Have you got the Balls? (Golden Balls (TV Series))

Member Name: Nic25

Product:	Golden Balls (TV Series)
Date:	25/02/09 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Vaguely entertaining for a while, Jasper can be quite funny

Disadvantages: Mostly just a shouting match

I'm a big game show fan, I love the fact you get an entertainment programme, plus you can sometimes learn something too. There's nothing better than shouting out the answers to the TV feeling slightly superior to the poor contestants because you knew the answer and they didn't! I also love the personal interest factor you gain, as you tend to 'get on the side' with the contestants or a particular contestant, and it becomes really important to you that they win, to beat the big TV programmers - it's nice to see 'the little guy' win.

Unfortunately, Golden Balls gives you none of these things.

Golden Balls is ITV's latest game show offering, in an attempt to make viewers switch over from Channel 4's long-running Countdown.
It is hosted by Jasper Carrott, and features four contestants who fight it out to win the jackpot, or a share of it, at the end of the show.

The show doesn't have questions, and doesn't require any general knowledge skills, but rather has Golden Balls, and requires general lying skills.
Each contestant is given a number of these golden balls, each with a sum of money, or a dreaded 'Killer' inside. They take it in turns to open a couple of the balls each and show everyone what's inside. The aim of the game is to take as much cash to the final as possible, whilst getting rid of all the 'Killer' balls.
After showing what's inside half their balls, the contestants then peek inside the remaining balls, and try to convince the other players what they have inside. The players then vote, and the person they think has the least amount of money/higest amount of Killers is voted off.

Most of the time the show is based on how well the players can lie. It tends to come down to whoever has the highest amounts on the balls that are available for all to see, and the other players beg them to be put through.

To me, the whole thing is a bit desperate, and not altogether entertaining, although it can be vaguely amusing to watch the players who are lying start verbally attacking one another in a desperate attempt to stay in the game!

When it has been whittled down to two players, they go to the final round, each picking balls to 'bin or win' in order to find the total jackpot for the day. If they find a killer ball, this takes a zero from their total, which can seem a bit dramatic - if you're sitting with a total of £20000 and get a zero, the jump down to £2000 is huge!

However, once deciding on the total jackpot - the two contestants in the final have one more decision to make - whether to 'Split or Steal'. This is quite self explanatory - they make the decision by consciously selecting one of these from two remaining golden balls. If the two contestants select 'Split', they share the jackpot 50/50, however, if one picks 'Steal', that contestant steals the full jackpot, leaving the poor guy who picked 'Split' with nothing! And if both select 'Steal', their greed means no one gets anything.

This is seriously the worst part of the show, it is so snide, and undoubtedly a contestant always steals, and then immediately apologises (as they walk away with all the money!) to the poor losing contestant, sitting with nothing.
I think it's the unfairness which gets me on this, I know I'd rather Split and keep my integrity, than sit full of promises to split fairly and then steal at the last minute. In my opinion, I think the person who steals should be penalised, as it seems a bit like rewarding the liar, which I guess is the game, but still, not really giving out a great moral line!

The show is not great. Jasper sounds like a bad chat show host, pushing the contestants to argue with one another, and trying to slip in sarcastic little comments.
Much of the time, the whole thing just turns into a shouting match, with the one shouting loudest winning. The best part in my opinion is the boo-ing from the audience when the amounts in the balls are revealed to show a liar. At least they still know the difference between right and wrong!

Overall? Vaguely entertaining for a while, but it won't have me switching over from Countdown any time soon!

Summary: Not one of my favourite game shows