Richard Osman reveals axed Ant and Dec show was 'expensive car crash'

Daily Mirror

4 days ago

Richard Osman has explained why ITV's Red or Black? became one of their biggest flops in history even though it was backed by Simon Cowell and hosted by Ant and Dec
Richard Osman has spoken out on the 'car crash' that was ITV's short-lived game show Red or Black?. Geordie duo Ant and Dec fronted the programme from 2011 until 2012, and while players simply had to gamble their way to prize money of up to one million pounds, viewers were not impressed and the show lasted a mere 14 episodes before being pulled off air.
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Richard, who shot to fame on the BBC quiz Pointless and now hosts House of Games, has explained why it just didn't work. Speaking on his podcast The Rest Is Entertainment, he said: "After Deal or No Deal, oh my God, it was amazing. It was like the Wild West for about five years. I'll mention a couple of shows that came along in the wake of it. The lesson channels took away from Deal Or No Deal is that people are happy to watch people being lucky.
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"And that isn't the lesson to take from Deal or No Deal because it's not about luck at all, it's about when you quit. Any relationship or job you've ever had, it's like, when is the optimum to quit?" It comes after Gary Lineker 'signs a huge deal with ITV to host new show' after BBC exit.
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But the TV star was insistent that not every game show after Deal or No Deal, which was initially hosted by Noel Edmonds and then revived with Stephen Mulhern at the helm, was a success. He explained that ITV boss Claudia Rosencrantz had originally passed on the idea for Red or Black, but it eventually found its way to Simon Cowell.
The X Factor mogul set his sights on making it the 'biggest' game show to ever air on television. "Enter Simon Cowell. So Simon Cowell takes this thing, and suddenly it's his idea. He goes 'I'm doing this, it's gonna be the biggest game show ever, a million pound prize every night, Ant and Dec are gonna host it. It's complete luck.'
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"He said the Americans were gonna go crazy for it. It had great people involved, great people making it but they must have known as well. It was an absolute car crash. It cost so much money. "
Over the course of the short-lived series, producers had to give away millions in cash prizes and Simon littered the programme with acts from his music label, as Richard claimed that even the hosts 'didn't quite know what was going on' with the programme. In the end, the show was not a ratings success and Richard claimed that the corporation learned the 'wrong lesson' with the whole venture even though it is so difficult to find the next big hit.
He added: "Four nights in a row they gave away £1 million, once they gave away a million pounds to someone with a criminal record. It was an absolute mess, it was full of Simon Cowell's Syco acts playing gigs in the middle of it and Ant and Dec didn't quite know what was going on.
"The second episode got beaten by Countryfile, the next one by Watchdog. Nobody wanted to watch it. But because they took the wrong lesson.
"We always take the wrong lesson of wanting the game of chance. We don't want the game of chance, we want something that answers an interesting question. What you want is the next different vibe off the rank but that's harder to do and it's much more expensive to do because you have to do loads of them." ITV has declined to comment.