''Pets Win Prizes'' is a

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 ...

, produced by the

British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

and shown on Saturday nights on

BBC 1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

in the United Kingdom from 16 July 1994 to 3 August 1996. It was originally hosted by

Danny Baker Danny Baker (born 22 June 1957) is an English comedy writer, journalist, radio DJ and screenwriter. Throughout his career he has largely presented for London's regional radio and television. Baker was born in Deptford to a working-class fam ...

, but

Dale Winton Dale Jonathan Winton (22 May 1955 – 18 April 2018) was an English radio DJ and television presenter. He presented the shows ''Dale's Supermarket Sweep'' from 1993 until 2001 and again in 2007, the National Lottery game show ''In It to Wi ...

became the host at the start of the second series.

Format

In the first rounds, the owners' pets competed in games of skill and agility - depending on what animal they were, this could vary from

snail A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastro ...

racing to

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

pool. The owner whose pet won each game had to randomly choose between two envelopes, one of which contained a prize for them, and the other a prize for their pet. The final round took the form of a 3-minute quick-fire quiz, where the owners had to answer animal-related trivia questions. For every correct answer, a cardboard representation of their animal moved along a race track; five correct answers were required to reach the end. The first player to the end of the track (or the one with the most correct answers after 3 minutes) was declared the winner. The prize for the final was determined by a

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

known as "The Professor", who would be placed on the centre of a hexagonal board, which was divided into six sections, each of which corresponded to a prize. The owner won the prize from whichever section The Professor's front paws were in after 30 seconds.

Production

The first series of ''Pets Win Prizes'' was presented by

. Baker was dropped from the show at the end of the first series, following a dispute with the BBC. He was replaced by

, who had recently become a popular television personality through hosting the game show ''

Supermarket Sweep ''Supermarket Sweep'' is an American television game show. The format combines an ordinary team-based quiz show with the novel concept of a live, timed race through a supermarket. In the timed race, cameras follow the teams with shopping carts t ...

''.

Reception

The first series of ''Pets Win Prizes'' proved popular with audiences, even if it was heavily criticised by reviewers in the press. One episode in series one had over 7.5 million viewers. James Rampton, writing in ''The Independent'', suggested that "The secret of its success is that it doesn't take itself too seriously".

Transmissions

References

External links

* *{{UKGameshow, Pets_Win_Prizes BBC television game shows 1990s British game shows 1994 British television series debuts 1996 British television series endings Pets in the United Kingdom English-language television shows