Alphabetical

Can you answer questions from A to Z and win much money?

Three challengers and the defending champion take part in four rounds of questions.

• First Letters: each player gets one minute of questions, the answers begin with a certain letter. One second for each correct answer, and everyone is spotted 100 seconds for playing.
• Last Letters: as above, except the answers end with a certain letter.
• Starting Letters: given a category, each player sees the first letters of an answer. Jeff gives clues with a correct answer worth 5, 3, 1 seconds. The challenger with the lowest score leaves the game after this round.

A sample Starting Letters question.

• Thirteen Letters: trivia questions beginning with half the alphabet. Two seconds for each correct answer. The round is played on the buzzer, and a wrong answer freezes a player out of the next question.

The champion goes up against the top challenger in the final: answer questions against the clock. Get all 26 right to win the jackpot. Players may pass, and return to the question later. A pass or an incorrect answer stops the clock, and passes control to the opponent.

Both players will have somewhere between 130 and 150 seconds for the final round. Jeff goes at a moderate speed, and some of the questions are written so that they're only clear on the final word. The result is that a difficult task (get 26 right) turns into a near-impossible one (get 26 out of 24 right).

This player already has one wrong, and two passes.

There are other house rules: the champion plays first in each round, including the final. Ties for elimination are broken with a "First Letter" question on the buzzer. Players may pass on a question, by saying "Alphabetical" - this is borrowed from the Spanish version Pasapalabra.

The jackpot began at £5000, and grew by £100 for each correct answer the daily winner gave in the final round. By the end of the series, it had risen to £22,600.

ITV promised us a fast-paced quiz show, and Alphabetical certainly packs in the questions. We didn't feel that it was particularly fast.

A change for the second series: a best-of-five to find a champion to face the alphabet. Still no-one won.

Andrew O'Connor, Rebecca Thornhill, Mark Maxwell Smith.

The show is adapted from Pasapalabra, itself a variant of The Alphabet Game.

Medina Sound, credited for "Music".

Aired as a 2016 summer replacement for The Chase in the 5pm slot, along with Cash Trapped.

Jeff is looking at The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Voted the Worst New Show in this site's Poll of 2016.

No-one won a single one of the thirty episodes, which meant that £58,900 went unclaimed.

Wikipedia entry

Bother's Bar discussion

XYZ, another trivia game.

Weaver's Week review

The set was designed by Paul Houston, graphics by Potion.