Ultra Quiz

"Ultra Quiz" was an elimination game show series that was produced by Television South and aired for three series and a total of 24 episodes on the ITV network from 9 July 1983 until 17 August 1985. Each series of eight editions was hosted by a different person: Michael Aspel hosted series 1, David Frost hosted series 2, and Stu Francis hosted the final series. The top prize for the winner at the end of the series was £10,000 in £1 coins. The program is modeled after Japanese Nihon TV's program, "Trans America Ultra Quiz" aired from 1977 until 1992, and 1998.

Rules

At the start of the series 500 contestants start off in the programme but in each episode a number of the contestants would be eliminated and would go home with nothing while the remaining contestants would play on until 8 remained and in the final episode they played in 2 final rounds to whittle the 8 contestants down to 2 there they played in a final head to head round where the winner would get the £10,000 while the other 7 finalists went home with some consolation prizes.

The first series was the most lavish - it featured Michael Aspel in a television studio and Leslie Crowther in various locations around the world, all shot on video.

For the second series, the budget was somewhat less - using film, rather than videotape - it did away with the studio audience format - but still took contestants around the world. David Frost was the sole presenter.

By the third series, the budget was even less - they reverted to videotape again and never left the UK - auditionees for the third series were somewhat disappointed, as the farthest east they went was Kent and the farthest west was Hampshire. This third season was presented by Stu Francis and Sarah Hollamby.