Take On the Twisters

Take On the Twisters
Genre	Game show
Created by	Josephine Brassey Liz Gaskell Chris Greenwood John Lomax
Directed by	Ian Hamilton
Presented by	Julia Bradbury
Theme music composer	Will Slater
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	30
Production
Executive producers	Andy Culpin Michael Mannes Matt Walton
Producer	Stefan Iriarte
Production location	The London Studios
Running time	60mins (inc. adverts)
Production company	12 Yard
Original release
Network	ITV, STV, UTV
Release	22 July (2013-07-22) – 30 August 2013 (2013-08-30)
Related
Five Minutes to a Fortune

Take on the Twisters is a British game show broadcast on ITV and hosted by Julia Bradbury in which four contestants must use a combination of knowledge and skill.

The show began airing on 22 July 2013 for a 30-episode run as a summer replacement for The Chase and finished on 30 August 2013.

Format

The show consists of three stages, with the aim primarily being to keep as many hourglasses from draining as possible, each timer containing different amounts of cash. In each episode four contestants compete against each other with the aim of answering as many questions correctly as possible.

Main round

At the start a question is posed to the player on the far left of the studio, The contestant can choose to Stick or Twist, depending on whether they think they know the answer or not. If they decide to Stick, they will answer the question themselves, however if they decide to Twist, they choose which of the other players will answer the question. Whichever option they choose, the three options to the question will then appear. If a player sticks and answers correctly, they get to light a Twister, but if incorrect, control passes to the next player in the line. If they Twist and the player the question is passed to gets the answer correct, they get to light a Twister, but if incorrect, the player who chose to Twist gets to light a Twister instead. Once the sixth Twister is lit, the player in control gets to 'Take on the Twisters' to bank some money. They face 60 seconds of quick-fire general knowledge questions, with the idea to keep as many of the Twisters in play as possible. Once the time is up, the values of the Twisters remaining in play are revealed and the total amount of money is placed in the contestant's bank. This is repeated 4 times each show.

Final Twist

The contestant who has banked the highest amount of cash from the main round goes through to play the "The Final Twist" where they can win whatever they have banked in the main game. In this round, all 8 Twisters are in play and the idea is to keep as many of them in play as possible after 60 seconds of quick-fire questions. When the time is up, Julia will offer £200 (£250 in later episodes) for each Twister that remains in play, for example if the player has 5 Twisters in play, £1000 (£1250 under the £250 a Twister rule) will be offered. The contestant's money has been placed behind one of the Twisters by an independent adjudicator. One by one, the Twisters in play are revealed to determine whether the money is there. If it is not there, a red "X" will appear on the display, but if the money is there, a gold "WIN" will appear.

The Twisters

There are eight "Twisters" in the show. The colours are red, yellow, blue, orange, green, pink, white and purple, each worth different amounts of cash ranging from £100 to £1,000. The Twisters containing more cash will drain more quickly. If the values of all eight Twisters are revealed, then their amounts are worth double and will remain doubled for the rest of the game.

Reception

The show received universally negative reviews from viewers and critics. It has an average rating of 0.3/10 on tvguide.co.uk.

After watching the first episode, the Daily Mail's Christopher Stevens said, "...ITV’s new quiz show, Take on the Twisters, didn’t have a clue what it was or how it wanted to be. The set looked like The Weakest Link, the music sounded like a cross between Millionaire and Doctor Who, the contestants seemed to think they were playing Blockbusters and the final round was stolen straight from Deal or No Deal...It might evolve to be good viewing, if the faults are ironed out. But in this opening edition, much of the format didn’t work, and the show had a runaway winner before it was halfway through. It's hard to keep watching a long, gruelling ending . . . and that’s as true of quizzes as of biopics."

External links

• Take On the Twisters at UKGameshows.com