irreverent Hard Quiz.Credit:

One of the keys to quiz shows’ appeal is their interactivity. Most invite viewer engagement – that familiar practice of yelling the answers at the telly from the comfort of your couch. Mastermind and Hard Quiz, with their focus on specialist subjects, can be more about marvelling at how much someone knows about Wagner’s Ring Cycle or English kings named George. But today, to make things easier for the folks at home, many of the subjects will be drawn from popular culture rather than, say, science, history, geography or literature. At the very least, someone whose specialty is 14th century poets will compete alongside others whose interests run to SpongeBob SquarePants or the movies of Molly Ringwald.

Earlier this century, there was a fashion for quiz shows that featured a humiliation element, kind of like Survivor, but with mental rather than physical challenges. The Weakest Link put players into a team from which they could eject others whom they perceived to be a liability. Interestingly, while the role of quiz show host had traditionally been a male domain, Weakest Link was hosted here, and in Britain and the US, by a schoolmarmish woman who would sternly deliver the trademark pronouncement, “You are the weakest link, goodbye”, to the unfortunate loser. Now comes the news that NBC in the US plans to revive Weakest Link with Jane Lynch as the host.

In the realm of quiz shows, formats may come and go, but they never really die.