The Weakest Link (Icelandic game show)

The Weakest Link was an Icelandic game show based on the successful UK format, which aired from 2 September 2002 until 28 July 2007 and was broadcast on the RÚV channel. Presented by Cornelia Frances, the hostess of the Australian version, the show featured nine contestants competing for a potential prize of ISK10,000,000. Airing twice (then thrice) weekly in primetime, on Mondays and Fridays (and later also Saturdays), it received popular ratings until the final special episode was broadcast in 2007.

The Monday edition indirectly competed against the equally popular Viltu vinna milljón? (Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?) peaking high and low over three years until the latter was cancelled in 2005. Later on in the year, The Weakest Link was moved to Saturdays at 7.30pm. In 2007, Cornelia Frances decided to leave Iceland and move on to other projects, but enjoyed being in the country. The final special episode was broadcast on 28 July 2007.

The show was produced in the RÚV's Reykjavík headquarters.

Format
The format of the Icelandic series was identical to that of the British version. The first round lasted for 3 minutes, and each round thereafter was reduced by 10 seconds (meaning a time limit of 90 seconds for the triple stakes round). As with the British version, any money banked in round eight was trebled (e.g. if the contestants bank ISK100,000 then ISK300,000 is added to the final total). The money tree was as follows:

The voice-over was Marcus Irvine, while the adjudicator was Alan Mason, the contestant revealed as The Mole in 2000.

Special versions
The show also featured several special editions throughout its run. The contestants chosen to return were:
 * On 23 December 2002, the first Celebrity Special aired as part of the Christmas season on RÚV. The participants were Magnús Scheving, Linda Ásgeirsdóttir, Stefán Karl Stefánsson, Björk Guðmundsdóttir, Magnus Magnussson, Sigurður Guðjonsson, Eiður Guðjohnsen, Heimir Hallgrímsson and Warwick Davis. In this episode, Linda Ásgeirsdóttir defeated her LazyTown co-star Magnús Scheving in the final round, donating her winnings to the Icelandic Red Cross charity.
 * On 7 February 2003, a Video Game special of the show aired, including participants who have been associated with many popular video games considered to be the best. The participants were Satoru Iwata (President of Nintendo from 2002-2015), Hiroshi Yamauchi (Iwata's predecessor from 1949-2002), Charles Martinet (Super Mario's voice talent from 1993-), Shigeru Miyamoto (Creator of Super Mario franchise), Yuji Naka (Creator of Sonic the Hedgehog franchise), Ryan Drummond (Sonic the Hedgehog's voice talent from 1998-2004), Angelina Jolie (played Lara Croft from 2001-3), Jen Taylor (Princess Peach's voice talent from 1998-2009), and Cyndy Preston (Princess Zelda's voice talent from 1989).
 * On 7 May 2004, a Radio Personalities special of the show was televised, two days after another special of the same category was aired on the South African version on SABC3. Contestants included Bylgjan's Sigga Lund, Útvarp Latibær's Guðmundur Þór Kárason, Rás 1's Tómas Jónsson, KissFM's Andri Geir Torfason, FM Trölli's Andri Hannar, Kannin FM's Siggi Gunnars, Suðurland FM's Ragnar Sigurjónsson, FM957's Kristín Ruth and X97.7FM's Óman Úlfur, who won ISK4,670,000 (at the time the highest score achieved on the show), which he subsequently donated to The Salvation Army (Hjálpræðisherinn).
 * On 20 August 2004, a special episode included the cast from children's TV show LazyTown, as part of a celebration to the show's first airing earlier that week. In this episode, Stefán Karl Stefánsson defeated Guðmundur Þór Kárason in the final. The prize money won was ISK1,400,500, the lowest achieved in the celebrity editions. The participants were Magnús Scheving, Stefán Karl Stefánsson,  Guðmundur Þór Kárason, Julianna Rose Mauriello, Linda Ásgeirsdóttir, Magnús Ólafsson, David Matthew Feldman, Sarah Burgess and Julie Westwood. The episode received 250,000 viewers, ranking it top in the most programmes watched that week.
 * On 12 May 2007, an X Factor special of the show aired. Jógvan Hansen, Rakel and Hildur Magnúsdóttir, Elínborg Halldórsdóttir, Halla Vilhjalmsdottir, Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh and Dermot O'Leary all participated. In that episode, there was a round where nothing was banked.
 * On 21 July 2007, as part of the final week of the show, the "Worst Loser Special" featured eliminated contestants from previous episodes, normally those who lost in early rounds or who lost in the final round.
 * From 23-27 July 2007, also part of the final week, there were two editions featuring teams made up of winners of previous episodes. In the latter of these, subtitled "The Best of the Best", a record ISK7,290,000 prize money was won. The highest amount won outside of specials was ISK5,670,000, whilst the lowest outside of specials was ISK1,480,000.
 * On 28 July 2007, the final episode was a special edition consisting of Cornelia Frances' favourite contestants in her 6 year run. Broadcast slightly later at 10.45pm, the show received 300,000 viewers overnight and was repeated the following week. The final winner was Julianna Rose Mauriello, who had appeared on the show back in 2004. She had won ISK1,046,500, defeating Dermot O'Leary who had appeared earlier in the year, in the final round.

Julianna Rose Mauriello (Winner)

Dermot O'Leary (Runner Up)

Magnús Ólafsson (5th voted off)

Simon Cowell (1st voted off)

Sharon Osbourne (7th voted off)

Stefán Karl Stefánsson (2nd voted off)

Jógvan Hansen (6th voted off)

Ása Ástardóttir (4th voted off)

Charles Martinet (3rd voted off)

Awards
Edduverðlaunin
 * 2007 Best Television Program (won)

Video game
Activision and BBC Multimedia released a video game of the Icelandic version on 9 May 2003. It has been released on numerous platforms including: This 3-D interactive video game pits seven contestants against Cornelia Frances, who specially recorded her lines for the game. They could win a higher prize money of ISK20,000,000 instead of the usual ISK10,000,000 in the TV version. You can play with up to 7 players and in the Playstation 2 game, you can play online with players all over the world. Alongside Single Player and Multiplayer, you can play the Championship mode, which consists of 4 shows and you can win higher prize money each game. To get to the next game, you must win the show.
 * Nintendo 64
 * Microsoft Windows
 * PlayStation 2

Game 1: ISK20,000,000                                                                                    

Game 2: ISK80,000,000

Game 3: ISK240,000,000

Final Game: ISK1,000,000,000

The 24 playable characters are:

Angela, age 43, a local government officer, from Akranes

Linda, age 25, a factory cleaner, from Vogar

Steve, age 37, a police constable, from Eyrarbakki

Garí, age 21, a graduate, from Borganes

Níkolas, age 45, a firefighter, from Garður

Tóni, age 39, a teacher, from Garðabær

Magnús, age 41, an optician, from Hvammstangi

Jenní, age 31, a journalist, from Stokkseyri

Ál, age 66, a retired taxi driver, from Dalvík

Lóri, age 40, a PE teacher, from Höfn

Eríc, age 42, a bus driver, from Grenivík

Samanthá, age 20, a cashier, from Bakkafjörður

Jóseph, age 16, a student, from Drangsnes

Lucy, age 39, a school dinner lady, from Grímsey

Mæve, age 28, a barmaid, from Hellissandur

Barrí, age 38, a doctor, from Hauganes

Radzi, age 24, a charity worker, from Hvanneyri

Róse, age 59, a housewife, from Laugarvatn

Júles, age 21, a role model, from Reykjavík

Sára, age 47, a sales executive, from Selfoss

Sapphire, age 38, an interior designer, from Ísafjörður

Tímothy, age 29, a computer programmer, from Akureyri

Wílliam, age 35, a waiter, from Reyðarfjörður

Fiona Coyne visit and South African-Icelandic deal, 2007
In January 2007, recording for Season 5 of the South African Weakest Link on SABC3 had begun recording with it's host Fiona Coyne, and was scheduled for airing in August. When the news was leaked about the final episode of the Icelandic version, this attracted Coyne's attention.

Cornelia Frances had been told to keep the news about the final season "to herself" by the CEO of RÚV Magnús Geir Þórðarson. In September 2006, while Season 5 of the Icelandic version was still airing, she had requested that the recording schedules be moved forward so she wouldn't have to deal with the press conferences that were scheduled already, but was declined by the head panel of RÚV. "It was difficult, it nearly got me fired. But they let me off, as they always did," she said in a 2008 interview.

On 9 January 2007, Cornelia Frances recieved an e-mail from Fiona Coyne, requesting that given the current crisis they were both in, she would visit the Weakest Link set in Reykjavík to initiate a co-production deal with the SABC for Cornelia's final season so she could receive extra backing and support.

On 23rd January 2007, Fiona Coyne, Sonwabo Eddie (SABC Chairman) and Kee-Leen Irvine (Producer of the South African version) boarded a plane from Cape Town Airport to Reykjavík Airport, then travelled to meet Cornelia Frances and the key executives of RÚV at the headquarters in Reykjavík. After the meeting had finished, Fiona made the light-hearted decision to take a picture on the Iceland set with Cornelia. Fiona, Sonwabo and Kee-Leen travelled back to Cape Town Airport on 30th January 2007, after compiling all the necessary paperwork and files for the co-production deal.

Fiona and Cornelia were reported to have got on very well. They remained friends and contacted each other regularly until Fiona died in August 2010.

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