Weakest Link (Australia, 2001—02)

Australia
Name	Weakest Link
Host	Cornelia Frances
TV station	Seven Network
Top prize	$AU 100,000
First air date	February 5, 2001
Final air date	April 22, 2002
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	c. 97 (list of episodes) 86 (Series 1) 11 (Series 2)
Episode duration	approx. 45 minutes
Broadcast format	4:3 SDTV (widescreen)
Air schedule	Mondays and Thursdays at 7:30 PM AET (Series 1) Mondays at 7:30 PM AET (Series 2)
Catchphrase	You are the Weakest Link, goodbye!
Language	English

Weakest Link was the Australian version of The Weakest Link, based on the original British format. It was presented by Cornelia Frances and aired for two series on Channel 7 from February 5, 2001, until April 22, 2002. The top prize was 100,000 Australian dollars.

Money chain

Question	Price ($)
	2001—02
9	10 000
8	8 000
7	6 000
6	4 500
5	3 000
4	2 000
3	1 000
2	500
1	200

Rules of the format

The rules did not differ from the original British format.

Each game begins with nine players who just met; they must answer enough questions correctly to reach each round's target of 10,000 Australian dollars within the time limit.

The fastest method was to create a chain of 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 twenty seconds for triple the stakes of 30,000 Australian dollars.

The first question is directed to the player whose name appears first alphabetically. 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 Australian version used the on-screen graphics provided by BBC Studios Entertainment Productions and from scratch.

Opening titles

Original money chain

Money chain

Total prize

Final round

Closing credits (February 2001)

Closing credits (March 2001)

Closing credits (November 2001)

Closing credits (March 2002)

Closing credits (March 2002)

Closing titles (March 2001)

Closing titles (November 2001)

Closing titles (March 2002)

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.

Catchphrases

• Welcome to the Weakest Link!
• Let's play the Weakest Link!
• It's time to vote off the Weakest Link!
• You are the Weakest Link. Goodbye!
• Join me [Monday/Thursday] on the Weakest Link. Goodbye!

Trivia

• The Australian version was the first to broadcast its own version of the format, which was distributed by BBC Worldwide.

• In this version, the two finalists are moved to the fifth and sixth podiums in the final round instead of the traditional method using the fourth and sixth podiums with the fifth podium removed. It is presumed that the middle podium cannot be removed as easily on the old Australian studio compared to any other.