The Weakest Link: Encyclopedia II - The Weakest Link - Format

The Weakest Link - Format

The Weakest Link - Overview

The original format featured a "team" of nine contestants who take turns answering general knowledge questions. The object of each round is to answer a "chain" of consecutive correct answers to earn an increasing amount for a single communal pot of up to ten thousand pounds. However, just one incorrect answer wipes out any money earned in that chain. Before their question is asked, a contestant may say "bank" and the money earned thus far is safely stored, however a new chain is initiated from scratch. It is advantageous but risky to not say bank, as each successive correct answer earns proportionally more money.

The Weakest Link - Detail

At the end of each round, contestants must vote off one player whom they consider to be "The Weakest Link": the one they believe wasted the most time, failed to bank judiciously or gave too many wrong answers. Until the beginning of the next round, only the television audience knows (via an announcer's narration) exactly who the "strongest link" and "weakest link" are statistically. While the contestants work as a team, they are encouraged at this point to be ruthless to each other. Voting presents somewhat of a tactical challenge for canny players seeking to maximise their chances of winning, and maximising the payoffs if they do. Voting off weaker players is likely to increase the payoff for the winner, but stronger players may be more difficult to beat in a playoff.

Some players may consider incorrectly answering some questions so as not to appear so much of a threat — however, such a strategy is risky. One study suggested that the optimal percentage of questions to answer correctly is 60%. If you do worse, you risk being voted off for being too weak; if you do better, you are perceived as a threat in the final showdown. Mathematical analysis of the expected payoffs provided by various banking strategies suggest that the optimum strategies are to either attempt to go for the highest payoff, or bank after every question. Few teams adopt either — most choose to bank after three or four questions.

The Weakest Link - Final

At the end of the show, only two contestants remain for a final showdown. Only the winner leaves with the accumulated prize money — everyone else leaves with nothing. In special "celebrity editions," however, the losers leave with only a minimal sum of money donated in his/her name to his/her charity.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Format", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki