Alhalqat Aladeaf

Arab world
Name	الحلقة الأضعف Alhalqat Aladeaf
Host	Rita Khoury
TV station	Future Television
Top prize	$16,000
First air date	October 14, 2001
Final air date	c. 2003
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	approx. 80
Episode duration	approx. 45 minutes
Broadcast format	576i SDTV
Air schedule	Mondays and Thursdays at 8:30 PM LBT
Catchphrase	أنت الحلقة الأضعف ، الله معك You are the weakest link, God be with you!
Language	Arabic

Alhalqat Aladeaf (Arabic: الحلقة الأضعف, The Weakest Link) was the Arabian-Lebanese version of The Weakest Link based on the original British format. It was presented by Rita Khoury and aired for two series on Future TV from October 14, 2001, until c. 2003. The top prize was $16,000.

Money chain

Question	Price (US$)
	Series 1	Series 1—2
9	2 000	—
8	1 600	2 000
7	1 200	1 600
6	900	1 200
5	600	800
4	400	400
3	200	200
2	100	100
1	40	40

• The Arabian version featured two money chains, the first with nine values before being reduced to eight, but both had the same top prize.

Rules of the format

The rules did not differ from the original British format.

Each game begins with eight players who just met; they must answer enough questions correctly to reach each round's target of 2,000 American dollars within the time limit.

The fastest method was to create a chain of eight (previously nine) correct answers. If a player fails to answer a question by giving a wrong answer, passing, etc., the chain will start over. If a player says "bank" before their question is asked, the prize money, which increases with each correct answer, is added to the round's bank, and the chain begins again. The final round's prize will be equal to the total amount of money banked in each round.

The first round lasted for 2 and a half minutes; the following rounds were shortened by ten seconds until two players remained. The penultimate round before the final gave the two players one minute and thirty seconds for double the stakes of 4,000 American dollars.

The first question is directed to the player whose name appears first in the Arabic alphabet. In the following rounds, the first question is directed to the player who statistically performed the best in the previous round as "the strongest link."

At the end of each round, the team votes to determine who to remove as "the weakest link," which is then revealed by flipping their boards in the following order. The player who holds the majority of votes will be subsequently voted off; if there is a tie, the player who was statistically "the strongest link" that round will cast the final vote in the tiebreaker.

In the final round, the strongest link from the previous round will determine the direction of the first question, and each player will be asked five questions until a winner is determined. If there is a tie, the game moves to a sudden death round, in which contestants are given questions in pairs, and the first to correctly answer a question over their opponent's incorrect answer wins.

On-screen graphics

• The production company for the Arabian version created all of the on-screen graphics from scratch.

• Unlike in most formats, the final round's on-screen graphics are displayed in opposite order, according to the Arabic language, but correct answers are still marked with a tick and incorrect answers with a cross.

Opening titles

Money chain (original)

Money chain

Final round

Prize amount

Closing credits

Closing titles

Soundtrack

The soundtrack did not differ much from the original British format.

• Each segment of an episode preceding a commercial break ended with a brief sting, since the original format did not have commercial breaks.

• During the final round transition, the Arabian version used the main sting rather than the official cue. When the winner was announced, they used the main sting for "let's play sudden death.".

• A short sting is used when the presenter turns to face the camera just before ending the show.

Catchphrases

• ! أهلًا وسهلًا ببرنامج الحلقة الأضعف (Welcome to the Weakest Link program!)
• ! خلينا نلعب ، الحلقة الأضعف (Let's play, the weakest link!)
• ! حان الوقت لا تفكروا تقرروا وتصوتوا مين برايكم هو الحلقة الأضعف (It's time, don't think, decide and vote who you think is the weakest link!)
• ! أنت الحلقة الأضعف ، الله معك (You are the weakest link, God be with you!)
• ! شاهد تو برنامج الحلقة الأضعف ، الى اللقاء (You have watched the Weakest Link program, see you later!)

Trivia

• If a contestant living in the Arab world were willing to participate in the program, they would have to travel to Beirut, Lebanon, for filming.

• The Arabian version is the only format with the American dollar as the top prize outside of the United States. Because contestants came from a variety of Arab countries using different currencies, the top prize was decided to be the US dollar, which is relatively strong and stable.