101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow

Format

The show's production company, Endemol, describes the show as "the play-along fun of a glitzy, Saturday night quiz with the full-on adrenaline rush of an extreme stunt show." Each episode features eight contestants, with a mix of sexes, ages and backgrounds, competing to be the winner of the £10,000 prize in the UK version ($50,000 in the US version). Contestants are reduced one by one in the first four rounds, attempting to guess the correct answers to a selection of multiple-choice questions. The contestant who chooses the wrong answer will leave the show in spectacular fashion, in one of the 101 Ways To Leave A Gameshow. At any time during the first four rounds, a buzzer could sound, which announces the start of the Emergency Exit round. In this round, contestants are asked a series of questions at random, with the first contestant to give a wrong answer being eliminated. The Emergency Exit round is not used in the US and Italian versions. In the final round, only three contestants remain (four contestants in the US version), who have to answer one last question in an attempt to win the jackpot prize.

Production

The show was created jointly by Endemol USA and Endemol UK. It was first produced by the UK division of Endemol for the BBC. Like its Saturday night stablemate, Total Wipeout, the show is filmed entirely at Endemol's filming facility in Benavídez, 35 km south of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Generally, most of the programme is recorded outside, however, studio segments are recorded in a monolithic purpose-built 100 feet (30 m) tall tower, located above the 'exits'. Studio segments are generally filmed on three different levels, with the '101 Ways To Leave' segments recorded on the Tower's exterior. Some exits from the show are recorded on a dis-used airfield runaway located adjacent to the tower. Most of the exits culminate in the contestant ending up in a large pool of water directly in front of the tower.

The United States version was filmed at Agua Dulce, California, which is a popular filming location in Northern Los Angeles County. The site does have an active general aviation air field that was closed down during filming.

Gameplay

In each of the first four rounds, Nemone reveals the exit method that will be used to dismiss the losing contestant, numbered between 1 and 101. Jones then asks a question and reads as many answers as there are contestants still in the game; all but one of them are correct. Each contestant secretly chooses one answer and reveals their choice. If any answer is chosen by multiple contestants, a toss-up question on the buzzer is used to determine who gets to keep it, with the others required to select again from the unchosen answers. Further toss-ups are used as needed until all contestants have chosen different answers, at which point they are prepared for the exit. Jones reveals one correct answer at a time until only two contestants are left in jeopardy, then announces the wrong answer. The contestant who chose it is immediately eliminated from the game.

Once per episode, a buzzer sounds off between rounds to indicate that an "Emergency Exit" round must be played. Jones asks a question to one contestant at a time in random order, and the first to miss a question is eliminated.

Once three contestants remain, the fifth and final round begins, following the same format as the previous four except that the question has only one right answer. The contestant who chooses it wins £10,000, while the other two are dismissed by exit #101, "The Trap Door" - being dropped through trapdoors on which they are standing to fall into the water below.

Exits used on the show

A total of 34 different exits were used over the course of the series, including #101 and the Emergency Exit that were common to all episodes.