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 KR10,000,000. 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. The final 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 KR100,000 then KR300,000 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.
 * 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 Drag Súgur. 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 KR4,670,000 (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, and LazyTown being a household name at the time. In this episode, Stefán Karl Stefánsson defeated Guðmundur Þór Kárason in the final. The prize money won was KR1,410,000, 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, Einar Bárðarson, Inga Sæland, Guðbjörg Hilmarsdóttir and Gís 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 KR7,290,000 prize money was won. The highest amount won outside of specials was KR5,670,000, 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 moments of the show 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 highlights included clips from Cornelia's favourite celebrity specials, the most embarassing wrong answers, the best Walk of Shames, and Cornelia's own experiences of a day filming an episode.

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 KR20,000,000 instead of the usual KR10,000,000 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 Iceland. 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: KR20,000,000                                                                                    

Game 2: KR80,000,000

Game 3: KR240,000,000

Final Game: KR1,000,000,000

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.

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

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