At least Mark goes into the hall of fame!
He's a great guy, and I hope he can see the funny side if there is one!!
The catapults were a disaster this week and should never be repeated.

Poor old Mark, took it real hard didn't he bless him. If it were me I'd probably laugh just as Nikki Tucker did but it depends on who you are as a person I guess. That was quite a game to watch with my grandma.

There is no funny side of humiliation on national television, I'm afraid. It is very difficult to find anything positive about this disastrous situation. I believe the term "Hall of Fame" should only be reserved for the show's biggest winners.

However, I do agree that the catapult should be retired, even if the producers are clearly using it as a budget-saving measure. Behind the scenes, I'm sure they were having a good laugh at all this, much like the Banker was.

There's nothing to stop an enterprising contestant who was adamant they didn't want to deal at 8-box but didn't want to partake in the catapult to try and make some sort of compromise with the banker. It may not work but the flexibility of the rules shouldn't just be a one-way deal.

Poor taste or not, but I had to VHS the +1 of this... the first recording I've done for years... first ever 10:1 colour split at 11 box, first ALL BLUE 9 BOX, WORST ever 8 box, lowest set of offers and the official worst game ever.

Not much else to say really. The odds are astronomical, but not impossible, this game just being utterly compulsive viewing for its record breaking misfortune.

Question for the stats people, what the chances of a 10:1 split at 11 box, and a 9 box of one colour ? Many thanks !

Chances of a 10:1 split are roughly 0.00312%. You'd expect it to happen once across over 32,000 games! You'd expect to see a 9-box of one colour once in every 4522 games.

Wow... nothing else to say. Poor Mark.

Thanks very much Matt

Will have to contradict you here matt, your first calculation's slightly off.

The chances of a 10:1 blue split are 121 in 705,432, or just above 1 in 5,830. A 10:1 split (blue or red) is 1 in 2,915. To have a worse board, you would either need:

An 11:0 blue board: 1 in 705,432
A 10:1 blue board with £1k/£3k: 2/11 * 121/705,432 = 22 in 705,432
A 10:1 blue board with £5k, and removal of £10 to £750: 6 in 705,432
A 9:2 blue board with £1k and £3k: 1/55 * 3,025/705,432 = 55 in 705,432

The chances of having a worse board than Mark's at 11-box is 84 in 705,432, or 1 in 8,398.

The odds of having a 9:0 blue board are 55 in 497,420, or 1 in 9,044. Including a 9:0 red board, is 1 in 4,522, as you say.

So, nearly as unlikely as getting a ball in a hole with the catapult, then.

Seriously, amazing game, for all the wrong reasons. Everyone (including the Banker, trying his best to help despite the schadenfreude and character) was on his side; but it just shows how helpless you are against the nature of luck when it doesn't go your way. Winnings don't necessarily go to the right people. That's what keeps us riveted, I guess.

Psycho's definitely going to have to add Mark's 9-box to his sig!

Oops, I realise what I did wrong - the figure I got was for the 10:1 split with the 1 blue/red being a specific blue/red! Rather than a 10:1 split in general...

But yeah, definitely the most unlucky DOND game EVER.

I'm trying to get it to work ! Be there soon...


EDIT : Right, it's there. It's pretty small, but I did what I could. It's there.

Looking at those statistics - Mark would be top of the list if there were to ever be any second chance games. Jesus H Christ...

For posterity purposes only:

Not a lot you can say about that game, record breaking bad luck and just no hope of redemption.

In any other themed week where the catapault hadn't been the 5 box twist Mark would probably have had a fighting chance of getting the holiday, as it was even the Banker's machinations didn't help.

And of course the second time the Banker's offered a swap back , and the second time the player made the wrong choice

A horrible game to watch, but fascinating nonetheless

OMG, That was unbelievable!!

I never thought i'd see a game THAT unlucky. I think You can remove Chris from your sig now PsychoKiller

On a side note. Mike has indeed made it to the 30 show mark, first player to do it in nearly 2 years!

Sorry wasnt around to post on the day, a total laptop hard drive failure has mad eme buy a new hard drive and recovery disks etc!! I was there for this show, and it was bad to see. In response to someone asking why he was not given the chance to stay on a £500 / £50 gamble, why would he stay on that? The only thing he could gain was £50 against the chance of winning the £500 PLUS a holiday? Would u really turn that down for just £50??

Also in Lizs game the next day, she told us about what happened at the hotel, and im really annoyed they edited it right out. presumable to make you carry on thinking Mark left with nothing. As the players the left the studio they spoke about a whip round for Mark. Some of the pilgrims heard too (i didnt as was on the west wing side which is first out) and that night in the hotel they passed an envelope to Mark with £500 in cash, of which £100 was from pilgrims. He was over the moon apparently as having £500 cash in his hand felt like so much money.

So a bad game, but not as bad as it could have been.

Aw, that's really nice to hear.
Shame it was never mentioned in Liz's game.

Interesting to recieve a response from the banker this morning admitting that if the talk about Marks whipround was cut from Liz's show, then that was an editing error as it was major content, and he will investigate.

So that was MEANT to be there? WTF Endemol?

Don't blame Endemol, blame the editor(s) (whoever it is)...

That would be the BBC Post Production team at Bristol. Endemol record the show but the BBC make the necessary edits.