On Saturday night, two contestants participating in the ITV gameshow Limitless Win won a million pounds. The contestants – named Helen and Charlie, from Suffolk – walked away with the prize after correctly identifying how many years it had been since Blur and Oasis battled it out for a No 1 single.
And, you know, good for them. Their ability to pinpoint key moments in the Britpop wars has made them incredibly rich. But if you detected a note of apathy in the wider public on news of this win, you’re probably right. Helen and Charlie may have a million pounds, but a million pounds isn’t exactly a million pounds these days.
Anyone with even a passing interest in pub quizzes will know the name Judith Keppel. In November 2000, Keppel was the first person to win a million pounds on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? It’s a common misconception that she was the first person ever to win this amount on British television, but that title goes to a man called Ian Woodley, who won a million pounds on a TFI Friday competition – designed to cut the legs out beneath Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? – entitled Someone’s Going to Be a Millionaire. But that’s by the by, because Keppel and Woodley benefited greatly. At the turn of the century, a million pounds was an incredibly large amount of money. Adjusted for inflation, a million pounds in November 2000 would now be worth £1,811,738.94. In terms of its value, this means that Helen and Charlie in effect maxed out halfway through a peak-era Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? run.
And it isn’t like a million-pound prize has been unobtainable for the past quarter of a century, either. In total, 14 people have reached or exceeded that amount on gameshows since then. Six people have won a million pounds on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, two on Survivor, and another on the long-forgotten gameshow The Vault. If you remember PokerFace (you won’t), then you’ll know that contestants won a million pounds twice, and if you remember Red or Black? (you won’t), then you’ll know that the million-pound target was either hit or exceeded four times. Indeed, because the last two shows were hosted by Limitless Win’s Ant and Dec, Helen and Charlie will have to console themselves with the fact that they represent the seventh time Ant and Dec have given away a million pounds. And seven times is a lot. For all we know, Ant McPartlin has eaten kimchi fewer times than he’s turned people into millionaires. No wonder the lustre is dimming a little.
In fairness, a few shows here and there have attempted to break through the fabled million-pound glass ceiling. Most recently, and perhaps most notably, Netflix awarded Mai Whelan $4.56m (£3.6m) for winning Squid Game: The Challenge. But that victory should really have an asterisk next to it. Squid Game: The Challenge was a reality show and not strictly a gameshow, and Whelan had to suffer through conditions so poor that contestants literally threatened to sue Netflix for giving them hypothermia and nerve damage. Helen and Charlie might have won a fraction of her prize, but they only had to possess a basic understanding of 1990s pop music to get it.
It’s also worth pointing out that the infamous Robert Kilroy-Silk gameshow Shafted offered a top prize of £2.5m in 2001, but nobody ever won that amount because the show was prematurely cancelled.
So this is all quite depressing, isn’t it? When it comes to honest meat and potato question and answer games, the entire TV industry seems unable to move beyond the fixed promise of a million pounds. Gameshow shrinkflation is real, and it’s making everything less exciting as a result. But perhaps all is not lost, and perhaps Limitless Win is the show to do it.
After all, the central conceit of Limitless Win is that there is no upper limit to the amount of money a contestant can win. If they hold their nerve enough, they can theoretically win an infinite amount of cash. So, while congratulations are undoubtedly due to Helen and Charlie for winning a million pounds, the viewing public has come to expect more. Show us someone winning so much money that they bankrupt the entire human race and then we’ll listen.
