Golden Balls
- This article is about the British game show. Golden Balls is also an informal nickname for English footballer David Beckham, and an alternative name for the movie Huevos de oro.
| Golden Balls | |
|---|---|
| File:GoldenBallsITV.jpg Golden Balls titles | |
| Presented by | Jasper Carrott |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 49 (shown), 100 (total). Series 1: 40, Series 2: 60. |
| Production | |
| Producer | Endemol |
| Running time | 60 minutes (including adverts) |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV |
| Release | 18 June, 2007 – Present |
Golden Balls is a British daytime game show on the ITV Network, presented by Jasper Carrott. It is filmed at the BBC Television Centre.
Gameplay
Round 1
At the back of the studio is the "Golden Bank", a giant contraption like a Bingo machine. Inside it are 100 golden balls containing cash values ranging from £10 to £75,000.[1] 12 of these balls are randomly drawn from the machine and 4 "Killer" balls are added by Amanda Grant, the "Balls Assistant". These 16 balls are split equally and randomly among four players, who place 2 balls on their front row and 2 on their back row. The balls on the front row are visible to all players, with the back balls being secret to their owner.
The contestants in turn announce the contents of the balls on their back row. After each contestant has done this, they discuss who they think is lying; and try to establish who has the dirtiest set of balls, either in terms of having the lowest amount of money or the least washes per week.
The players then secretly vote for which of them they would like to leave the game. In the case of a tie, players must try to reach a consensus in open discussion. If this does not occur, who is eliminated is decided at random. This is decided by giving each player involved in the tie another Golden Ball, one being a killer and the rest empty. The player who had the Killer Ball is eliminated. at the end of the round, each player reveals the contents of their back row, and the eliminated players balls are "binned," namely they are out of the game for good.
Round 2
The remaining players' balls are put back into the ball machine, along with two more cash balls chosen at random from the golden bank, as well as one more killer ball, leaving 15 balls in play. These 15 balls are split among the remaining three players randomly and equally, with 2 balls on the front row, and 3 on the back row.
As with Round 1, players reveal the contents of the ball on the front row, and must announce what is on their back row. Players then discuss the veracity of the others' claims and vote another player off in the same fashion as in Round 1.
Bin or Win
The two players' balls are again put back into the ball machine and one more Killer ball is added, leaving 11 balls in play. The two players sit at a desk with the 11 balls between them. In turn, starting with the player who brought the most money into the final, the players pick a ball to 'bin' (eliminate from the game) and pick a ball to 'win'. If a cash ball is picked to be won, then the amount of the ball is added to the jackpot. If a Killer ball is 'won', then the accumulative value of the jackpot is divided by 10. This process is repeated five times.
Split or Steal
After 5 balls have been won, the players have one last decision to make over the final jackpot total. They are each presented with two balls. One has "Split" printed inside it, and the other has "Steal" printed inside it.
- If both players pick the "Split" ball, the jackpot is split equally between them.
- If one player "Splits" and the other "Steals", the Stealer gets all the money.
- If both players pick the "Steal" ball, they both leave empty-handed.
This is similar to the Prisoner's Dilemma, a well-studied problem in Game Theory. The 'Split or Steal' element of Golden Balls is subtly different for two reasons. Firstly, the prisoner's dilemma proper is not a zero-sum game, secondly, it has rules such that regardless of the opponent's choice, the agent is always better off defecting. In the 'Split or Steal' game, choosing to steal will only improve the player's personal winnings if the other player has chosen to split. This difference causes the game to be only a weak Nash Equilibrium. The 'Split or Steal' game element was also used on Shafted, a previous Endemol production, and in the USA game show network game 'Friend or Foe'.
List of Ball Values
At the beginning of each game, we are told that there are 100 balls in the Golden Bank. Below are the seventy-six cash values seen at least once during the first run of forty shows and the first few shows in the second series.
£10, £20, £25, £30, £40, £50, £60, £70, £75, £80, £90, £100, £125, £150, £175, £200, £250, £300, £350, £400, £450, £500, £550, £600, £650, £700, £750, £800, £850, £900, £950, £1,000, £1,100, £1,200, £1,250, £1,300, £1,400, £1,500, £1,600, £1,700, £1,800, £2,000, £2,500, £3,000, £4,000, £5,000, £5,500, £6,000, £6,500, £7,000, £7,500, £8,000, £8,500, £9,000, £9,500, £10,000, £11,000, £12,000, £13,000, £14,000, £15,000, £16,000, £17,000, £18,000, £19,000, £20,000, £25,000, £30,000, £33,000, £35,000, £40,000, £50,000, £55,000, £60,000, £65,000, £75,000
The following twenty-three amounts were observed in more than one ball on a particular programme (giving a total of ninety-nine known balls): £100, £150, £175, £200, £250, £300, £400, £500, £700, £1,000, £1,200, £1,500, £1,600, £1,800, £2,000, £2,500, £4,000, £5,000, £8,000, £9,000, £14,000, £15,000, £20,000
Amounts that can be expected
£1,750, £1,900, £3,500, £4,500, £45,000, £70,000
In the unaired pilot, the highest valued ball was £200,000, and £100,000 was also present.[2]
Popularity
The first show opened with 1.6 million viewers and continued to climb to a steady 2 million.[2] In the same timeslot, eight of the first 11 episodes beat Channel 4's Richard & Judy, and Weakest Link on BBC Two also took a dent from the show's success.[3]
The 60 episodes of series 2 of Golden Balls were filmed between September 18, 2007 and November 16, 2007. The series began airing on January 2, 2008.
Series 2 is getting ratings of around 2.1 million.
Records
The biggest amount won in the first series was £61,060, when contestant Helen stole all the cash from final opponent Sam having taken through a record £164,500 potential jackpot (broadcast August 6, 2007).
The smallest non-zero win was £3 (stolen by Robbie on the episode broadcast July 12, 2007).
References
- ^ "Jasper Carrott to present Golden Balls". EndemolUK.com. 22 March, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b "Golden Balls - UKGameshows", UKGameshows.co.uk
- ^ "ITV Strikes Teatime Gold". MediaGuardian.co.uk. 3 July, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)
External links
- Golden Balls at itv.com
- Golden Balls at crashthatch.com
