Get your egghead around this! (Egg Heads)

Member Name: MisterReview

Product:	Egg Heads
Date:	28/07/09 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The questions are hard, but not too much

Disadvantages: none

I love quiz shows! I seem to think they might keep my brain a little active. University Challenge, The Weakest Link, Fifteen-to One, and do you remember Blockbusters. Yes indeed all this sort of stuff, keeps my brain a little sharp for at least half an hour.

What I can't stand are 'guessing games'. Take for example that absolute drivel that passes for television called Deal or No Deal. To cap it all it is hosted by that arrogant Noel Edmonds, he of Mr Blobby fame and Swap Shop, although I will let him off for Swap Shop I actually thought I liked that as a child.

Another guessing game I cannot stand is "Who wants to be a Millionaire". This program was great when it first started as the format was new and exciting and, if I recall correctly, not many TV companies were giving away £1,000,000 - this all added to the excitement.

And here we have yet another guessing game in Eggheads. Eggheads is a quiz show/guessing game with two teams battling it out between each other. There will be team made up of members of the public, typically friends who belong to a quiz team of some sort, and the resident team, 'The Eggheads' namely:

Kevin Ashman
CJ de Mooi
Daphne Fowler
Christopher Hughes
Judith Keppel
Barry Simmons

The teams are five each. The original team consisted of the first five named member - Barry Simmons is a later addition, and the six people rotate. The Eggheads have all been winners of some other quiz show such as Mastermind, Going for Gold and more famously Judith Keppel for being the first winner of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

Essentially the challenging team win a cash prize in terms of £1000s should they beat the eggheads. If the Eggheads are unbeaten and keep their reputation intact, the money rolls over for the chance of a fresh team to win the next day.

The show is played in five rounds four of these are on a specific subject, such as sport or say, art and books: the final round is a general knowledge round. In the first four rounds the Challengers are given a category and must choose a team member to compete against an Egghead of their choosing. They are isolated so there can be no conferring. Three multiple choice questions are asked of each player - hence the sometimes guessing involved. Should there be a draw, there will be a sudden death round, with no multiple choice.

The winner of the round is considered safe and can enter into the General Knowledge head to head at the end of the game.

I like eggheads. Yet I have said earlier that I don't like guessing games. Well I can't put my finger on why this is. Looking at Noel Edmonds drivel, it is easy to see why I dislike that. There is no skill or knowledge involved. '...Millionaire', although you can challenge yourself to an educated guess, I think the format now grated on me.

So what is it I enjoy about the guessing game that is Eggheads. I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it is the more sedate, less over-produced format that I enjoy. Maybe I like the banter between the resident team-mates - they are a bunch of characters. Judith is so up herself you've got to love her. Kevin is solid, and as dour as his schoolchum Jack Dee, though more blandly interesting, but less funny. Daphne is your loveable aunty who always has a gem of knowledge to pass on. C.J. is loveably camp, say no more. Chris, is a little too cocksure and is always making a fool of himself, so entertaining. What I have seen of Barry is, he is the geeky one you get in a crowd of mates, that you put up with because he is kind.

Yes that is the key. Good, entertaining characters!

Summary: Will keep your brain sharp and entertain you