Shafted

"Shafted" was a British quiz show on ITV, presented by Robert Kilroy-Silk. It was a quiz show that had a slight resemblance to "The Weakest Link", as it was based on answering questions and eliminating fellow contestants. It very closely resembles the current ITV game show "Golden Balls" presented by "Jasper Carrott".

The quiz begins with six players. In the first round, they each must declare how much money (up to £25,000) they would like. This is important as you need a large amount of money to bet on the questions during the show. The person who asked for the biggest amount of money is removed from the show before they answer a single question.

Then, the remaining five contestants answer incomplete questions that they must bet on. After all players have placed their bets, the question is completed and whoever staked the most money can answer it. If their answer is correct, then they get the money they bet added onto their score and if they answer incorrectly, then the money is taken away. After a certain number of questions (equal to one for every player still in the game), the person with the most money decides who they want to remove from the game. Then after the contestant is voted out, all the contestants are given the same amount of money as the leader and the process continues until there are two contestants left.

The final round takes the form of a type of Prisoner's Dilemma. The two remaining players stand opposite each other behind podia. They are playing for the amount of money the leading player ended the main game with. Then each of the players is asked if they wish to "share" or to "shaft". This is how it works: Suppose they were playing for £150,000. If both players decided to shaft, then both players will walk away empty-handed. If one decided to share and the other decided to shaft, then the person who shafted wins all the money, while if they both decided to share, they split the money and would each get £75,000 in this case.

Kilroy-Silk's actions on the show were frequently mocked on "Have I Got News for You" in late 2004, particularly his delivery of the show's tag-line, "Their fate will be in each other's hands as they decide whether to share or to shaft", and the associated hand actions. During several episodes, a clip of this was inserted into the show at some point.

The show was dropped soon after it started in 2001, after only four episodes, and was listed as the worst British television show of the 2000s in the "Penguin TV Companion" (2006). [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/24/ucomedy.xml "Racist stereotypes 'make the worst TV'"] by Ben Quinn for "Telegraph.co.uk"]

An Australian version of the show starring Red Symons ran from February to April 2002 on the Nine Network. If, in the final round of this version, one contestant decided to shaft while the other contestant decided to share, the person who shafted would not only win all of the cash, but would get to play in the next game with the title of "Master Shafter". When the series started, the other contestants knew who the master shafter was, and that person was regularly eliminated first. In an attempt to make the game more exciting, and to give the master shafter a reasonable chance to win more than once, this was later changed so that the master shafter was not revealed to the other contestants until the very end of the show. The show was suspended in April 2002 due to very bad ratings. Only one time in the show, two contestants chose to share and won a lot of money. They hugged in the end unlike other situations.

Also in the Australian version, contestants can bid up to $500 where the contestant who makes the highest bid gets eliminated in the first round. From round two onwards, the current player with the highest amount picks one of the four topics where a set of questions are given out for the contestants to answer. Before this could happen, contestants must make a bid as to how much money they are willing to risk for every question they get correct. If two or more pick the same bid, the one who locked their bid the fastest will get it and the next contestants bid will be $5 less to avoid two or more players having the same bid. During the set of questions, contestants buzz in for a chance to answer and win or lose their bidding amount for every question they answer correctly or not. After this, half of a question is read for the contestants where they must bid an amount to have the right of answering the question. The highest bidder gets a chance to answer it with the second half of that question revealed. After this, the contestant with the highest score has the right to eliminate another contestant. That eliminated contestant has thirty seconds to persuade that contestant to stay in the game. (One time a contestant didn't bother and wanted to be eliminated.) Then the contestant must decide whether to stick with their decision or change their mind, if they change their mind, that contestant is eliminated and gets no say to save themselves. At the end of the round, all contestants have the same amount equal to the leader.

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