h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Evidence for:
1. ITV were set to lose out in the ratings war against the death of Victor Meldrew.
2. The £1million winner is a third cousin of Parker-Bowels, and therefore doesn't need the money.
3. The £1million question was aptly suited to her 'priviledged' background
4. With it apparently being Tarrant's last series, he would want the kudos of giving out the top prize in the UK first.

Evidence against:
1. ITV wouldn't stoop that low to win a ratings war, would they?

Evidence for

5) News of the win was leaked to the press early that morning. Previous big wins have been subject to a news black out to heighten the tension during the show.

Not that I am paranoid or anything...

They would, but did they? I didn't even know it had happened.

Life without TV is very weird indeed.

I would have thought that if they were to fix it they would have chosen someone who would be more popular for the public.
Surely there would be more interest for the general public if someone with a more working class background won the top prize. Plus if it is found out to be a fix then the ITC will take the programme off the air and fine them a shed load of dosh, one hell of a risk

*wonders how to say this without making it libellous*
I'm sure if they wanted to increase the chances of a specific contestant winning the million, it would be easy for them to find out what the contestant was likely to know about and tailor the questions to suit, without actually saying "You'll be asked these questions, and these are the answers, memorise them."

its all low brow
crap any way
Made for tabloid
readers who what
to transend there
pitifall existance
and think winning
money would be the
anserw.How ironic
that a posh twit
won but I bet
they did it becuse
the asperationall
veiwers love to look
up to the posh twit
as not only a winner
but some one who
is a bove them
LOAD OF CRAP

Perhaps twit is a little hard - I mean the questions were easier but still not easy (except if you knew em!)

I agree with Niz, if the producers were to fix the show they would choose someone a lot more likeable. She was far too cool, calm and collected for my liking and had that smugness that comes with a privileged up bringing. I felt disappointed that she won, as she's obviously not short of a few quid anyway. I also agree with Dr E Vibenstein, it would be very easy for the producers to set out questions that the contestant is likely to answer correctly, however in this case I genuinely feel she was just lucky - 'the questions are only easy if you know the answers'.
I've looked at the viewing figures and last week 'Millionaire' pulled in around 2.4 million viewers more than the BBC's 'One Foot in the Grave'. Last nights figures were 10.7 million to 'One Foot in the Grave' to 13.9 million viewers for 'Millionaire' - not a huge difference than last week really, and that's without the publicity.

What I thought was really mad was that I used to know the guy from Yorkshire who was on after. He's upto £125,000 and I nearly fell off my futon. Wish I had kept in contact now. Not that I'm shallow.....well not too shallow anyway

The reason that the person who won the million was not someone more likeable is that the decision to fix the show was taken after she had got to the end of last weeks show...i.e. she was the only possibility.

I had what is percieved as a priviledged upbringing. I am not smug and none of my friends are either. Sorry if that is a bit controversial - i know it is popular to slag off the posh birds. But I am not a fan of inverted snobbery - I think it is worse then the normal kind.

And further more there was loads of publicity. I was off work yesterday and in the heart of the Kent countryside and I heard about at 11 am. I was in a village with no post office, one pub and a tea room. Hardly a thrusting metropolis.

hahahaha!!!! I was waiting for someone to have a go at me for poo pooing the posh lady for her 'privileged upbringing' - what can I say your family had a few more quid than mine and you were taught to speak better at a convent school - or whatever! - Good for you - don't take it personally I wasn't having a go!! And what I actually meant about the publicity was that last week 'Millionaire' got 2.4 million viewers more than the BBC, and that was without the huge amount of publicity. This week, with the fact that someone had won a million splashed all over the place, they only managed to get 3.2 million viewers.

The problem with fixing thing like gameshow is the huge likelihood of a leak, production staff would be offered thousands by the national papers and surely someone would say something. The risks for the prodution company are huge too if they are caught out, as I have said they would be fined an obscene amount of money and perhaps not allowed to make any future programmes, the producer may not work again (tarnished rep)

Late last evening I had a friend run into my room declaring "QUICK, QUICK...ITV....SOMEONE'S WON THE MILLION!!!" That was during the break before the 'Final Answer?' So I can safely say that had that not have happened the whole event would have passed me quietly by. Was it fixed? Hmmm. You might try reading into the fact that as third-cousin to park-her-bowels, the history of the monarchy is a subject you might imagine her to be fairly brushed up on but not if you believe the mantra that: 'The questions are only easy if you know the answers.' or that for whatever prize tier; the question is a random one from a selection for that amount of prize money. The early leak isn't as suspicious as it might seem either. These shows are recorded days in advance. ITV would have known she'd got the Million before Monday night. That it was leaked at all probably has more to do with the ratings war that any hidden conspiracy.

And on that note would anyone of preferred if it HAD been fixed for someone 'more favourable'? (quantify that how you will...)

In fact, I now rather think against all the odds, Millionaire might suffer from it's own success. It's tempting to think that more people will now want to play after seeing that it has now been done but I wonder if now the illusion has gone, the million's been reached, there might be a collective shrugging of shoulders and a steady switching of channells to The Weakest Link or whatever.

Clive.

There's a difference between being loaded and being posh - I should know, going to a school with a lot of cool people who had a fair amount of dough and a load of stuck up nobodys.

It was her attitude which annoyed me, the way she'd answer immediately, then ponificate for the next half-hour.

Also, it just goes to show how far this globabl community has to go. I learnt of it at half-twelve from Yahoo!... they only knew at twelve. And then there's you in a Kentish tea room...

opps - and before I'm misunderstood again - we don't want to upset our fellow researchers - I meant 3.2 million MORE than viewers than last week.

It obviously wasn't fixed, firstly, as everyone else has said, they would have made a far more popular (and needy) choice and certainly not someone with Royal connections - Chris Tarrant may be a friend of Sophie R-J (Wessex), but he is certainly no idiot.

The questions are only easy if you know them - truthfully, how many people knew that the Bear exited right in A Winter's Tale?

There is no way they could realistically have set anyone up to win the Million on the show that was to go out on Monday night - they have no idea which contestants are going to be 'quickest on the key pads' and therefore which ones will sit in the hot spot. If the winning lady was a plant, so was the person before her and before them etc. because that is the only way they could have ensured that she was taking part at the right moment.

Chris Tarrant, makes an enormous amount of money from the Show, there is no way he would risk its credibility just to out-do the BBC's show on the other side.

The reason the win was leaked, is quite simply because it was filmed in advance and there is no way you could realistically 'gag' the whole audience especially when there was certainly money to be made from spilling the beans to the press.

I don't believe they chose the contestant in advance, but it is possible that, knowing that Monday's show was up against the last edition of One Foot In The Grave which was likely to be a major ratings winner, they could have tipped the balance in her favour, knowing that if she did win the million the news would get out and the ratings would be given a boost. The questions certainly weren't easy but if the producers had some kind of inside information on what kind of subjects she knew about, they could make the questions appear difficult but still know that she had a better than average chance of knowing the answers. Didn't she say she'd been to Eleanor of Aquitaine's tomb? And her Phone A Friend knew the answer to the Shakespeare question straight away.

Hmmm, I didn't see anything particularly suspicious...

If anyone was going to win, it was going to be someone who wasn't *that* bothered about money that they would never gamble £250,000 or indeed £500,000... in additional, a classical education does seem to teach you a whole lot of useless facts which I imagine would come in handy on such a show

26199

*I* knew it was a Bear

"Exeunt, pursued by a Bear"