''Quiz Call'' was a late night/early morning phone-in quiz TV show, produced by

Ostrich Media Ostrich Media is a United Kingdom (UK) company, created in 2005 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Channel Four Television Corporation#4Ventures, 4Ventures Limited (the commercial subsidiary of the public-service commercial broadcaster Channel 4, Chan ...

(owned by iTouch) for

Five 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awa ...

Five US 5USA is a British free-to-air television channel. It is owned by Paramount Networks UK & Australia and is a sister channel of Channel 5 (UK), Channel 5, 5Action, 5Star and 5Select. It was launched on 16 October 2006 as Five US and was the secon ...

and

Five Life 5Star (stylized as 5STAR) is a British free-to-air television channel owned by Paramount Networks UK & Australia and a sister channel of Channel 5. It originally launched as the female-orientated Five Life on 15 October 2006, and was relaunc ...

History

Launch

''Quiz Call'' was launched as a standalone participation television channel in August 2005 on the

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

and

NTL NTL may refer to: Companies * NTL Incorporated and NTL Internet, later Virgin Media, communications media company ** NTL Ireland, later Virgin Media Ireland * Arqiva, UK company formerly ''NTL Broadcast'' and ''National Transcommunications L ...

platforms, and launched on the Sky Digital platform shortly afterwards. The show encourages viewers to enter by calling a

premium-rate telephone number Premium-rate telephone numbers are telephone numbers that charge callers higher price rates for select services, including information and entertainment. A portion of the call fees is paid to the service provider, allowing premium calls to be an ...

or for free via their website. On 22 April 2006, the channel made its début on analogue terrestrial television when it aired overnight on Five. In June 2006, ''Quiz Call'' had a slight revamp. They replaced half of the original set with a purple and gold themed set. This set was used mainly as their set for use when broadcasting on Five. The graphics also changed at this time. On 6 August 2006, ''Quiz Call'' gave viewers a unique opportunity to win a brand-new car. Callers who got through to the studio had their name put into a bowl and at the end of the broadcast the person who was selected was called back live on air to answer a question. The car was won by Tracy from

Newquay Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...

. On 1 September 2006, ''Quiz Call'' celebrated its first birthday with a 41 Hour Marathon Live Broadcast giving viewers the chance to play for a

jackpot Jackpot or Jackpot! may refer to: * A prize, such as a progressive jackpot * Gardena jackpots, a poker variant * Jackpot, Nevada, a community on the Nevada–Idaho state border Comics * Jackpot (comics), several comic book characters * ''Jack ...

of £100,000 by guessing a 4-digit combination.

Sale

On 19 October 2006,

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 ...

announced they would be selling Ostrich Media and announced the sale of Ostrich Media to iTouch Media on 3 November 2006. The sale included the ''Quiz Call'' channel, its slots on NTL and digital satellite, as well as the company's back room technology including its customer relations management capability. The deal did not however, include the slot on Freeview, and since 15 November 2006, Channel 4 used the space to broadcast

Film4 Film4 is a British free-to-air television network owned by Channel Four Television Corporation launched on 1 November 1998, devoted to broadcasting films. While its standard-definition channel is available on Freeview and Freesat platforms, it ...

+1, and subsequently

+1. The loss of the slot on Freeview had reduced the broadcasting hours from 12:00 – 03:00 to 19:00 – 01:00. During this time, the channel maintained a position on Freeview as it was shown on Ftn, between 22:00 and 01:00. This agreement ended on 1 January 2007.

Sky EPG slot closure

''Quiz Call'' withdrew from the Sky EPG on 1 January 2007. Viewers were at first greeted by a caption stating ''Quiz Call will be back in mid-January'' this was then replaced by a test card with the ''Quiz Call'' logo and information stating that ''The service has now ceased''. The channel was removed from the EPG soon afterwards.

Return as Five show

Subsequently, in 2007, Ostrich Media was commissioned by

to produce a run of ''Quiz Call'' to broadcast as a programme within the late night/early morning slot on the channel and sister channel

Five USA 5USA is a British free-to-air television channel. It is owned by Paramount Networks UK & Australia and is a sister channel of Channel 5, 5Action, 5Star and 5Select. It was launched on 16 October 2006 as Five US and was the second digital terr ...

. This arrangement saw Five – which had trialled a run of ''Quiz Call'' before switching to ''The Great Big British Quiz'' in 2006 – drop ''TGBBQ'' and revert to using ''Quiz Call'' as their late night quiz provider. On a number of occasions in 2008, ''Quiz Call'' has switched from Five to Five US because of live sport being shown on Five. The cash amounts decreased enormously from sometimes the highest cash amount being £2,000 and then dropped to £500.

Removal of the show

On Thursday 10 September, presenter

Liz Fuller Elizabeth Angela Fuller (born 30 December 1975) is a Welsh television presenter, actress, model and media personality, who is also known for being Miss Great Britain 1996 – 97. Fuller is the former owner of the Miss Great Britain pageant from ...

announced that Quiz Call would end on Five on Saturday 12 September 2009 after 3 years on Channel 5. The decision to end ''Quiz Call'' came after Five signed a deal with NetPlay TV to broadcast

Live Roulette Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film *'' ''Live'' (Apocalyptica DVD) Music *Live (band), American alternative rock band * List of albums ...

on Five three nights a week; these broadcasts, which were made possible due to the relaxation of the rules regarding such broadcasts on UK terrestrial TV, replaced ''Quiz Call'' in the schedule. The official ''Quiz Call'' website states that the show intends to return at an unspecified point in the future. The show may return as a standard

channel. The Quiz Call website has been taken off the Internet but there is still the possibility of the show returning in the Future.

Show format

A grid or table of money amounts is shown on screen. Behind each amount lies an answer to the main question. The main question is normally given in a clue word with associated answer. For example, Films 'M', Black____ or Things That Are Red. A possible 10 – 18 answers are available with numerous outcomes but only the answers on the grid/table are correct. The top prize answers worth £1,000, £2,000 and £3,000 were generally difficult but not totally unheard of (such as

Marge Simpson Marjorie Jacqueline "Marge" Simpson () is a character in the American animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' and part of the Simpson family, eponymous family. Voiced by Julie Kavner, she first appeared on television in ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' shor ...

's necklace, The

headlights A headlamp is a lamp attached to the front of a vehicle to illuminate the road ahead. Headlamps are also often called headlights, but in the most precise usage, ''headlamp'' is the term for the device itself and ''headlight'' is the term for ...

on the 'KITT' car from

Knight Rider ''Knight Rider'' is an American entertainment franchise created by Glen A. Larson. The core of ''Knight Rider'' is its three television series: the original ''Knight Rider'' (1982–1986) and sequel series ''Team Knight Rider'' (1997–1998) ...

or the seats in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

– other answers were easier and would be fairly well known such as 'a

postbox A post box (British English; also written postbox; also known as pillar box), also known as a collection box, mailbox, letter box or drop box (American English) is a physical box into which members of the public can deposit outgoing mail inten ...

'). The host will take calls at random for callers to answer the question, and if it corresponds to an answer on the grid/table they will win a cash prize shown that is available. Around halfway through the show, when the presenters swap, the cash considerably drops. for example, the top answer that was worth £3000 drops down to around £500-£750, and the smallest answer of around £100-£250, drops to around £25-£50. Various situations will happen during the show as to how much is available, such as double, triple, 4×, 5×, 6×, 7×, 8×, 9× and even 10× the money, extra answers, instant wins or jackpot amounts. Since the show's relaunch on Five, it was revealed on 8 August 2009 that they had given away over £8 million in prizes and £650,000 had been given away in 2009, and on 27 August 2009, it was revealed £710,000 had been given away to 1930 winners so far in 2009.

Controversy

On 24 September 2006, ''Quiz Call'' admitted to ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' that they had manipulated games by blocking callers from taking part for periods of up to 40 minutes. Under headlines of ''"naked profiteering"'', ''Quiz Call'' said that on these occasions, it charged thousands of callers a standard 75p premium line fee – knowing that it would give them no chance to answer the prize question. At the culture, media and sport committee, held on 28 November 2006, representatives from ''Quiz Call'' admitted that one instance of people being put on hold did occur and that the producer responsible no longer works for Ostrich Media.Sherwin, Ada
MPs condemn phone-in game shows as tantamount to fraud
Published by ''The Sunday Times'' on 28 November 2006. Retrieved 2 December 2006. ''Quiz Call'', which once offered a £100,000 jackpot, admitted that the show's producer was responsible for deciding how long callers had to wait to enter the games. It admitted that ''Quiz Call'' had been caught out cutting corners, in using its own staff to pose as prize winners, clutching 3-foot cheques in an on-air promotion, though there was no suggestion that any employees had been playing or winning the games.Swinford, Steven

Published by ''The Sunday Times'' on 24 September 2006. Retrieved 2 December 2006. The

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

programme ''You and Yours'' broadcast a segment on ''Quiz Call'' on 10 October 2006, who were contacted by listeners who had been barred by the channel. One listener, Mari Hamilton from Aylesbury who used the on-air name 'Luna', contacted the programme to say that they were blocked by the channel after winning a number of cash prizes using the free web entry option.Quiz channel bans
by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #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 ex ...

for the BBC Radio 4 programme ''You and Yours'', broadcast 10 October 2006. Retrieved 10 October 2006 ''Quiz Call'' was removed from TV screens as part of Five's review into all its premium rate phone calling quiz programmes in March 2007, and returned on the evening of 30 March 2007. At least one independent individual has estimated Ostrich Media to be drawing more than £23,000 per hour of the show being on air, or around £100,000 per evening based on the new legal requirement to show the number of calls received in any particular minute.

Quiz Call presenters

Presenters who have hosted the show include: *Chris Hopkins *Chris Park *Alex Kramer *Liz Fuller *Debbie King *Kay Little *Vicky Letch *James Callow *Derek Gibbons *Zö Christien *

Kait Borsay Kait Borsay (born 31 July 1978) is a British television voice over artist presenter and freelance news reporter known for a variety of programmes, including the phone-in quiz on morning television: ''Quiz Call'' from 2005 to 2007. She presents on ...

*Keith Price *

Russ Spencer Russell Spencer (born 1st March 1980) he is an English singer and television presenter. Scooch Originally formed in 1998, Spencer first gained prominence as a member of pop group Scooch who signed to EMI and gained four top twenty hits incl ...

Pollyanna Woodward Pollyanna Woodward (born 11 June 1982) is a British television presenter, best known for being a co-presenter on Channel 5's ''The Gadget Show''. Career The youngest of six children, aged 16 she was offered a place at the Carlton Television J ...

*Nikki Cowan *Suzanne Cowie *Alan Ennis *Ruth Frances *Lawrie Jordan *Paul Hendy *Dan Warren *Steve Hyland *Carol Machin *Sean Macintosh *Charlie McArdle *Abi Pethullis *Cat Porter *Craig Rowe *Mike Mason *Lottie Mayor *Carmel Thomas *Kirsty Duffy *Gemma Scott *Liz Summers *Mark Rumble *Anna Fowler For the last week of the show, 4 of the 7 presenters who were working for Quiz Call at the time presented. The 3 that did not present were Russ Spencer, Pollyanna Woodward and Keith Price. The presenter for the last 3 shows were as follows. Thursday – Liz Fuller and Kait Borsay, Friday – Chris Hopkins and Chris Park, and on the final show, Saturday – Liz Fuller and Chris Park.

References

External links

''Quiz Call''Clip showing examples of ''Quiz Call'' solutions
(YouTube) {{DEFAULTSORT:Quiz Call Channel 5 (British TV channel) original programming 2005 British television series debuts 2009 British television series endings Phone-in quiz shows Television channels and stations established in 2005 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2007 Defunct British television channels Television shows shot at Teddington Studios