Quiz Call
Synopsis
Yet another premium-rate puzzle phone-in channel. What have we done to deserve this?
This was originally set up and run by a subsidary of Channel 4, but they sold it in 2006 just before the winds of change blew through the participation TV market. Channel 4 boss Kevin Lygo later said: "It looks like a marvellous judgement call, doesn't it?"
Though the vast majority of channels and programmes like this closed during 2007, Quiz Call was picked by the fickle finger of fate to survive. By 2008, the show was broadcasting for about eight hours per week on Channel 5.
Trivia
Two Quiz Call programmes were found guilty of breaching Ofcom's broadcasting code in March 2007. A Channel 4 programme featuring a game requiring very difficult mathematics was described as "easy" by the presenter. Another game, this time broadcast on five, was rapped when the category was "Things in Australia" and the on-screen clue was "Alice *******". The answer turned out to be "Alice Springs Camel Cup" which no viewer got correct. Ofcom said that the correct answer was "almost impossible" for callers to have considered.
See also
9Live review from Weaver's Week for a general idea of how channels like this work. (In fact, this one is run by the same people).
