Hello again! It’s Groundhog Day and it sure feels like it. I wonder if any of you reading this have been feeling like me lately: like none of your hard-earned skills have much value at all in the year 2022, during the millionth wave of a global pandemic, while the economy is doing who knows what except that wealthy people are getting wealthier while everyone else struggles. For myself I apparently finished grad school a few years ago, although none of my abilities can help with a global pandemic, and telling people about my supposedly “useful” degree – a B.Des. in print design – is starting to feel like saying I do professional telegraph repairs.
In my household we distract ourselves from these kinds of thoughts by watching trivia shows. I don’t think I’m particularly good at trivia, either, but I really like learning. January was dominated by excitement for Jeopardy! champion Amy Schneider, who recently ended her superchamp run after 40 days. She’s amazing. She also did a lot to break up the boys’ club of J! champs, as she’s now the record-holder for second longest winning streak (after Ken Jennings). I somehow wasn’t spoiled on her loss and I cried when it finally happened. I’m happy for her, but sad for me, because now I have to go back to watching randos who don’t wear pearls every day or use Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” as pump-up music. Thankfully we will see Amy compete again in the next Tournament of Champions.
A lot of people might look at a Jeopardy! contestant and ask, “Why the hell would you spend so much time memorizing minutiae about rivers and lakes and US vice presidents?,” but Amy walked away from that set with $1,382,800 in winnings. Sometimes it literally pays to care about trivial things! Most people who go on Jeopardy! – only making it to the stage after passing multiple tests and auditions – win $1000 or $2000, which means they barely break even on their travel expenses. Everyone, however, gets paid. It’s all very manifest destiny. That’s why I’m here to talk to you about British trivia shows instead.
Only Connect
(Above is a link to the first episode of series 17. I suggest you start there and watch it all in order. The tournament just wrapped up last week with a thrilling finale!)
I will start by saying that I don’t know the quiz show landscape in the UK very intimately. I know that there are quiz shows that feature comedians, like QI. I know that there are also trivia-based quiz shows for regular people – The Chase, The Weakest Link, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, etc – that give contestants money. These have been adapted for North American audiences. There are others – like Only Connect – which do not have a cash reward. These have not been adapted for North American audiences.
For many years, all I ever heard about Only Connect was that it is very very difficult, so much so that you probably will maybe figure out one clue per episode and if you do you are brilliant. This may be true. Sometimes I get close to figuring out a clue and I feel basically just as good about that. The show is hosted by household (at least, my household) favourite cranky genius Victoria Coren Mitchell who is also a professional poker player and was recently a contestant on Taskmaster. Like all super smart people who compete on Taskmaster, she did terribly. That’s a show for jocks. Not to brag but I think I would be bad at it too.
Only Connect is formatted as a series(/season)-long bracketed tournament played by teams of three, all of whom are just regular smart people with cute names like “The Animal Lovers” or “The Golfers.” Each game has four rounds: Connections, Sequences, Connecting Wall, and Missing Vowels. To start off, contestants pick from a wall of Egyptian hieroglyphics (are you excited yet?) so instead of saying “Sport for $200, Victoria” the team leader would say “We’ll have the [twisted flax / two reeds / lion / horned viper / water / Eye of Horus] please.” There’s no way to know what’s behind those symbols until they’re selected.
The first round, Connections, presents four tiles that have some connection (duh). The teams have to decipher what it is. The earlier in the round they figure it out, the more points they get.
Sequences is similar to Connections, except that the teams have to figure out what the fourth tile will be based on the first three. Sometimes – although rarely – they guess it from just one clue. It’s thrilling!
The Connecting Wall is 16 tiles which the teams have to organize into sets of four. They get a point each for sorting the connections, then a point each for knowing what the connections are, and two bonus points if they get it all right for a total of 10.
Finally, Missing Vowels is a rapid-fire round that is exactly what you think it is. It’s fun to end each episode with a big points-mover, but it’s still sometimes pretty tough.
Are you still reading this? More than once I have tried to explain this show to people and they have become irate. I understand, and so does the show. It’s fine. It all feels like a lot of effort and a lot of frustration, and for what? A sense of accomplishment? The feeling that there are people in the world who like to be challenged for the sake of being challenged, and don’t require monetary compensation for it?
Yes, that’s exactly it. It’s a beautiful thing.
The entire back catalogue of Only Connect is on youtube. Enjoy.
xo Emma