Going for Gold

A notable Game Show created by Australian producer Reg Grundy, aired in the United Kingdom by The BBC. Uniquely, the game featured contestants from not only the U.K., but also featured contestants from all across Europe as well (Who were all English speakers, of course. As such, the programme was also aired on the Pan-European satellite service Super Channel), who all competed in various disciplines of trivia for a chance to win a grand prize at the end of the season.

The first round was a qualifying round (the host always insisted that this was not the first round, though) started with a pool of 7 contestants, competing to correctly answer questions which consist of a long profile of the subject that starts obscure and slowly becomes more obvious (like the "Fame Game" questions on Sale of the Century ... also a Grundy production). The first four contestants to answer correctly moved on to, ahem, the first round proper.

This next round (aptly titled "Beat the Buzzer") consisted of questions on the buzzer, with the contestants trying to amass 6 points by picking a 1, 2, or 3 point question after gaining control on a toss-up and being told the next category. The first three to reach the goal then played a Speed Round called "Four in a Row", where they picked a category of questions, and had to try and get the best streak of correct answers they could in 40 seconds.

The top two scorers advanced to the final round, which involved more "Who am I?" questions. But this time, there was a clock indicating when a contestant could buzz in (each player got two blocks of time to answer), and the questions also degraded in value (from 4 points to just 1) depending on how long it took to answers. An incorrect guess passed the time block to the opponent. The first to 9 points won the game and advanced to a weekly final on Friday, played identically (sans the qualifier of course). Each week's winner advanced to a Tournament of Champions at the end of each series. The champion at the end of each series won a major prize which related to gold in some way, such as a trip to the Olympic Games (i.e. gold medals), a gold mining trip, etc.

The original version ran 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. 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 One to Win, live, and with a phone-in game tacked on as well.

Game Show Tropes in use:

 * Game Show Host: Henry Kelly on the original, John Suchet on the 2008 revival
 * Speed Round: The "Four in a Row" roind


 * Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The French version, Questions pour un Champion, became a part of the local popular culture for several generations and is still airing to this day.
 * Insistent Terminology: The initial qualifying round is not the first round.
 * Long Runner: 1987-1996, 2000-2002, 2008-2009.
 * No Budget: Averted (in comparison to other BBC game shows), as the European simulcast and Reg Grundy's involvement allowed them to have a more modest budget
 * Title Theme Tune: Composed by Hans Zimmer. It even had lyrics, a rarity for game show themes.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks: The 2008 revival in the UK--it completely removed the pan-European element, which was the main interesting gimmick of the show.
 * Actually, the final season was also U.K. only
 * Trans Atlantic Equivalent: The show was originally piloted for ABC in the United States in 1987 as Run for the Money.
 * What the Hell Is That Accent?: One of the best parts of the show was trying to figure out where exactly the European contestants were from, especially if you tuned in halfway through.