The Weakest Link is a British television game show devised by Fintan Coyle and Cathy Dunning and developed for television by the BBC Entertainment Department, in which nine contestants answer general knowledge questions on a round by round basis, until one player wins all the money.
The series premiered in the UK on BBC Two on 14 August, 2000. Episodes are an hour in length (with commercials).
The Weakest Link airs in South Africa on DStv's BBC Entertainment (formerly BBC Prime) channel.
Season 11 premiered on BBC Entertainment on Tuesday 6 September 2011, at 17h35. New episodes broadcast from Tuesdays to Fridays at the same time. There are 30 episodes in the 11th season.
Synopsis
The Weakest Link is a general knowledge quiz show that involves the UK's bright and not-so-bright in a fierce competition for money while facing the onslaught of the show's sarcastic, acid-tongue'd quiz master Anne Robinson.
The format of the show involves nine contestants facing a firing line of questions which they have to answer accurately to increase the size of the total prize money up for grabs.
They work together as a team to try to earn as much cash as possible while voting the weakest amongst them out after every round.
As each contestant answers a question correctly the money per question increases. The totals accumulated during a round are only officially added to the banked prize when a contestant calls out "Bank" before answering a question. When they do the money is added to their total but they have to start accumulating money for the round from scratch.
If they fail to call out "Bank" and get the question wrong, they lose the money accumulated during the run of correct questions leading up to it.
Once seven contestants have been declared The Weakest Link and done The Walk Of Shame, the two finalists do a round together in which the money they bank gets doubled.
They then move on to do battle against each other in a final showdown where each of them face five questions. The overall winner is the one to answer the most out of 5 correctly.
If there's a tie the contestants play sudden death where the first to answer correctly wins. The winner wins the full amount of money tallied up during the show and the runner-up leaves with nothing.
Since The Weakest Link's UK launch on BBC 2 on August 14, 2000, it has gained popularity throughout the world.
The format has been syndicated to a record-breaking number countries including the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, Taiwan and the US to name a few.