'The Weakest Link' comes to Taiwan

The whirlwind that is the BBC's quiz show The Weakest Link has blown into Taiwan. Following in the footsteps of US television network NBC and broadcasting corporations from some 20 other countries, STAR TV Taiwan (衛視電視台) earlier this year bought the format license for the hugely popular show from BBC. The network says it is now ready to air the Taiwanese version of The Weakest Link (智者生存), premiering at 8pm tonight on STAR Chinese Channel (衛視中文台).

A prize of NT$2.2 million, the largest purse in Taiwan's television history, awaits any contestant who dares take up the challenge. The prize money has already lured several hopefuls for from around Taiwan. Several of the contestants in four pre-recorded episodes said they're currently unemployed and hoped to be able to take home the tempting prize.

Only the masochistic need apply. Contestants in the the local version, like those of the US and UK, will have to answer to a most abusive host.

Belle Yu (于美人), in Taiwan's version, will have the honor of heaping abuse on contestants. Although her resume lists several television and radio credits, Yu says her experience as a cram school teacher is what she draws on to replicate the nasty and caustic host of the BBC and US versions, Anne Robinson.

BBC's The Weakest Link began in the summer of 2000 and has attracted some 15 million viewers in Great Britain to date. The show was so successful, in fact, that NBC began the American version this spring, spending several million dollars to lure Anne Robinson, the show's UK host, into signing a six-year contract to host its US counterpart. Germany, Australia, Italy and Ireland are among the 20 other countries which have bought licenses for their own versions.

The game requires eight unacquainted contestants to team up and answer seven rounds of rapid-fire questions on general knowledge. With each question correctly answered, the team's winnings increase. Once a wrong answer is given, the pot returns to zero. Alternatively, the team can "bank" their winnings, but doing so will earn them less for correct answers in subsequent rounds.

Similar to the rules of reality television show Survivors, team members need to cooperate as well as compete with each other.

Each round ends with the tyranny of the majority -- a vote to jettison from the game the "The Weakest Link" on each team. Players who are voted out of the game face a walk of humiliation and leave with nothing but Anne Robinson's now classic tag line: "You are the weakest link. Goodbye!" Expelled contestants can later take their revenge backstage as hidden cameras look on.

Anne Robinson, the host of both the British and US versions, has won the title Rudest Woman on Television. Her bitter insults have become part of the lexicon of teachers and parents everywhere: "pathetic," "appalling," "shameful" and "stupid." She has attacked more than one contestant as being unfit for the challenge: "You're a coward, aren't you?"

And so for the show's Taiwan version, Yu is taking Robinson as her role model. She will be decked exclusively in black, never wear skirts, don scholarly-looking glasses and absolutely never, never smile. In order to look as icy as possible, Yu has even sought the help of a chiropractor, enduring hours of pain in order -- she says -- to have a thinner face.