Arghh, this game was awful. Poor Anj being forced into that swap. What a terrible idea! I saw that 1p coming no matter what way she played it. Got to compare that with Dennis's game a few weeks back when his indecision for dealing early was awarded with a no lose situation and poor Anj's bravery for going to end was rewarded like this! A decent offer would have been FAR better. BTW what happened in PJ's game?

Knee jerk reaction by The Banker, rather than going home with 1p he gave PJ the amount that was opened for the home viewer competition. In this case it was the biggest amount, £15,000. This was a consolation for not receiving a final two box offer. All this happened in May 2007.

In my opinion they should've let him leave with 1p.

Well, I'm glad I didn't end up watching this again, since it sounds rubbish... Actually, that's been happening a lot lately. I still like the game itself, but the how around it has become... different, somehow.

Though really, it's not much different to Sharon being offered 3k on a 1p vs 20k finish four years ago (who'd take 3k on that finish?) Though that's now 33 1p winners. All comedy value of winning the lowest amount has long since disappeared tbh...

And were hit with that!

This Season's turn around was a very quick one, wasn't it?

This only works if the producers know where the money is. If they don't, the expected payout increases to the mean.



This works, but then why are these players still then castigated for their decisions by Noel on a sporadic, but still all too regular, basis?

Removing the excessive twists and guilt trips saves money and increases viewer satisfaction at once. What's not to like for Endemol?

Personally I feel the game is using too many gimmicks and twists at the moment. I know its a tv programme and the makers have the right to play with the formula too spice things up (though some sites argue different). However, there has a to be a certain degree of fairness to the proceedings. Consider this game in the light of Dennis's game a few weeks back when his decision to deal early was actually rewarded with a get out clause, and when that seemed to fail, a no lose swap at the end. Sure there are players that are arguably more popular and therefore worth more to the ratings, however, speaking as a ex player, very often those they choose to promote as gamblers or safe players, or even down to popularity can all come down to the edit. That's fine for the programme, but shoudln't make such a massive influence in the way they treat each individual player in their actual game. They're trying to be too clever at the moment, and frankly I dont think its working.

Glad I missed this one due to being on a train down to Bristol for tomorrows filming. An easy £20k win for anyone who would never swap.
A bit of a coincidence as Anji was the newbie who replaced the first player I saw play on one of my pilgrimages.

Glad I missed this one due to being on a train down to Bristol for tomorrows filming. An easy £20k win for anyone who would never swap.
A bit of a coincidence as Anji was the newbie who replaced the first player I saw play on one of my pilgrimages.

That is fair enough, I think, and I would have said the same if I'd seen the game, 'live'. The thing is, she wasn't even given a damn offer at the end, just a stupid swap but it's her own silly fault for taking it.

GLad I've stopped watching, cos that result would've rightly peed me off

It's just the whole "your box is your fate" theory I guess...

...right now I'm off to watch Aidy Lewis face James Wade in Dublin in the darts! Screw X Factor

...And you people still watch this garbage because...?
Oh, wait. Who am I, you ask? Just a casual interloper, is all. Carry on with the post-mortem, then.

In many respects Anji's game never recovered from that awful opening round, but the Banker's swap only offer at 2 box (with no get out clause) was below the belt.

I actually have a lot more sympathy for Anji than i did for PJ because in his game at least there was good motivation for the swap offer (If memory serves he had already accepted a first round swap but bottled opening his rejected box), here it seemed a very arbitary decision. If Anji had done something to provoke the Banker then fair enough but she didn't so why do it? The only motivation i can think of is to create a 'watercooler moment' and that says they consider the show to be more important than the contestants. Without contestants there would be no show, they should be treated with more respect.

Wow, that was just cruel, especially since Anji had an all-blue round, shows what a difference the stigma of the 1p makes, leaving the £1 would've probably seen a return to the £6k offer. I might twitter him to tell him how evil he is (he'll probably take it as a compliment though!) However, I can't deny the twist creates some dramatic shock value, but whereas PJ left himself open to it by leaving his original box, Anji really didn't deserve it. But then again, there is no rate card...

I've seen a few games were the've had an early swap and they've left that box to last, Howie's being the most recent, and the banker never punished him for it - quite the opposite in fact. Though I think twists that favour the player are acceptable, but twists that punish them aren't fair. Unless its a theme week which seems to be every other week at times. Its all the more unjust when in another game with the same board, Anji would have been given an offer after every box.

As for watercooler moments, they're getting rid of them at my workplace because of budget restraints, so its not going to happen at my place.

I guess the only difference with Howie's game was that he gave a specific reason for leaving the rejected box to the end (it was his son's birthday I think), plus there was already one gimmick on the cards at that point with the threat of him leaving with nothing at all if a blue was in his box. PJ didn't appear to have a particular reason I think, and the only other occasion I can think of (there are probably more!) where it was just a swap offer at 2-box - John in March - he'd asked more or less specifically for it, because the box on the wings was his daughter's birthday. The impression I get from Anji's game was that she hadn't implied any feeling for the other box, or at least not that she wanted to swap for it (didn't see the game so correct me if I'm wrong), making the whole thing seem really quite ugly.

If the production team thought they'd get a more dramatic ending by offering a swap instead of a half-decent offer, then it would seem they were right in that respect, but the ending we got must have felt even less satisfying than if Anji had dealt a half-decent offer then had £20k in her box all along!

Watched this on Sunday and I was really pissed off!
I know the banker's supposed to be a big meanie but that was just unreasonable. She should have at least had the last offer. You could tell she wanted some money badly - she didn't just laugh the 1p club membership over, she was almost in tears.

Also I never understood the big deal with swaps... I think there's a bit of hindsight involved.