Saturday, 7:15pm,
ITV1
Or to give it its full name Win Win With People’s Postcode Lottery, this is certainly quite interesting from a broadcast perspective. They’ve mainly funded it. It’s claiming to be the Most Interactive (pre-recorded) Show Ever, and it’s guaranteeing to give away £1,000,000 to a player at the end of the series (against Strictly)… and it could be you!
A lot to unpack. Let’s start with Mel and Sue who are lovely but fronting a big shiny floor Saturday night show feels like a bit of a choice. The game is based around survey questions which I’ve always found a bit irritating. And the INTERACTIVITY involves logging into the Win Win website and having done this Friday morning it involves work (Put your mobile number in, wait for a PIN code, wait to press a button to have it resent as the first one hadn’t arrived ten minutes later, input PIN code, select a new or same PIN code, re-enter new PIN code, decide whether to take the People’s Postcode Lottery’s offer of free entry into October draws, decide on which marketing things you want one of Mel and Sue always tells the truth the other always lies style, fill out all your registration details that may or may not include your blood type and how many cousins you’ve got and then finally, FINALLY you’re ready to play). I’ll be fascinated to find out how many people coming to the first episode cold will actually bother to finish, and how much downtime they’ll be wasting at the top of the show for people to do this before getting into any meat. And God help them if there are tech issues.
However Hello Dolly might be many things but they’re not idiots, and the Postcode Lottery has been highly successful in sponsoring shows across Europe – probably most notably the Netherlands where it’s been sponsoring big primetime gameshows like Miljoenenjacht (Hunt the Millions – the original Deal or No Deal) and Een Tegen 100 for two decades now. Seeing as they’ve largely funded this it will be interesting to see how much they get out of it, You Bet didn’t do great numbers last week and in a few weeks it’ll be on directly against Strictly. If 50-, 100-thousand new players sign up is that good? I don’t know. 5-10% audience conversion rate feels quite high.
We’ll see! Anyway let us know what you think in the comments.
I’ve had exactly the same experience.
How have they not just done this as a “Win-Win”-branded app a la “1% Club” that could still wrap in the People’s Postcode Lottery stuff in such a way that the bosses would be happy?
I’m not clear how the format’s going to work logistically… Is it pre=recorded and the viewers do the interactivity and wait to see how they did (and/or overlaying live results on-screen without Mel and Sue saying what they are)?
Or is it going to be partly/wholly live, i.e. “Talking Telephone Numbers”?
If it’s the latter, the clunkiness we’ve both experienced runs the risk of killing the format stone-dead live on-air.
UPDATE: Gave it 15 mins before requesting a second code, which then arrived instantly, so there may be a fundamental software flaw that they need to address before tomorrow night.
Yes, overlaying a winner’s name whilst everyone gets excited.
When I first heard about this, I initially assumed it was going to be Live and it would run like the first season of Come and have a go if you think you’re smart enough.
Oh well, I signed up a couple of weeks ago and I’ve hoping to win that £1,000,000 Jackpot at the end of the season.
Total trash, and thanks to the stupid, unpredictable survey-based questions, it’s no t going to get any of the love that The 1% Club does, but…
1. The interactivity makes it essential live viewing.
2. Mel & Sue deserve this so much. Imagine if they’d been given all the chances that Ant & Dec have had over the years. I’ll watch practically anything that Mel Giedroyc is involved with, and it’s great to see them reunited.
I thought it would be full of People’s Postcode Lottery ads, but I don’t think I noticed any at all. Presumably there were sponsorship bumpers, but I tune them out because the ubiquity of advertising means that advertising doesn’t work anymore.
Mel and Sue hosting Limitless Win would have been a lot more interesting for me
Oh and weirdly, I couldn’t enter my home address when I tried to sign up. I ended up having to use my business address instead, which did work. I wonder if anyone else has come across this issue.
I thought this was alright actually, like something from the early 2000s done in 2025. It felt like it had a similar sort of scale to the Dutch Postcode Loterij shows.
I’d be interested to find out what the playalong numbers were – the tech held up well for me, synced with the TV alright, my only real annoyance is that if you change window during the ad breaks for another app on your phone it seems to think you’ve logged out and you have to “join game” again so I was worried I wouldn’t be entered into the Millionaire’s Row draw as it might think I hadn’t played all three rounds, however that worked fine, I was given the opportunity (although it’s a bit off they don’t tell you that you need to be available for all the Thursday night recordings at Elstree until the final at the start – that’s going to knock out a fair few people geographically – could you really not just keep a seat warm until the end of the series?)
Will be really interested in the playalong numbers, typically they’ll start off high and drop quickly, so it will be interesting to see if the lure of actual prizes changes things – It still felt like work for me, I thought the quiz was *OK* but I don’t know how compelling I’d be finding it if I wasn’t playing along at the time. The Final will probably be worth a watch, whether I will be going out of my way to watch this in other weeks I don’t know.
With the first episode officially aired, what is the complete format rundown?
First episode broadcast, so here’s the rundown
40 people are in the studio to play for the same prizes that are on offer to the viewers at home.
The game is split into 3 rounds (This week’s were ‘The Nation’s Favourite’, ‘Pet Peeves’ and ‘Love and Romance’, with all the questions being based on a survey of the British public. The 40 players in the studio play a qualifier question where they have to put 5 answers in order, and the fastest 20 take part in the round. The round consists of 5 3-answer multiple choice questions (e.g. What is the British public’s favourite biscuit? A) Chocolate Digestive, B) Hobnob, or C) Rich Tea), and the 2 best performers in the round make their way to a platform in the middle of the studio to play for the prize. They are shown a Top 10 question with 10 answers and each pick an answer. Whoever’s answer is highest in the ranking wins the prize, or they can trade it for a spot in Millionaire’s Row to play for the £1m at the end of the series. If they do trade, the prize is then put into an overall prize package. Repeat for rounds 2 and 3, but with different prizes on offer (This week’s were a BMW car, a trip to Orlando and £5k spending money, and a trip to Australia to see The Ashes and spend New Year’s Eve in Sydney).
At the end of the show, the 2 studio players who got the most questions right play for a potential £20,000 and a guaranteed spot in Millionaire’s Row. Another Top 10 question is played, with the first person to get the #1 answer winning the money. If neither get it, then the prize drops to £15k, then £10k and so on until someone gets it right.
As usual, if I’ve overlooked something or got it wrong, feel free to correct me.
40 contestants start, think they come back week on week. Three main rounds are played. Each round starts with a qualifier, the 20 fastest to put a five-item survey into order go through to the round proper.
The 20 qualifiers then answer five multiple choice survey questions based on a theme, like “Nation’s Favorites” or “Pet Peeves”. The two with the most right answers in the fastest time go through to a head-to-head. 10 answers from a survey are shown, starting with the better of the two players they each pick one, the player with the higher-ranked answer wins.
Then there’s a decision, they can either take a prize (so far all really nice, cars and really good trips) or take a place on Millionaire’s Row and come back for the final episodes where they’ll play for £1 million + whatever prizes are turned down by the round winners.
At the end of the episode, one last head to head is played by the two best non-winners over the course of the show. Each of them takes turns picking answers off a list, whoever finds the number one answer first gets guaranteed cash prize and a seat in the final.
There’s also an interactive thing, you play along on the site, everyone who answers all five answers in a round right or wrong goes into a drawing for the same prize offered to the in-studio winner of the round. Also, anyone who finishes all three rounds goes into a drawing for a spot on Millionaire’s Row
All in all, it’s not bad. Mel and Sue are fun and work well for the atmosphere they’ve gone for. The game’s a bit simple, and it feels a little weird something so low-key is being played for such huge prizes.
I thought this was really good, and nice to see two women hosting a big gameshow… not many of those about!
Format was solid, questions were quite fun.
Easy watch
Hmmm…. I like the game, I like the prizes and broadly, it’s all good – for me, Mel and Sue are great hosts and they keep things zipping along, and it’s always nice to see a true friendship come through the screen, where you can tell they’re genuinely having a ball.
The editing is atrocious – the audience “reaction” applause sounds like it’s been edited in by a day two apprentice, it’s so patently fake.
The fact that the scrolling text runs from left to right – rather than the usual right to left standard – annoys me far more than it should… I’m 55 for god’s sake, and there are far more important things in the world to get annoyed at, but it really bugs me.
Apart from the lady at the end…the winner’s reactions (if you could call them “reactions”) were tepid at best. First guy wins a car worth £32k… he’s like “meh”. Guy wins an Orlando trip… Again, meh…no real sense of “wow, I’ve won an amazing prize”. Odd, no?
And as for the “let’s see who’s won at home” schtick, turning to see who’s won, then turning back and going “well done you…”…crap. Those of a similar vintage to me might remember “Spellbound” on Sky One (remember that channel kids? It was ace!!! Dream Team, Love At First Sight, Dirty Money with the voice of Big Brother…but I digress…). This was a pre-recorded show that you could play along with at home thanks to a game card, but it had live inserts where the sainted Paul Coia interacted with callers and home players in real time – often saying to the studio contestants “go down there” as pre-recorded footage of them getting ready for the next round was shown. This was early Sky, when everything was run on a shoestring and they made yards of telly for tuppence ha’penny…but they were able to pull it off. Sure, a bigger game than the quiz was spotting the continuity errors like the differences in the position of Paul’s mic during the quiz and during the live inserts, or realising his hair has grown a bit between walking off the floor and picking up a telephone – but they made an effort. On their budget.
Would it be too much to ask, from an ITV Saturday night shiny floor show with an incredible prize budget thanks to sponsorship, and that’s going to give away a guaranteed million quid (from memory,I think you could win about two grand on Spellbound), that they could organise live inserts to reveal the home winners?
Good show, that with a bit of creativity could be so much better.
I thought it was a pretty decent effort and at a time when prizes seem to be being reduced refreshing to see a big prize gameshow, even if reactions to winning were somewhat underwhelming. Thought the playalong aspect worked really well and great it’s genuinely free – not sure viewers have ever had a genuine chance to win £1m for free though before, although not really free if you have to give up 5 days of work to sit in the studio doing nothing for the first four. Think it’s wise entry was based on participation rather than correct answers given the nature of the questions.
Only two complaints really. It didn’t need 40 contestants and certainly don’t get why it’s the same 40 every week (will they replace the 3 winners?). 10 would have been fine with 5 playing each game so we could at least take an interest in who might win. Also needs to be visual representation of how they score in each question.
And as others have said a live element for the reveals would have lifted it – doesn’t even need to be Mel and Sue but crossing to a third host backstage “selecting” the winner and revealing them would have worked. I think just the name reveal is fine for the three prizes, but then perhaps a call at the end for Millionaire’s Row and perhaps a studio winner v home winner battle for the £20k bonus.
1.5m overnight for episode 1.
I wonder if the muted winners reactions are something to do with the fact they have to give up the prize to sit on Millionaire’s Row, so it’s not worth getting too attached.
Feels like that’s the equivalent of about 10m nowadays.
Episode 1 Thinkbox 1.57m.
It was okay. I didn’t agree with some of the answers to certain questions i was beginning to wonder who they had surveyed, the questions were fairly average nothing special or massively different basically family fortunes inspired with Tenable mixed in during the “Top Ten”.
Mel and Sue was good to see reunited again but felt like they were trying to be funny when they wasn’t
Very confused and baffled by the name of the home player suddenly appearing on the screen after the add break. How does that work when it’s pre-recorded ? are they editing that part during the add break or something ?
It was an interesting concept and refreshing to be able to try and win the same prizes as the contestants and good to see ITV trying something new.
A comment though from the app – If you get questions wrong you still get entered into the draw I feel it should only be players that get 5 right get the chance to win the prize for that round. feels fair right ?
The studio design and setting was like taking a trip back to the younger Ben Shephard fronted ‘1 vs 100’ which ran for 4 seasons and tx’d on Saturday nights from 2006. You could easily be forgiven for mistaking it for a show airing on lower budget C5 as opposed to ITV. The concept is ill thought out and the usual camaraderie you expect between “Mel & Sue” was abundantly obvious, but also most unsurprisingly the one-liners weren’t. And as already mentioned in the comments, giving a winning contestant the choice of accepting what they’d won on the night or gamble it all for a seat on “Millionaire’s Row” helped sum the game up as more take it on the “chinchin” and less more “WinWin”.
Dermot O’Leary hosted the first two series of 1 vs 100 before leaving for the X Factor.
But you’ve nonetheless made me realise that it’s already nearly twenty years since this show was on… thanks for making me feel old. 🙂
Forever will 1 vs 100 be in the upper tier of Lottery game shows along with Winning Lines, In It to Win It and Who Dares Wins.
Goodness me this was boring and slow. Not enough questions just seemed to be a lot of filler.
Nice to see big money and decent prizes on a Saturday night, especially as budgets get smaller and smaller.
And unless i’m mistaken, this is the first time people at home win the same prizes as the contestant’s in studio – which was a really nice touch. Made me play along (note the playalong worked alright for me), be interesting to know how many people played on the night.
I liked the set, it was nice to see a real set that doesn’t rely on LED screens to make it work.
It also felt warm and very ITV (unlike 99 to beat)
I’m not a huge Mel & Sue fan, but they did alright.
Solid format, will play again – but then I do really want to win a car.
I’m the opposite in that I really don’t want to win a car as I don’t drive but I don’t have a choice as if I don’t enter all the games then I don’t get a chance of entering the draw for Millionaire’s Row!
Wonder if I did win they would have a cash equivalent option, although I don’t live near Manchester so based on the first episode have zero hope of that happening anyway
I have a pal who works at Meta, his view is that they would have avoided a downloadable app (a là 1% Club) as the show is linked to a lottery and apple have a hard line on lottery gambling apps.
The ‘let’s just throw to a live studio’ line is probably for budget reasons – have an extra studio on the night is expensive.
Now to address some of the other opinions on here.
To slow – lol! made me laugh, if anything it’s to fast. Would be nice to chat to more contestants. Always makes me laugh when people say it’s to fast – how slow is 1% Club and the Wheel – yet they are the best rating shows
Cheap set – I don’t buy that, there is a lot of set build here.
However I agree it won’t do 1% club numbers, but it’s a nice change and big prizes are a big plus.
1.3m overnight for ep 2. I enjoyed the bit where Mel and Sue were getting extremely excited about the ‘Go to itv.com/winwin’ sign coming up in lieu of a name – congrats to them!
And it’s likely gonna be DECIMATED by Strictly next week.
Just looking at barb data and Harry Potter movie before it was under 986k and You Bet was dead on a million after it. So maybe not as bad as this number looks.
Compared that to BBC1 – McIntyres Big Show did 2.7m, so Pointless got the inheritance.
I’d like to know what the playalong numbers are – any intel?
Nope no clue.
Dead on 1M ? Thought You Bet On Tour got 1.7M ?
1.07.
You bet 1.07
Win win 1.05
V close, although you bet dodged SCD for first 40 minutes.
I think the fact they moved You Bet two hours earlier and it didn’t drop from last week is vaguely, well not getting excited about (it’s already very low), positive.
Thinkbox (+7, big screen only) has updated, week 2 1.36.
Thinkbox Week 3 1.11m against Strictly.
Well, having watched the while series I have to say I really warmed to it! Nice playalong style, great prizes, guaranteed million pound winner and Mel and Sue dependable as ever.
I think the editing of the big winner was a bit rushed, I’d have loved to see more of her reaction – but all in all, a great show. Do we think it’s done enough to come back next year?
If ITV were paying for it probably not but as its funded by the Postcode Lottery it’s a solid “don’t know”. It does similar numbers to the Marks and Spencer funded shows (Cooking With The Stars and Dress the Nation) and they seem happy enough to continue with them, but they don’t have a big million pound prize to fund.
NBCUniversal have the rights to make it internationally, so perhaps there’s an element of wanting it to run in the UK to help sales abroad, don’t know.
I guess it’s impact on subscriptions to play the Postcode Lottery will be the bigger factor in whether it returns than the ratings.
Yes exactly.
The show can easily be presented by one person without the need for a second host. Mel and Sue’s one-liners are basically cringe (no offence) and the format is too similar to Family Fortunes and it’s basically that show with £1,000,000, added dullness and music cues by Dobs Vye were so repetitive that Paul Farrer or Nick Foster could’ve done a better job at making the tracks. I originally would’ve given Win Win an 8/10 but as I write this, my rating is changed to 3/10. No wonder it only got 1m viewers and it was probably beaten by a show on BBC One
I think if it’s to get a second season, it should move to Sunday nights at the 8PM hour in order to get a better rating.
That way, it won’t get trounced by Strictly again.
I honestly DO NOT think it’s going to be recommissioned hence the ratings were so low that it nearly became “ITV’s biggest ever flop like Genius Game” with some of its puzzles which is basically more fit for primary school than a reality show which is basically a poorly executed Traitors-style game in a studio which is basically more like a spare workshop used for filming. I also hope that if it were to be recommissioned (even though it’s unlikely considering it was hammered by Strictly), that the number of presenters should be reduced to one, the music be changed and maybe the-… actually I do not want this show recommissioned because of all the factors in my original comment including the poor ratings. Plus it all (You Bet! On Tour and Win Win) should’ve been aired when Strictly wasn’t on.