Shafted Online

This was ITV's attempt to cash in on the success of cruel game shows that really put the contestants at each other's throats, led by BBC's The Weakest Link. Using general knowledge questions, each contestant bids to answer the question having only heard half. The highest bid answers the question but only gets the points if he gets it right. At the end of each round the leader makes nominates one person to leave, that one person when can beg to be allowed to stay - then the leader can decide to change their mind or stay with their first choice.

The game gets down to two people who then play a final round. The twist is that at the end they must decide whether to share the money or not. They both face each other and secretly vote to Share or Shaft - if both vote share then they share the prize, if one shares and one shafts then the `Shafter' then gets all the money, if they both shaft then no-one gets any money. They then are both given the chance to talk to each other and then re-vote.

Of course someone always shafts and either both or one ends up feeling really angry. An indeed that's the only interesting part of the quiz. The build up is stupid - people are allowed to speak simply so that they can be nasty to each other because this is what the people want to see! This is what makes it all feel so sad - it doesn't try to be original but rather outdo other cruel shows in the same way as The Jerry Springer show always tried to be more outrageous than other talk shows. However the overwhelming sense of unoriginality is the death of this quiz.

Robert Kilroy Silk is a terrible host - his plastic sincerity was always bad in his talk show but here it's even worse. Listening to him treat the show like it's the most important thing on earth is very tiring and certainly not original - very much a poor man's Anne Robinson.

Overall this is what TV producers do - steal a successful idea and try to add enough to it to make it different and then sell it. Unfortunately this is quite horrible and the if I hear Kilroy say `will you share or will you shaft?' with the attempted gravitas of a high court judge, I'll just switch off straight away.