OK, I'm not entirely sure how this will go down with the rest of you, but I was discussing this with my dad when watching Joe's game. Recently the ages of the contestants have dramatically risen. At the moment, I would say that there at the very most, only 5 contestants who are under 40!
Note: I am not ageist in any way, but surely a prize like £250 000 is going to be more use to someone of Charlie's/ Kelsie's age rather than someone along the age lines of Philomena/ Dee's...discuss!

I am 21 (Applied for the show) I dont see it that way at all i don't think its open for discussion i think Endemol have done well in getting young players on in the past and To question whether an older contestant does not deserve to win as much as a young person is ridculous really aswell. I like the mix but i honestly prefer it being 20 over 30's with 2 youngsters (18-23) Examples Danny and Joey with the group etc...

Oh I don't think in any way that older people should win less, just for the benefit of those who read this post and think that I am an ageist git.

Surely a prize like £250 000 is going to be more use to someone of Charlie's/ Kelsie's age rather than someone along the age lines of Philomena/ Dee's?


Then please explain this

Well they're young, they possibly have an education to pay for, or maybe young children to look after, they could do so much with that money that older people may not be able to physically do anymore. Plus older people have benefits, etc. while younger taxpayers may struggle, just a thought that's all...

I have NOT heard so much tosh in my life..

You ever heard of debt, taxes, holidays, wills etc

These rack up and NOT cheap to discrimate against an age group is disgusting and even as a 21 year old im ashamed.

dond_rules I think you are being a little harsh in saying this is toddle or whatever. I know exactly what unix_eight means.

In the past, there have been very few younger players who have said very little and could be classed as 'boring'. However, there have been very exciting older people aswell (eg. Rosy, Pat M), and very non-exciting people on the wings too (eg. Bob [2], Patrick [3]). However, every game is different and nine times out of ten the player gives an entertaining game. Just look at Bob [2].

I think it is coincidence that the current lot are quite old, as well as boring. I also think the blue chants swallow up valuable talking time. Just look at Penny yesterday, when she said "I hope you've got a first class mail in your box" or something like that. Rita was just about to start another chant. If the chant started a little earlier, we wouldn't have heard Penny.

Thank you, that's what I was trying to get across.

Well, why didn't you state that in your first post then? It seems you were saying that younger people will make better use of the money than older people and now you're saying the point you were trying to get across is what little_monster said, which really, has no relevance to what you said at all.

I'd disagree with that...I think there've been plenty! It's just that younger contestants can often get away with it purely by being good-looking, and people notice them that way. Take Charlie at the moment - she's barely spoken on the show, as far as I can recall, yet has a fair few fans on here just because they fancy her. It's harder for older players to stand out because people generally aren't bothered about the way they look and expect them to have entertaining personalities instead, whereas younger players can have one or the other.

I have to agree with that - especially as most of us here on the forum are under 20, so if there's a "boring" young player, if they're good looking then people fancy them, and they're noticed more. If an older player is "boring" - chances are the young people on this forum won't fancy them and will therefore forget them, so older players have to have character and can't just get noticed by standing there looking pretty like the younger players can!

Some examples include Pat M - she was a huge character, yet someone like Bob (2) wasn't a huge character on the wings and as far as I know, no-one on here fancied him so his time on the wings was forgotten about.

At the other end of the scale, people like Joey and indeed Charlie, who don't really do much on the wings, stood there and looked pretty and so had many fans. The same applies for Alasdair and Danny. Sometimes there are young players who are good looking and have character. Like Spiky Paul and Steven.

There also seems to be a bit of a bias towards having young, good looking females on the show, rather than young, good-looking males - I wonder if Noel has anything to do with this?

I think that although there have been some brilliant older characters in the past, there now seems to be a huge majority of older people that aren't that exciting. I still believe that younger people, with their whole lives ahead of them could use the money very well whereas older people are not going to have debts etc that cover £250 000. The point of this thread was not to emphasise the current 'boring' period that has been brought up in other threads, but just to dicuss that we don't seem to be seeing as many young people as we use to.
Also, the point of this thread was to express what you thought of the topic; not to stab at me for my views...

I am not condemning your views, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

I don't want you to think that I was criticising, I just didn't understand where you were coming from, but now you've explained it to me more clearly what you were saying, I completely understand. Re-reading my post again, I did come across as a crabby bitch - I apologise, I should have rephrased it and thought before I typed. Sorry.

Thanks Banker, didn't want to argue with anyone.

Then again, older people are more likely to have big families and children/grandchildren whom they'd like to help out with the money. Younger players are mainly just responsible for themselves.

I disagree.

Yes, Danny was made popular on the wings by looks because he looked about 12 years old. However, Joey and Alasdair were made noticeable by Noel because they often revealed big numbers, even though Joey wasn't that much of a terminator anyway. There was never any mention on the show of Joey being attractive, or Alasdair being good looking.

Yes I know, I was more talking about the reactions of people on the forum towards them!

Oh, stop talking about Danny and Alasdair! You'll get me overexcited again.

ALASDAIR



and Danny.

Attractive young players get attention regardless of what they do. Its plain to see on here and I'm just as bad as everbody.

Older players have to be 'characters' (like Doug) to get attention and the trouble is there has been too many older 'nobodies' on lately. Joe yesterday - lovely bloke, sent me to sleep.

Presumably the producers have some criteria for contestant selection which they look for in auditions. It must be a nightmare in these politically correct days trying to keep all the various social groups happy. Too many old, too many young, not enough ethnic minorities, not enough gay players, what about the disabled, blind, short, fat, tall, ginger ... etc All ready to bleat and whine if they feel excluded or hard done by.

The pendulum will probably swing back to the young sooner or later.