The Weakest Link is the Rude Presenter. (The Weakest Link)

Member Name: Vivien

Product:	The Weakest Link
Date:	16/08/00 (79 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: sensible questions

Disadvantages: The very Rude Anne Robinson

The weakest link is a new early evening quiz hosted by Anne Robinson and broadcast daily on BBC2.
The contestants play as a team and vote out the person who they think is the weakest contestant, until there are only two people left. They then have a penalty style shootout of 5 final questions each, and the winner takes all the cash accumulated throughout the quiz. Through out the quiz we are kept informed of who the strongest and weakest players really are, and as they are eliminated we get to here their afterthoughts.
This quiz seems to be the BBC?s attempt to compete with the very successful 15 - 1, and Countdown on Channel 4 , and is similar in studio design to 15-1. Anne Robinson stands in the middle of an arc of contestants firing questions at them in turn.

What is most strange about this quiz is the unusual style and mannerisms of the presenter. At best Anne Robinson could be described as being very rude to the contestants, and comes across as a mixture of the most hated teacher from your school days, the demon headmaster and a drill happy dentist. She never smiles or laughs and is the complete opposite of the smarmy, over confident, glittery dressed presenters of American styled game shows. Her role seems to include belittling all the players and making them as uncomfortable as possible. Nearer the end of the quiz Anne trys to build up the tension by leaving large pauses.(ChrisTarrant style)
Whatever the producers are thinking of in the style adapted by Anne in my opinion has and will continue to backfire.
The best aspect of this Quiz is the standard of the questions, harder than most quiz shows but not quite up there with 15 - 1.

Summary: