Odd One Out

Synopsis

The first of the successful BBC trio of Daniels-hosted game shows. Basic idea was to nominate which of four listed items was the odd one out (for 1 point) and why (for 1 more point).

Thus, inevitable humour came from desperate contestants buzzing in after just the first word was read out. There was more laffs to be had because you could - if you wished - force your opponents to explain the reason for the odd one out if you wanted to.

The two highest scoring players each got a chance to win a prize in the Bonus Game. They'd be given up to three clues and had to spot the connection between them (not unlike 'Connections'). The fewer clues they needed, the better the prize. They then went onto a show-down where the questions revolved around objects, pictures, music clues etc, as well as the words.

The end game was similar to the Bonus Game, except that the contestant was only allowed one clue. In quite a clever twist, he/she had to choose the top, middle or bottom line, and, when the clue was revealed, Paul Daniels would state whether it was the easiest, medium or most difficult clue. Being lucky enough to find the easiest or medium clue usually won the contestant a decent prize (normally a holiday), but finding the hardest clue very rarely, if ever, resulted in success.

There was also a 'returning champion' mechanism, which at first had no limit, but one year, a very bright young lady kept on winning every week for virtually a whole series and clocked up plenty of prizes. After this, for the final series only, the champions were restricted to a maximum of three shows.

Inventor

Thanks to the creator, Mark Maxwell-Smith, for this email:

"In your notes regarding Odd One Out, you mention that the format is similar to a U.S. format titled Knockout. That is because Odd One Out was the BBC version of Knockout. The Beeb licensed the format (via Action Time) from Ralph Edwards Productions. I know this because, I was working for REP when I devised and produced the U.S. format."

Pictures

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