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 weekly in primetime, on Mondays and Fridays (and later 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 of ISK1,538,000 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 ISK3,675,000 (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 ISK1,126,000, 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 (the winner), Rakel and Hildur Magnúsdóttir, Jude Law, 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 ISK5,834,000 prize money was won. The highest amount won outside of specials was ISK4,490,500, whilst the lowest outside of specials was ISK1,042,500.
 * 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. After saying goodbye, all of the lights turned off with Cornelia being the only person left in the studio.

Julianna Rose Mauriello (Winner)

Dermot O'Leary (Runner Up)

Magnús Ólafsson (5th Place)

Simon Cowell (9th Place)

Sharon Osbourne (3rd Place)

Stefán Karl Stefánsson (8th Place)

Jógvan Hansen (4th Place)

Ása Ástardóttir (6th Place)

Charles Martinet (7th Place)

The Weakest Link Marathon
The Icelandic version was part of a worldwide one-off special consisting of Weakest Link episodes all over the world where it was broadcast to celebrate 6 years of the show. It was broadcast simultaneously from 1 August-13 September 2006 at 9am GMT, on BBC Two, NBC, Future Television, Seven Network, Lider, VTM, Canal 13, Nanjing TV, HRT 1, TV Nova, DR1, Kanal 2, MTV3, TF1, Rustavi 2, RTL Television, MEGA, TVB Jade, TV2, RÚV, Star Plus, TV3, Israel 10, Italia 1, Fuji Television, Alfa TV, RTM, Azteca Trece, Kanal 1, RTL 4, TVNZ 1, NKR, IBC, TVN, RTP1, Pro TV, Russia Channel One, Russia Channel 5, BKTV, Mediacorp Channel Eight, Mediacorp Channel Five, SLO 1, SABC3, TVE1, TVE2, STAR Chinese Channel, ThaiTV 3 and Show TV. It ended with a photo of all Weakest Link hosts gathering around the podium and a message from Anne Robinson and her favourite hosts who she trained including Shiro Ito, Louise Wallace, George Gray, Edu Mazano, Cornelia Frances, Fiona Coyne, Asha Gill and Hana Laszlo.

Awards
Edduverðlaunin 33rd Daytime Emmy Awards
 * 2007 Best Television Program (won)
 * 2006 Outstanding Game Show Host (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:

Nintendo 64 (one of the last games to be released on the platform)

Microsoft Windows

Playstation 2 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.

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:

(The following emails are real excerpts. All rights go to the original owners.)

"FROM: FIONA COYNE 

TO: CORNELIA FRANCES

TUESDAY 9 JANUARY 2007 02:28:22 GMT

SUBJECT: MY NAME IS...

Hello. If you are wondering if who is writing to you, let me introduce myself. My name is Fiona Coyne and I am a South African actress. I am currently the hostess of The Weakest Link in South Africa, as you are in Iceland right now and before in Australia. How far you've come! Recently, I've noticed how hard you're coping with the inrush of publicity and press conferences since your final season was announced. It's like everybody's running up to you in random streets on your way home shouting in Icelandic! God, you have like 3/4 of the country behind your back in the viewing figures! So I got to the head panel of RÚV and they allowed me to contact you so that we could have a co-production deal between RÚV and the SABC so that they can lighten the recording pressure and help you through the current crises with extra backing and support. I know that maybe you think you can help yourself, but I felt like you need somebody to help you through, even though you've done this longer than me. I'm at the Ten Bompas Hotel in Johannesburg now, about to get ready for a new recording session for Link this afternoon. Give me your thoughts on this as soon as possible.

P.S. Please say yes."

On 9 January 2007, Cornelia replied with much thanks and enthusiasm for Fiona:

"FROM: CORNELIA FRANCES

TO: FIONA COYNE

TUESDAY 9 JANUARY 2007 07:50:33 GMT

RE: MY NAME IS...

Well, that's a yes, then. You had me at hello. Hello, Fiona! Look at you, typing at the crack of dawn on a Tuesday. Ah yes, I've been getting a lot of that recently, everybody treating me like royalty and giving me loads of tea, it's not really the first time. The head panel at RÚV informed me of your email and they have said yes. They have agreed to do the co-production deal! Well done, Fiona! You've done probably a really good thing to help me. So I expect you're probably going to make your way to Reykjavik to discuss the deal. Ooh ooh, all grown up now!"

"FROM: FIONA COYNE 

TO: CORNELIA FRANCES

WEDNESDAY 10 JANUARY 2007 18:08:02 GMT

RE: MY NAME IS...

Yes, I've booked the flights to Reykjavik for 23rd January. Business class! I've had to tell my husband about where I'm going to be for a while. He doesn't seem bothered. What a typical man (!) I got a personal message from the airport saying that they know who I am and are booking bodyguards, gourmet food, leather seating, the whole lot! They're treating me like I'm itty-bitty again! What a life."

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.

Gallery
All pictures have been provided courtesy of RÚV.