A notable Game Show created by Australian producer Reg Grundy, aired in the United Kingdom by The BBC and pan-European satellite network Super Channel. Uniquely, the game featured English-speaking contestants from all across Europe, who all competed in various disciplines of trivia for a chance to win a grand prize at the end of the season.
The opening round was a qualifying round (note, that host Henry Kelly always insisted that this was not the first round) that began with a pool of seven contestants; each question consisted of a profile of the subject that starts obscure and slowly becomes more obvious (in other words, it's the "Fame Game" questions from sister show Sale of the Century). The first four contestants to answer correctly moved on to "Beat the Buzzer"—the first round proper. Uniquely, the same pool of contestants played throughout a week of shows, meaning that eliminated contestants came back to try again on the next episode.
In "Beat the Buzzer", the four contestants were asked toss-up questions on the buzzer. Whoever answered correctly was given a choice to answer a 1, 2, or 3-point question in a specific category. The first three contestants to reach six points then played a Speed Round called "Four in a Row", where they picked a category and had to try and get the best streak of consecutive correct answers they could in 40 seconds.
The top two scorers advanced to the final round: it used the same style of questions as the qualifier, but there was now a timer split into four segments: each contestant received two blocks during which they were allowed to guess, and the questions also degraded in value (from 4 points to just 1) depending on how long it took to answer. An incorrect guess passed the time block to the opponent.
The first to 9 points won the game and advanced to a weekly final; the game was played similarly, except that the winners received a bye into Beat the Buzzer, and the four remaining players in the pool competed for a wild card spot (requiring two correct questions rather than one). Each week's winner advanced to a Tournament of Champions at the end of each series—played for a grand prize that was related to gold in some way, such as a trip to the Olympic Games (i.e. gold medals), a gold mining trip, etc.
The game originated as a pilot from Grundy's American wing called Run for the Money in 1987; after it failed over there, Grundy saw promise and took it across the Atlantic, where it aired on BBC One and Super Channel from 1987 to 1995. For its final series in 1996, it was only aired on BBC One, and only featured contestants from the United Kingdom, thanks to Super Channel having been bought by NBC and refocused as their European outpost.
However, there were two revivals on Channel Five in the 21st century; One to Win in 2000 (which dumped the qualifying round for just a returning champion system), and another revival in 2008 (reverting back to the old name), which was essentially a live version of One to Win with a phone-in game tacked on as well, which aired in fellow phone-in game show Brainteaser's former slot after it was axed the year prior over the phone-in scandals. This revival was as short-lived as the 2000 version as it wasn’t renewed for another series, and was replaced with Brainteaser-like Game Show Wordplay, which itself also only lasted a single series before Channel 5 axed the slot.
Localized versions also exist in other countries: the French version, Questions pour un champion, debuted in 1988 and still airs to this day. In the 2000's, FremantleMedia attempted a second pilot for the format in the U.S. as a primetime series—American Know-It-All with Neil Patrick Harris as host—but it wasn't picked up.
This show provides examples of:
- Bonus Round: American Know-It-All featured a million-dollar endgame for the champion, with six rounds of a decreasing number of clues (6 for $25K, 5 for $50K, 4 for $75K, 3 for $100K, 2 for $250K and 1 for $1M). The champion could walk away with their winnings before each round, as they would only leave with the $10K they won in the main game if they got a question wrong.
- Game Show Host: Henry Kelly on the original, John Suchet on the 2008 revival. Bill Rafferty hosted Run for the Money, and Neil Patrick Harris hosted American Know-It-All.
- Insistent Terminology: Kelly always insisted that the initial qualifying round was not the first round.
- Long Runner: 1987-1996, 2000-2002, 2008-2009.
- Recycled Soundtrack: The Run for the Money pilot reused the music from an earlier Grundy pilot, 1986's Keynotes.
- Title Theme Tune: Composed by legendary film composer Hans Zimmer. It even had lyrics, a rarity for game show themes.
- Transatlantic Equivalent: The show was originally piloted for U.S. network ABC in 1987 as Run for the Money
; the format was largely the same, except it utilized a normal returning champion system rather than the Repechage-style format eventually used by Going for Gold. The champion who won the "Four in a Row" round, here the Bonus Round, won $5,000; hence an undefeated champion could win up to $50,000. However, it was not picked up.- Neil Patrick Harris hosted another attempt, American Know-It-All, in the late 2000s/early 2010s.
- Neil Patrick Harris hosted another attempt, American Know-It-All
- Speed Round: The "Four in a Row" round.
- Who Wants to Be "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?": The overall atmosphere of the American Know-It-All pilot, as well as its final round.
