Fruit Machine Chat

The makers 12 Yard have opened applications.

I reckon a team from on here would run them extremely close.

The questions on the application form would suggest they're quite picky about taking on teams they think would destroy the Eggheads.

Indeed they are.....which is why you quite often get teams of numpties taking them on! Can anyone beat these eggheads? Yes, but they aren't allowed!

Mattb wrote:Indeed they are.....which is why you quite often get teams of numpties taking them on! Can anyone beat these eggheads? Yes, but they aren't allowed!

Come on, now. Jade Goody's team ran the Eggheads reaallly close

echoes wrote:The questions on the application form would suggest they're quite picky about taking on teams they think would destroy the Eggheads.

Lie then!

The application form isn't the main problem; it's the audition stage when (as ever with these shows) it is entirely down to the production company whom they chose. As they never have to justify their choices to anyone, all the usual rules of 'fair play' don't apply - if they decide they need a series full of women contestants to balance things up from the norm, they can do that.

Similarly they can control the contestants on Eggheads to ensure that the Eggheads virtually always win, although to be fair at least one of them (Kevin) is as strong a quizzer as you could hope to meet and with him alone in their team they would be always be difficult to beat. I'm not sure whether Kevin ever plays the machines but the skills you need for those aren't really a factor in Eggheads anyway.

I would encourage any of you that can put a reasonable team together to have a go - after all, if you were lucky enough to get on the show and win, the chances are you would each win more than 100 nights playing the machines!

I remember in the early episodes there would be a winner every 10-15 shows or so. And Dermot would say something like " thats one in a row for the eggheads, can anyone beat them".

So they must have thought this is silly and so wanted to make the wins less frequent. But instead strengthening the team they decided to weaken the opposition.

I say get rid of CJ and Judith and invite real quiz teams on the show. Only then will Eggheads become creditable enough to start watching again. And get rid of Dermot Murnaghan, he's rubbish.

As everyone knows Kevin is a bit of a quiz legend and he must know the opponents are hand picked. So does this make him a sell out?

dangerous wrote:As everyone knows Kevin is a bit of a quiz legend and he must know the opponents are hand picked. So does this make him a sell out?

It pays his mortgage and so on and enables him to devote more time to the more serious quizzes in which he does so well (and for which there is no monetary reward) so I would count that a pretty good deal, but I suspect privately he sometimes wishes for a better standard of opposition.

Indeed, I'd sware you can hear Kevin tut when in the final round the Opposition have just been asked about some 18th Century Poet that they have almost no chance of getting, then Dermot turns to the Eggheads and asks "In 2005 which..."

Just a quick note to say that as someone who's twice been in teams turned down for Eggheads, the production team do indeed wield a pretty sharp scalpel on any teams they think might beat Ashman et al. Not only do they prevent such teams from qualifying in the first place, but they also make each selected team pick six team members, with one to act as reserve. The producers choose that reserve, and - surprise, surprise - it's generally the strongest player. All of this is incredibly irritating but also incredibly needless because, as Nil Satis observes, the Eggheads have the players to beat the overwhelming majority of teams the overwhelming majority of the time, even allowing for the advantage of player selection that the contenders always have.

I know Kevin a bit and whilst I've never discussed this with him, I'd doubt he's particularly happy with the team selection on the show. He's a very fair guy who would, I am sure, like to test his mettle every now and then against better teams even if that carried the risk of losing some cash.

All that said, sometimes they do let better teams on, so if people from here want to go for it they should. Just don't get too excited about the prospect of getting selected!

perhaps grecian you might know why kevin ashman with his immense knowledge doesnt play quiz machines. Went into his local , the king alfred in winchester not that long ago and dropped quite a bit of money. also 84-90 i worked for winchester city council - does/did he as that would be a coincidence. with respect to myself i dont do pub quizzes as they are often laced with wrong answers/stupid questions/winnings often small/ realistically you have to be part of a team and im not a team player/ cheating and are strung out to maximise revenue for publican!

cool wrote:perhaps grecian you might know why kevin ashman with his immense knowledge doesnt play quiz machines. Went into his local , the king alfred in winchester not that long ago and dropped quite a bit of money. also 84-90 i worked for winchester city council - does/did he as that would be a coincidence. with respect to myself i dont do pub quizzes as they are often laced with wrong answers/stupid questions/winnings often small/ realistically you have to be part of a team and im not a team player/ cheating and are strung out to maximise revenue for publican!

It's a good question Cool and the answer is I'm not sure, although you're quite right to say he doesn't. That's the same with a number of the other top quiz players in the country. I'm not sure why but I wonder if it's simply that they never got into playing them in the first place and don't wish to spend the money to learn them from scratch now (even with a lot of basic knowledge, a lot of SWP skill comes from remembering questions from past experience). I don't think Kevin is at all the gambling type and he may just instinctively shy away from anything he doesn't see as a really solid investment. I suspect also that a lot of "top" quizzers may be a bit sniffy about SWPs for similar reasons to why you don't like pub quizzes - wrong answers, stupid questions etc.! I guess it's horses for courses.

As I say I don't know Kevin *that* well but I don't think he's ever worked for Winchester council - AFAIK he worked in London for the Civil Service until he was given the role as 'Jorkins' on Brain of Britain.
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