''Glitterball'' is a live, late night, interactive television quiz show in the United Kingdom. It was broadcast under the

ITV Play ITV Play was a short-lived 24/7 participation television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV plc. The ITV Play name continued as a strand on the main ITV Network until December 2007. It was launched as a standalone channel on Freeview ...

branding on ITV a few nights a week from around midnight (usually), and from 1.00am on ITV2. The show launched on 19 February 2007. Both ''Glitterball'' and ''Make Your Play'' alternated their days of broadcast. ''Glitterballs final show broadcast on the morning of Sunday 30 September 2007.

Overview

''Glitterball'' was created by Ludus:ETVETV official site
/ref> (who also produced '' The Mint'') and produced from studios at 3SixtyMedia, Manchester. The programme was broadcast on ITV and ITV2 from Sunday to Wednesdays. The show started on 19 February 2007. In order to win money, holidays and various other special prizes, viewers are required to either call in at a cost of 75p from a BT landline, text the word 'BALL' to an automated call back service or enter via the ITV website. If successful, they would be placed on hold and then transferred live to the studio to deliver their answer. An announcement on 12 September 2007 confirmed that the show, along with similar late night phone-ins, would be phased out by the end of 2007.

The Starlight Theatre

Similar to ''The Mint'', presenters refer the studio set as "The Starlight Theatre" and if a caller wins, they are transferred to "The Box Office" to claim the cash prize. The Starlight Theatre was originally an attraction at the now-defunct Granada Studios Tour in Manchester, and is now a production space as part of 3sixtymedia, the facilities company co-owned by ITV and BBC Resources. The studio was also used to produce sister programme ''

Make Your Play ''Make Your Play'' was a live, interactive quiz show, showing in the UK on the ITV Network, from Monday to Saturday, beginning after midnight. The show was launched on Friday 29 September 2006 on ITV and ITV Play. The prizes were greater than u ...

''.

Presenters

Kéllé Bryan Kéllé Bryan (born 12 March 1975) is an English singer and actress, known as a member of girl group Eternal. In 2018, she began portraying the role of Martine Deveraux in the Channel 4 soap opera ''Hollyoaks'', a role she played until 2022. S ...

Zoe Hardman Zoe Kristi Hardman (born 16 November 1982) is a British television presenter and actress. She first appeared on TV in Channel 4's reality game show '' Playing It Straight'' in 2005. Career Hardman was born in Kent, England. She was a present ...

*Alex Kramer - formerly a presenter on ''

'' and ''

Quiz Call ''Quiz Call'' was a late night/early morning phone-in quiz TV show, produced by Ostrich Media (owned by iTouch) for Five, Five US and Five Life. History Launch ''Quiz Call'' was launched as a standalone participation television channel ...

''. *Katy Pullinger * Craig Stevens - formerly a presenter of '' The Mint''. Like ''The Mint'', ''Glitterball'' was presented by two presenters at a time. Later on in the show, the presenters' screen times were split up. Guest Presenters *Yolly Koppel *Charlie McArdle *

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 ...

Games

Most of the ''Glitterball's'' games were shown on a big screen in the studio, rather than on the viewers television screen at home.

Glitterword

This game started off with a long word, called the "Glitterword". The viewers had to then make a three or more letter word from the letters in the "Glitterword". For example, the word for the first show was "Thrilling", so the word "ring" can be made. There were a total of eleven possible winning answers per game, ten which could win callers normally £500 or £1,000 (but can vary), and one word called the "Glitterword" which, if guessed, potentially won the callers either thousands of pounds, or free holidays. if the "Glitterword" was guessed, the game ended.

Picture Perfect

The viewers were shown pictures of five celebrities which were numbered from one to five, and the callers had to sort them out in order of youngest to oldest and just say the numbers.

Crossword

This was a 3D crossword setup in the studio, and a copy was also shown on the big studio screen. Callers had to guess the words in the crossword, answers were all based on a theme. To make the answer appear on the 3D crossword, the presenter had to flip each letter over. A "Winner Board" was also on the screen on the studio, to show who had won, and their winnings.

Spellcheque

The game had six lines of letters in total. Callers were given two letters on the top line, they then had to add another given letter to this first line, to create a three letter word. They were then given another letter to add to the previous line, to create a four letter word, and so on, until a seven letter word was made. Example (from 1st show): Start Word: AT
Clue: E - TEA
Clue: S - EAST
Clue: D - DATES
Clue: L - TALES
Clue: E - SEDATE
Clue: They will then reveal another clue letter here to make a new word.

References

External links

*{{itv.com, id=play/glitterball, title=''Glitterball''
''Glitterball'' Fansite
at MySpace 2007 British television series debuts 2007 British television series endings ITV (TV network) original programming Phone-in quiz shows