I have distant memories of watching The Weakest Link with my sister in the ’00s while she screamed “bank!” at the telly like the grandfather does in Outnumbered.
I’ll be honest; I do the same thing with Countdown now. It’s easy, when you’re sat at home, to feel that you’d ace that Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? question or get the only Pointless answer in the round.
But how many people feel they’d actually win when placed in front of the studio lights ― and for which shows?
Well, YouGov has recently done a survey on that very topic.
They asked Brits how likely they thought they were to win 11 of the UK’s most popular quiz shows, including Only Connect and University Challenge.
And?
The results varied a lot according to the shows.
For instance, 36% of Catchphrase viewers thought they’d be in with a decent shot, compared to 6% for Mastermind, Only Connect, and Eggheads.
Only 4% of people thought they had a decent chance of winning University Challenge.
Men are generally more confident that they’d win than women, a trend YouGov says is consistent with much of their other research.
For Tipping Point, 45% of men who’d seen it thought they could win compared to 35% of women.
For The Chase, 27% of men compared to just 19% of women reckoned they had decent odds.
What are the stats?
YouGov found that Brits thought their likelihood of winning different quiz shows was:
1) Tipping Point
- Very likely: 7.06%
- Probably: 32.6%
- Don’t know: 9.84%
- Probably not: 30.79%
- Very unlikely: 19.71%
2) Catchphrase
- Very likely: 7.33%
- Probably: 28.78%
- Don’t know: 7.38%
- Probably not: 34.33%
- Very unlikely: 22.19%
3) The Chase
- Very likely: 2.29%
- Probably: 20.59%
- Don’t know: 6.18%
- Probably not: 38.22%
- Very unlikely: 32.73%
4) Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
- Very likely: 2.19%
- Probably: 19.94%
- Don’t know: 5.72%
- Probably not: 36.55%
- Very unlikely: 35.6%
5) Pointless
- Very likely: 2.22%
- Probably: 17.69%
- Don’t know: 7.77%
- Probably not: 37.11%
- Very unlikely: 35.2%
6) The 1% Club
- Very likely: 2.13%
- Probably: 14.8%
- Don’t know: 7.73%
- Probably not: 38.38%
- Very unlikely: 36.96%
7) Countdown
- Very likely: 1.15%
- Probably: 7.39%
- Don’t know: 5.59%
- Very unlikely: 51.82%
8) Mastermind
- Very likely: 0.69%
- Probably: 5.24%
- Don’t know: 4.94%
- Probably not: 26.31%
- Very unlikely: 62.81%
9) Eggheads
- Very likely: 0.69%
- Probably: 5.22%
- Don’t know: 8.22%
- Probably not: 25.4%
- Very unlikely: 60.48%
10) Only Connect
- Very likely: 0.73%
- Probably: 4.51%
- Don’t know: 13.36%
- Probably not: 23.07%
- Very unlikely: 58.33%
11) University Challenge
- Very likely: 0.88%
- Probably: 3.12%
- Don’t know: 4.77%
- Probably not: 15.69%
- Very unlikely: 75.54%