一筆OUT消 () was the Hong Kong edition of the UK show ''

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 ...

'', presented by Hong Kong actress

Carol Cheng Carol Cheng Yu Ling (Traditional Chinese: 鄭裕玲; born 9 September 1957), is a Hong Kong film/television actress and host. Arguably one of the most famous celebrities to have emerged during the British colonial period, Cheng made her break i ...

in the Cantonese language. The Chinese title of the show is a word play of

Chinese idiom ''Chengyu'' () are a type of traditional Chinese idiomatic expression, most of which consist of four characters. ''Chengyu'' were widely used in Classical Chinese and are still common in vernacular Chinese writing and in the spoken language t ...

一筆勾銷 (), which means "Written off".

Purchase

The Show Format and Production License,

TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and TVB ...

was quickly bought from The Weakest Link International License Holder BBC Worldwide and ECM Production. Then the show started quickly to air on

TVB Jade TVB Jade (), or simply Jade, is a Hong Kong Cantonese-language free-to-air television channel owned and operated by Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) as its flagship service, alongside its sister network, the English-language TVB Pearl. Bro ...

, after rival ATV took most of the ratings with the Cantonese language version of ''

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and ...

''. The top prize was

HK$ The Hong Kong dollar (, sign: HK$; code: HKD) is the official currency of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is subdivided into 100 cents or 1000 mils. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is the monetary authority of Hong Kong and ...

3,000,000. It premiered on August 20, 2001.

Host

As per the licensing agreement, hostess Carol Cheng initially had to act just like

Anne Robinson Anne Josephine Robinson (born 26 September 1944) is an English television presenter and journalist. She was the host of BBC game show ''The Weakest Link'' (2000–2017). She presented the Channel 4 game show ''Countdown'' from June 2021 to July ...

, complete with the same cold and mean style of presenting. BBC staff were present for the first five tapings, and the network and production team had to model the show after the British version. Because Chinese culture typically does not value confrontational behaviour towards people, TVB received many viewers complaints about the show. Bowing to public pressure, the broadcaster changed the style of the show, and Carol Cheng became gentler with the contestants. As a result, the ratings went up, and eventually the show beat ''Who Wants to be a Millionaire'' (albeit occasionally) in ratings. Since TVB ordered only 108 daily weekday shows, the series finale aired on January 18, 2002.

Game play

The game play was identical to that of the U.S. nighttime show, with the first round lasting 2:30 and each succeeding round lasting 10 seconds less than the preceding round, until Round 7, which lasts for 1 minute, 30 seconds for double the stakes or a possible $750,000. The final round is a 5-question shootout in which the player who answers more questions correctly wins all the money, with "sudden death" play in the event of a tie. Unlike the British version, the first round started with the person whose first character (surname) in their

Chinese name Chinese names or Chinese personal names are names used by individuals from Greater China and other parts of the Chinese-speaking world throughout East and Southeast Asia (ESEA). In addition, many names used in Japan, Korea and Vietnam are often a ...

is first alphabetically. The money chain for each round is as follows (in

References

External links

* {{The Weakest Link Chinese game shows Quiz games TVB original programming 2001 Hong Kong television series debuts 2002 Hong Kong television series endings Television game shows with incorrect disambiguation The Weakest Link