''Golden Balls'' was a British daytime
game show
A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or Let's Play, demonstrative and are typically directed b ...
that was presented by
Jasper Carrott. It was broadcast on the
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
network from 18 June 2007 to 18 December 2009.
Gameplay
Round 1
At the back of the studio is the "Golden Bank," a giant contraption like a
lottery
A lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of ...
machine. Inside are 100 golden balls, containing cash values that range from £10 to £75,000. Twelve of these balls are randomly drawn from the Golden Bank and put into a mixer, and four "Killer" balls are added by Amanda Grant, referred to by Carrott as the "Balls' Assistant" or "Killer Queen." These 16 balls are split equally and randomly among four contestants, each of whom places two balls on their own front and back row holders without looking inside. As Carrott introduces the contestants, they open their front-row balls for all to see.
Following the introductions, the contestants each secretly look at their own back-row balls and announce the contents; they may either tell the truth or lie as they see fit. They then discuss who they think is lying and try to establish who has the worst set of balls, in terms of the lowest total value and/or the most Killer balls. Each contestant secretly casts one vote as to whom they want to remove from the game. The contestant who receives the most votes is eliminated with no winnings. In the event of a two-way tie, the contestants not involved in it must discuss further and try to reach a consensus. If they do, the chosen contestant is eliminated; if not, each tied contestant is given one more ball at random, dispensed from the mixer. One is a Killer, the other is empty, and the person who receives the Killer is out of the game. If every contestant receives one vote, all four continue their discussion; the first three to reach an agreement on who should be eliminated advance to the next round.
All four contestants reveal their back-row balls, and the eliminated contestant must then "bin" their balls, dropping them down a chute and removing them permanently from play.
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Round 2
The remaining balls from the three surviving contestants are closed and put into the mixer. Two more cash balls are drawn from the Golden Bank, and one more Killer is added to give a total of 15 balls in play. Each contestant receives five balls, placing two on their front row and three on their back, and play proceeds as in Round 1.
Bin or Win?
The two remaining contestants' balls are again closed and put back into the mixer, and one more Killer ball is added to give a total of 11 balls in play. The balls are mixed and placed on a table, with the contestants seated at opposite ends. Starting with the contestant who brought more money into this round, each first chooses one ball to "bin" (eliminate) and then one to "win" (place in the jackpot). Each ball is opened as it is chosen. If a cash ball is chosen to win, its value is added to the potential jackpot; if a Killer is chosen, the jackpot is immediately divided by 10. Any "win" Killers that are found before the first "win" cash ball do not affect the jackpot. The contestants take turns choosing until they have five "win" balls, after which the one remaining ball is opened and binned.
Depending on the distribution of the balls in the first two rounds, the number of Killers in play at the start of this round can range from one to six.
Split or Steal?
Each contestant is given a set of two balls, one each marked "Split" and "Steal," and must secretly choose one to indicate their intentions after looking inside to confirm which is which. The contestants may speak to each other and ask Carrott for advice before making their decision.
*If both choose Split, they each receive half the jackpot.
*If one chooses Steal and the other chooses Split, the Steal contestant wins the entire jackpot and the Split contestant leaves with nothing.
*If both choose Steal, neither contestant wins any money.
Transmissions
Scientific research
Golden Balls has attracted attention from social scientists as a natural experiment on cooperation.
A team of economists including
Richard Thaler have analysed the decisions of the final contestants and found, among other things, the following:
* Individual players on average choose split (to cooperate) 53 percent of the time.
* Contestants' propensity to cooperate is surprisingly high for amounts that would normally be considered consequential but look tiny in their current context, what the authors label a "big peanuts" phenomenon.
* Contestants are less likely to cooperate if their opponent has tried to vote them off the show in the first two rounds of the game, which is in line with the notion that people have an intrinsic preference for reciprocity.
* There is little evidence that contestants' propensity to cooperate depends positively on the likelihood that their opponent will cooperate (i.e., they find little evidence for conditional cooperation).
* Young males are less cooperative than young females, but this gender effect reverses for older contestants since men become increasingly more cooperative as their age increases.
* Contestants that promised to split were more likely to split.
Two evolutionary biologists, including
Stuart West
Stuart West is an evolutionary biologist studying social evolution as a Professor of Evolutionary Biology in the Zoology Department at the University of Oxford.
His primary research interests are in the area of social evolution, sex allocation th ...
, have also analysed the correlates of decisions of the final contestants and found similar results. In addition, they also found the following:
* Contestants were less likely to split when their partner had previously lied about the value of their cash balls, but not to hide their killer balls.
* Contestants that initiated laughter were more likely to split.
* In contrast, contestants that initiated physical contact were less likely to split, and being touched was also correlated with being less likely to split.
Another study focuses on whether it is possible to predict the behavior of contestants by carefully analyzing what they say. They find that contestants who make statements that carry an element of conditionality ("I will split if you split") or implicitness ("I want to split", "I came here to split") are less likely to cooperate than contestants who make more explicit promises ("I will split").
Reception
The first show opened with 1.6 million viewers. Viewership climbed to a steady 2 million viewers. In the same 17:00 timeslot, eight of the first eleven episodes beat
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
's ''
Richard & Judy
''Richard & Judy'' (also known as ''Richard & Judy's New Position'') is a British television chat show presented by the married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. The show originally aired on Channel 4 from 26 November 2001 to 22 Augus ...
'', and ''
The Weakest Link
''Weakest Link'' (also known as ''The Weakest Link'') is a television game show which The Weakest Link (British game show), first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and originally ended on 31 March 2012 when its host ...
'' on
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
also took a dent from the show's success. Series 2 went on to average 2.1 million viewers in early 2008. As of summer 2009, the show's popularity fell; it attracted only around 1.2 million viewers, which led to the show's termination on 18 December 2009. It is still regularly shown throughout the week on
Challenge
Challenge may refer to:
* Voter challenging or caging, a method of challenging the registration status of voters
* Euphemism for disability
* Peremptory challenge, a dismissal of potential jurors from jury duty
Places
Geography
*Challenge, C ...
in the UK and Republic of Ireland although usually during off-peak times. It is now also showing on
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
again but usually after midnight.
[
British ]psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...
Adrian Raine
Adrian Raine (born 27 January 1954) is a British psychologist. He currently holds the chair of Richard Perry University Professor of Criminology & Psychiatry in the Department of Criminology of the School of Arts and Sciences and in the Departmen ...
criticised the show, arguing that it "encourages deceitfulness", and that many of its contestants are celebrated for displaying "characteristics of psychopathy
Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is characterized by persistent Anti-social behaviour, antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and Boldness, bold, Disinhibition, disinhibited, and Egotism, egotistical B ...
". In a review of another ITV quiz show—'' The Colour of Money''—Charlie Brooker criticised ''Golden Balls'' rules, saying that " olden Ballshas more rules and clauses than the European Convention on Human Rights"
Home versions
A video game was released on the Nintendo DS
The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...
and Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...
platforms, and another version for mobile devices was released in 2007. In 2008, an interactive DVD game was released by Channel 4. Other versions include an electronic board game in 2007 and a card game in 2008.
International versions
An Argentine version aired on América Televisión in 2008, hosted by Horacio Cabak.
See also
The "Split or Steal?" game element, essentially a variant of the prisoner's dilemma, has been used in other game shows, including:
* '' Shafted'', a previous Endemol production.
* '' Friend or Foe?'' an American game show.
* '' De Verraders'', a Dutch game show. During the series finale, if both remaining players chose to steal, the last player eliminated before them won the entire jackpot.
* ''The Bank Job
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'', a British game show distributed by Endemol Shine Group
Endemol Shine Group B.V. (stylized in all spaceless) was a Dutch production and distribution company of scripted and non-scripted content, responsible for programmes such as '' Big Brother'', ''Deal or No Deal'', '' The Money Drop'', ''Fear Fac ...
. In the final episode of each series, if the last two remaining players chose "Trash" (the show's equivalent of Steal), the jackpot was divided among the three players who had been eliminated during that episode.
References
External links
*.
''Golden Balls''
Official Endemol UK Site.
''Scientific paper on Golden Balls''
at SSRN.com.
''Golden Balls''
at crashthatch.com.
''Golden Balls Mobile Game''
Official Gameloft UK Site.
"Golden Balls Game Online"
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100226105719/http://www.luckygames.co.uk/golden-balls/ , date=26 February 2010 – Review of where to play Golden Balls Online.
2007 British television series debuts
2009 British television series endings
2000s British game shows
English-language television shows
ITV game shows
Television series by Banijay