- Phone in at 60p/75p a call whether selected or not and win cash prizes. Callers were rarely put through to the studio. During this time Quizmania entertained casual viewers by reading emails, entertaining ad libbing and comedy skits. This made it compelling viewing for what the show refereed to as 'Quiamaniacs.' They would read numerous emails by various people, creating a sense of community shows of a similar nature didn't add. While waiting for calls to come through the presenters would talk to and interact with camera operators, producers and viewers.—timraw
- It was the first in a strand of phone in participation shows on the ITV network, having previously aired on Information TV. The show would generally give hints to answers callers hadn't guessed yet. During the run of Quizmania the set changed three times. The original pink and blue set on ITV, with beach themed and Christmas themed sets on ITV Play as the show progressed. The music beds also changed along with the sets to make the show summer/Christmas sounding.—timraw
- Quizmania was a premium rate phone in quiz. Callers were asked to participate for 60p a call during the original run. Prize money offered ranged from £25 to £5000 throughout the run of the series. Callers from those put on hold were picked at random to go through live to the studio to play games. Those who were lucky won cash. The show was highly interactive, often reading emails from viewers and using caller ( and crew members) voices as sound effects. Viewers could also apply to become king or queen of Quizmania for a day, or have their pictures posted to 'Quizframia.' A picture board above a fire place.
The show had a pink and blue set which was originally supposed to be yellow and blue, contained a speed round podium (where they took more calls than usual) and talked to random stuffed animals as a way of getting cameraman Flash some airtime when he got banned from screen by the head of Quizmania, Peter Cassidy, for apparently no reason.
The show's set changed throughout the run of the show. The original set was replaces by a beach set which also had beach themed music in 2006. This was part of a re brand for the ITV Play channel, where Quizmania moved too being a daytime show at 3PM after being on ITV 1 and 2 post midnight. Prior to this the show had been on a small Digital channel called Information TV. While on ITV Play, the show was also broadcast on ITV's sister channel Men And Motors for a brief time, until it moved to the 7PM slot.
During the 7pm slot and the run up to Christmas the set changed into a Christmas grotto and lost most of the pinkness instead opting for a silver winter look with a log cabin feel. Again the music changed and offered some of the best music beds from the series.
Quizmania was originally four hours in length on ITV 1. This then changed to three hours on ITV 2, then six hours on ITV Play. The show also returned to ITV 1 on weekends only , post midnight for a month, to bridge the gap between The Mint being on at weekends and Make Your Play.
The show also had a one of a kind feature called 'Happy Hour' with free calls during the hour. This feature was obviously eventually dropped, but saw player numbers increase.
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On Screen Presenters And Crew : Debbie King, Greg Scott, Lee Baldry, Chuck Thomas, Nigel Mitchell, Kirsty Duffy, Lottie Mayor, Tim Lichfield, Lee Clark, Stewart Headlam, Jess, Phil, Shaun, Tom, Dave, Neil, Flash, Sky, Deloris, Lufti, Emma, Paul, Oli, Linda, Ben, Dave.
________________________________________________________________________________________ The show openly mocked the Quiz TV format while in it's self being a quiz show. It never took it's self seriously like any of the other shows. The light hearted crazy feel was compelling viewing for a lot of viewers. There were hardly any hard sell tactics used, with the show occasionally dipping into tension filled moments but only when they were about to give away big money. Sometimes the answers were shown on screen with the vowels missing just to give away the cash, hardly any other Quiz TV show did this. In the days before Facebook it offered some viewers a sense of community, such as 'Crazy Nige' who called the show every night. The show also had regular emailers, letter writers and people who emailed the customer care team just to chat about their day. The show also had a community feel as the presenters and crew became like family, discussing where they had been, what they had done, and how their days were going.
Quizmania was like a comedy show first, and a quiz show second. ________________________________________________________________________________________
Stray Points:
Greg Scott one of the shows presenters at the time branded the show ' unscripted chaos', only to say on Twitter a year after the end of Quizmania that everything was scripted, including the Debbie King Fridge Incident.
The character of Fergal Le Sharkey went from French to Rastafarian without explination.
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