All Star Family Fortunes

History

On 29 October 2005, Family Fortunes returned as the "grand final" of Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon, a series of revivals of former popular ITV game shows shown to mark the channel's 50th anniversary, hosted by its most ubiquitous presenters of recent years. The show had Carol Vorderman and Vernon Kay playing for charity with their families with Vorderman eventually winning.

In 2006, the show was revived as All Star Family Fortunes with Kay as presenter. Each team consists of a celebrity and four family members. The show was transmitted back to peak time for a full series that started on 28 October 2006. Celebrities and their families play, hoping to win up to £30,000 for a charity of their choice. A significant change from the old series is the use of a multi-coloured computerised scoreboard in place of the classic yellow-and-black LED version – the only other time a colour scoreboard was used was briefly in 1987 and 1988. Another significant (and rather odd) change is that while there are still five family members for each team, sometimes only four participate in the face-off with a member of the opposition team, despite the programme now being a 45-minute production instead of the original 30 minute slot.

A second series began on 27 October 2007, lasting for 10 weeks, and the third series began on 13 September 2008, running for 13 episodes. The fourth series, the longest series to date (17 episodes, including a Christmas Special), began on 20 September 2009. Series 5 began taping on 3 September 2010 for a 15 episode run. It began airing on 11 September 2010 and was the first series of the show to be filmed and broadcast in high definition on ITV HD (also STV HD and UTV HD). Series 6 aired from 20 August to 25 December 2011.

The seventh and eighth series aired back-to-back (series 7 aired for seven episodes and series 8 for eight episodes) from 11 February to 13 May 2012, followed by a Text Santa special on 21 December and a Christmas special on 27 December. Series 9 consisted of nine episodes, which aired from 6 January to 3 March 2013, followed by a six-part tenth series in the summer airing between 29 June and 3 August 2013. Series 11 began with a Christmas special on 29 December 2013, followed by ten episodes from 5 January to 2 March 2014, making this series the longest since series 6.

Christmas editions of the show often air during the festive period, which see two teams from different television programmes (for example Coronation Street, This Morning, Dancing on Ice and Emmerdale), playing to win £30,000 for their chosen charity.

Announcers

Lisa I'Anson was the announcer for the first series of All Star Family Fortunes in 2006, before Peter Dickson took over in the second series.

Format

The show features two teams of five contestants, each consisting of a celebrity and their families who are trying to win money for a charity of their choice. The two families are asked to guess the results of surveys, in which 100 people were asked a series of open-ended questions (e.g. "Name something associated with the country Wales" or "Name a bird with a long neck").

Game Play

A member of each team, in rotation, approaches the podium. As the question is read-always beginning with "Name (something/someone/a country where ... etc.)"-the first to press their buzzer gives an answer. If it is not the top answer, the other team is asked. The team with the higher answer then chooses whether to "play" the question, or "pass" control to the other team.

Kay then passes down the line of the controlling team, asking for an answer from each of them. The board then reveals whether this answer is featured. If not, a strike is charged. If a family manages to come up with all the answers given by the "100 people surveyed" before striking out (three strikes), they win the pounds equivalent of the total number of people who had given the answers, hence Kay's catchphrase "Every point is worth a pound." Some answers also come with mystery "spot prizes" which the person who gave the answer keeps, regardless of the final result.

Every time someone gives an answer that is not on the board, the family is assessed a strike. If a family strikes out, the other family has the chance to "steal" by coming up with an answer that may be among the missing answers. If this answer is present, the other family wins the round and "steals" the money; otherwise, the family that played the board win the round and the money accumulated in the round. The missing answer(s) is/are then revealed by Kay.

There are two or three rounds where the values of each question are valued at £1 per person that responded with that answer. In subsequent rounds, answers are worth twice as much money; as Kay says - "every point is worth twice the price". There are two rounds of Double Money, coupled with either two or three rounds of Single Money. If there are only two rounds of Single Money, the fifth family member misses out on the head-to-head. The family who has the most money after this round goes on to play Big Money.

Unlike most versions of the show, the goal of £300 is not required; the game ends after the second Double Money, regardless of who is leading.

Big Money

The celebrity then chooses one member of their team to join them in the final round, "Big Money". This involves the two contestants answering five questions, given by the "100 people surveyed", within a narrow time limit. The other family member goes first and gives their answers to the five questions within 15 seconds; then the celebrity (who had been out of sight and earshot of their teammate) give their answers within 20 seconds (in case of duplicate answers). If they get 200 points or more from the ten answers they win £10,000 for their chosen charity. Also, if they get all five top answers, the money is tripled to £30,000.

Series 12

A twelfth series was recorded between 14 and 20 October 2014.