Cheat
Synopsis
Another attempt from Britain at making a game show for a streaming service, but this time, IT'S A QUIZ...with a difference.
The setFour contestants compete against each other by answering trivia questions to build up cash in their prize fund either by answering them honestly or cheating, which is done by hitting a button so that the answer pops up on a small screen in front of them. But they also have to avoid getting caught by their opponents sussing them, because if a "cheated" answer slips by after each round or an honest incorrect answer was given, money gets taken away from the prize fund. The game goes on for three rounds and the contestant who spots the the most cheats in each round gets to choose which one of the other contestants to eliminate from the game and return the cash to the prize fund of every cheated answer they cheated on.
A contestant attempts to Poker Face their opponents.Round 1
The first round starts with four contestants and there is a maximum of £16,000 to add to the prize fund, which means that each contestant gets to answer four questions, one each in rotation from left to right. For every correct answer, £1,000 is added into the prize fund, if the other three don't believe it was an honest correct answer, they press their buzzer and if they catch the cheater out, their accuracy increases to be chosen as the "cheat hunter" and eliminate which contestant at the end of the round. For every wrong answer, £1,000 is taken away from the prize fund, which means that the contestant tried to answer honestly, but makes life easier for the other contestants to eliminate them at the end of the round. After sixteen questions have been answered, the real fun starts as we get to see how many cheated answers were in that round and £1,000 is taken away for every cheated answer. Then the contestant that spotted the cheats the most gets to choose which one of the three contestants to eliminate from the game. Money from that contestant's cheated or incorrect answers (a potential maximum of £4,000) is returned to the prize pot.
A full house of assumptions.
The money goes down for every correct answer that has been cheated.Round 2
One contestant down, one more to go in the second round. This time, each question is worth £3,000 and there's a potential maximum of £36,000 to win in this round. This time, if a player makes a wrong assumption on their opponent cheating, £3,000 is added to the pot and their accuracy decreases to be chosen as the "cheat hunter" at the end of the round. If they make a correct assumption, no money is added to the prize fund and the elimination accuracy increases for the contestant that cheated a correct answer. After twelve questions have been answered, we get to see if any cheated answers slipped by, which means each one gets £3,000 taken away from it. And again, the contestant that spotted the cheats the most gets to choose which one of the two to eliminate and every wrong or cheated answer puts £3,000 back in the pot, yadda-yadda-yadda you know the drill.
Seems like they're not buying it.
A cheat has been caught! No money added to the pot.The Final Cheat
IT'S THE FINAL CHEATDOWN! DA-DA-DA-DAH!! DA-DA-DA-DA-DAH!!! Two contestants are left in this final round. This is a penalty-shootout like round where it'll either finish in a blink of an eye just like that or we could be here for quite sometime. No more money is being added for this round, which means the money that has been added in the two rounds that have gone is now up for grabs. In this final round, the ending could go three ways, if the contestant answers a question without cheating and gets it wrong, the prize fund goes to their opponent; if the contestant answers a question correctly, their opponent then has to think whether that was a cheated answer or not. If the opponent correctly assumes that the contestant did cheat, they get the prize fund, if their assumption is wrong and the contestant answered honestly, the contestant gets the prize fund.
Closing thoughts
Cheat has some similarities to Netflix's American quiz-and-fib Bullsh*t The Game Show; their show has prizes ten times as big, we get much faster pacing. We're not quite sure why the show has two hosts, Ellie Taylor could've easily hosted the show on her own without the inclusion of Danny Dyer who, while he was an entertaining co-host, doesn't add anything into the mix. We did find a flaw in the second round where the opponent can just press their buzzer without actually assuming that they're cheating and just say "it's part of my tactic" so that they'll make it easier to build the money up the prize money for correct answers and find cheated answers without actually assuming any cheating was going on. But for being the first UK quiz show made exclusively for a subscription-based streaming service, this is actually a really good attempt.
Ellie and Danny.Trivia
Four episodes were released on Netflix each week on a Wednesday.
Filmed at Elstree Studios, Shenley Road.
