No. of episodes 108 | Country of origin Hong Kong Running time 60 minutes per episode | |
Original release August 20, 2001 – January 18, 2002 | ||
一筆OUT消 (Jyutping: Jat1 Bat1 OUT Siu1) was the Hong Kong edition of the UK show The Weakest Link, presented by Hong Kong actress Carol Cheng in the Cantonese language.
一筆OUT消 was licensed and started quickly by TVB to air on TVB Jade, after rival ATV took most of the ratings with the Cantonese language version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. The top prize was HK$3,000,000. It premiered on August 20, 2001.
The Chinese title of the show is a word play of Chinese idiom 一筆勾銷 (Jyutping: Jat1 Bat1 Ngau1 Siu1), which means "written off".
As per the licensing agreement, hostess Carol Cheng initially had to act just like Anne Robinson, complete with the same "cold" style of voice and facial expressions. Since Chinese culture typically does not value this kind of attitude toward people, TVB received many complaints about the show. Bowing to public pressure, the broadcaster changed the style of the show, softening Carol Cheng's "character," after five episodes of being "mean". As a result, the show became more acceptable to the viewers and the ratings went up, and eventually beat Millionaire (albeit occasionally) in ratings. Since TVB ordered only 108 daily weekday shows, the series finale aired on January 18, 2002.
The game play was identical to that of the U.S. nighttime show, with the first round lasting 2:30 and each succeeding round lasting 10 seconds less than the preceding round, until Round 7, which lasts for 90 seconds for double the stakes or a possible $750,000. The final round is a 5-question shootout in which the player who answers more questions correctly wins all the money, with a Sudden Death playing in the event of a tie. Unlike the British version, the first round started with the person whose first character （Surname） in their Chinese name is first alphabetically.
The money chain for each round is as follows: