Risk!

 

Risk!
Logo since 2018
Genre	Game show
Created by	Herbert Figg Paula Williamson
Presented by	Robert Wellington
Opening theme	Risk! Theme by Kolektiva
Composer(s)	Juliana Sivirdis
Country of origin	Kalșeri
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	27 (as of June 2024)
No. of episodes	891 (as of 6 June 2024)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Loretta Pugh (2019–present)
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	60 minutes (standard)
Production company(s)	Pensada Television Productions
Release
Original network	KBC
Picture format	HDTV 1080i
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	September 4, 1997 (1997-09-04) – present
Chronology
Related shows	Risco!

Risk! (stylized as R!SK) is a Kalșerian television game show created by Herbert Figg and Paula Williamson for the KBC. The show features three contestants attempting to win the highest prize by answering questions based upon general knowledge, as well as questions concerning a topic of their choosing. Risk! is filmed at the KBC Studio City in Jim's Hill, Takalim.

Airing since 4 September 1997, the series has been hosted by Robert Wellington since its inception, with rare exceptions, on the 8:30 pm Thursday slot, from the first week of September to the first week of June. It is broadcast in English, and closed captions are made available in Kalhan; the Kalhan-language version, called Risco!, airs on Wednesday nights on KBC's sister channel KNK, on the same periods of the year as Risk!.

Starting from the 2021–2022 season, Risk! consists of five games, with a final sixth one as a tiebreaker if necessary. The gameplay of the show has changed little throughout its runtime; only the second game has changed periodically.

Gameplay

Risk! opens with Icebreaker, a series of five true-or-false questions for each contestant, based on general knowledge, each worth ħ100. The returning champion is the last to answer. This is followed by At the Tip, where contestants guess the title of a book, stage play, film, song or television series through emoji within ten seconds. At the Tip lasts for five turns, each worth ħ500, after which the Letter Pyramid begins: each contestant is given a random letter and a pyramid of words to guess within 90 seconds; these words range from three to ten letters, and they all begin with the given letter. If all words are guessed before time runs out, the contestant wins ħ2,500.

The fourth game consists of a board of six columns, each with five questions, valued by difficulty and by prize, ranging from ħ300 to ħ700. Contestants must wait until the host has finished reading the question before pressing the button, or else they will lock themselves out for approximately a second. If a contestant presses the button and answers correctly, the value assigned to the question is added to their earnings; if the answer is wrong, or no answer is given within five seconds after pressing the button, the value is subtracted instead. No penalty is applied if no one presses the button within five seconds of the question being revealed. Nine of the thirty cells are specialy cells: four carry a 2x multiplier; three are Risk! cells, which allow the contestant to set the value of the question up to double the earnings of a contestant's own earnings; and the last two are charity cells, which do not have a question and subtract 15% of the earnings of the contestant who uncovers one. The sum raised through the charity cells is given to a charity chosen by the producers of the show, regardless of whether the charity cells were uncovered.

The final main game is Double or Nothing, where each participant is asked a series of questions — usually five — on the topic of their choosing, and must answer all of them within 60 seconds. If all the answers are correct, the contestant wins the double of the sum earned prior to the final game. If, instead, a wrong answer is given to any of the questions or time runs out before all questions have been answered, the contestant loses all of the earnings. The contestant with the highest sum at the end of the game is given the title of "champion", and participates in the next episode. Contestants with non-positive earnings — i.e. less than ħ1 — do not participate in the Double or Nothing game, and instead are given a consolation prize of ħ1,000 and the official board game; non-winners receive the same prize. If none of the three participants answer the Double or Nothing questions correctly, or if two or all of them finish the game with the same sum, a sixth game is played: Shoot-Out, which consists of ten general-knowledge questions, each worth ħ500, to be answered in 90 seconds: whoever answers most of them correctly is dubbed the "champion".

History

Pensada Television Productions founder Herbert Figg, who spent his professional life working between Kalșeri and Europe, said that he was inspired by Jeopardy! and by several European game shows, particularly those hosted by Mike Bongiorno in Italy. In 1996, Figg pitched the idea to the NCC-RNK, which declined, citing the disappointing figures achieved by its adaptation of Pyramid. The KBC, which had sought to port Jeopardy! to Kalșeri several times, most recently in 1989, tentatively accepted Figg's idea, and ordered the taping of ten test episodes in early 1997. During taping, Paula Williamson, chief financial officer of Pensada, suggested that the show feature some introductory rounds, which could be changed throughout the runtime of the show. Hosting duties for the test episodes were given to actor Steve Higgins; while he was seen positively by the audience, Higgins could not become the host on a permanent basis due to other endeavors. Following an internal selection, Robert Wellington was selected as host of Risk!. According to Wellington's autobiography My L!fe, he was told that he had been personally chosen to host Risk! by Anthony McMartin, one of the founders of the network, who "[...] said I could keep a fine balance between bubbly and authoritative." Wellington had been let go from the NCC-RNK in March 1997, due to a budget dispute and demands for more screentime in profitable time slots.

For the first two seasons, the contestants were placed into soundproof cabins, which were closed for the duration of the final round, and contestants listened to the questions by wearing headphones. Starting from the 1999-2000 season, the cabins were replaced with simple chairs, and the set was overhauled.

For the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 seasons, the COVID-19 pandemic in Kalșeri forced the KBC to change some elements: the audience consisted of people connecting to the studio via video call, and the chairs for the contestants were also moved further from each other. These changes were reversed for the 2022-2023 season.

Game history

Risk! has made few changes to its games throughout its runtime.

The first game, Icebreaker, initially consisted of true-or-false questions about each contestant's topic of choosing. The topic of the questions was changed to general knowledge starting from the 2002–03 season.

The only game that changes periodically is the second one. In 1997, the second slot was taken by Who, Where, When, Why, where contestants were to guess the name of an object through clues that helped identify the context. This was replaced with In Other News for the 2002–03 season: the game consisted of several "unusual" news, purveyed by Golden Sun, and the nature of the question varied: it could be an open question, a true-or-false alternative or a selection of four possible answers. From 2006–07 to 2010–11, a game of tic-tac-toe, where each contestant faced another one for a total of three games: for every correct answer to a question, the symbol chosen by the contestant was placed on the board; in case of a wrong answer, the other symbol was placed. Equations, where a sequence of three equations had to be solved, was placed in the second game spot for the 2010–11 season; this was replaced one season later with Kalhanșe, which consisted of a series of five uncommon Kalhan words the meaning of which had to be guessed. For the 2015–2016, the Letter Pyramid replaced Kalhanșe as the second game; following the introduction of At the Tip in the 2021–22 season, Letter Pyramid now occupies the third slot, before The Board.

#	1997–98	2002–03	2006–07	2010–11	2011–12	2015–16	2021–present
First game	Icebreaker (topic of choosing)	Icebreaker (true-or-false)
Second game	Who, Where, When, Why	In Other News	Tic-Tac-Toe	Equations	Kalhanșe	Letter Pyramid	At the Tip
Third game							Letter Pyramid
Fourth game	The Board
Fifth game	Double or Nothing
Sixth game	Shoot-Out

Special episodes

Besides regular episodes, Risk! airs two types of special episodes. The first type is Best of the Season, which airs on the first week of June, and sees the three highest-earning contestants of the season compete for the title of "Season Champion". It is the last episode of each season before the summer break.

The other type of regular special episodes is Celebrity Risk!, which airs on the Thursday before Christmas. In these shows, a trio of stars, usually working in the same field, play to devolve the largest sum to a charity chosen by the network, usually related to children's health.

Highest all-time winnings

The contestant with the highest amount won in the history of the program is René Phillips of Plymouth, Lág, who won ħ617,800 and answered questions about Evalria Citizens F.C.

Another notable winner is Randy Novikoff, grandson of Steve Novikoff, founder of Crayfish Crib; he has served as Representative since 2022, and as Minister of Youth and Sports under Jim Babich.

Contestant	Topic of choosing	First episode as champion	Last episode as champion	Weeks as champion	Total winnings
René Phillips	Evalria Citizens F.C.	5 May 2005	15 December 2005	20	ħ617,800
Phyllis Wexler	Lionel Richie	25 March 1999	28 October 1999	19	ħ584,900
Hugh Lorenz	Archibald Hayworth	2 September 2021	13 January 2022	18	ħ561,300
Elliot Marchigiani	The Bible	2016		18	ħ557,100
Randy Novikoff	Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics), 1993–2004	3 February 2005	5 May 2005	14	ħ511,200
Mary Theresa Silvers	Plays by William Shakespeare			13	ħ492,400
Eduard Mikaél Kaloșagi	U2			12	ħ479,100
Patrick Dugarry	Monarchy of Lág			11	ħ451,500
Matt Rúnorsi	Dogs in cinema			10	ħ423,600
Adam Shibukawa	Las Encinas Tiburones			10	ħ419,700

Personnel

Hosts

Steve Higgins was the host of Risk! for the ten test episodes filmed in early 1997. In July of that year, Robert Wellington was selected as host of the show after Higgins declined to become the permanent host due to other commitments. Wellington has since hosted the show regularly, with few exceptions for ill health or April Fools' Day; for the latter, Wellington swaps places with the host of a game show hosted by KalCom — most often Jake Burroughs, host of Countdown. Steve Higgins returned as host for several episodes when Wellington was ill.

In a 2019 interview with the Lennoxton Gazette, Wellington spoke of the experience as host of Risk!, saying that he would gladly accept the job a second time "if [he] were put back in 1997", and that neither he nor the KBC had plans for retirement from the show. He confirmed his intention to keep hosting "for as long as deemed necessary" in a 2023 interview with The Lens, and named some people he said he would recommend to the KBC if he were to retire — among which contestants René Phillips and Phyllis Wexler; Wheel of Fortune host Chuck Whelan; actors Steve Higgins, Liz Quinton and Sípora Kalungi; and rapper Ramy X as a "wild card".

Narrator

Voice actor Ted Romano served as the announcer and narrator for the ten test episodes and for the 1997–1998 season. Narration was provided between each game to sum up how contestants had performed up to that point. For the 1998–1999 season, Romano's role was reduced to announcing the beginning of each segment and congratulating the winner. The role of announcer and narrator was done away with entirely in the 1999–2000 season, and has not returned since.

Controversies

Ernie Williams attempted cheating incident

During taping for the 13 May 1999 episode, Ernest "Ernie" Williams of Clovis, Lág, was answering questions on the Double or Nothing game when a beep was heard. Robert Wellington stopped the game and asked to have the three contestants patted down: after security reported that a pager was found in Williams's body, he was ejected from the game. A new episode was taped with a different contestant: this version aired on 13 May, preceded by a brief clip where Wellington explained the circumstances; the episode that went on air did not otherwise reference the incident. Clips of the original taping were used in the 2011 documentary The Pager Incident: The Ernie Williams Story. As a result of the incident, starting from the 1999–2000 season, the set was redesigned to allow the host to see the bodies of the contestants more clearly.

The KBC banned Williams from appearing on any of its game shows for ten years, and tightened pre-taping security controls. Williams sued the KBC and Pensada Television Productions, claiming that the ten-year ban was illegal, but the Supreme Court of Takalim ruled that the producers of game shows have the right to ban misbehaving participants for as long as they deem necessary. During trial, producer Paula Williamson testified that Williams had been acting erratically during the taping of the show before the Double or Nothing segment: he was noted to have taken unusual lines of reasoning, and often hesitated and looked down.

Williams has since stated that the decision to bring a pager into the studio was made to highlight a security flaw. He returned to Risk! as a contestant in 2017, where he failed to win the Double or Nothing round.