The Mint (Australian game show)

Program history

The Mint began on 31 July 2007 after the 2007 Big Brother series on Network Ten had ended, with its UpLate late-night show a similar phone-in quiz show. It was broadcast live on Nine Network stations GTV, TCN and QTQ, and affiliates TVT and NBN, while NTD in the Northern Territory aired a tape-delayed version with a disclaimer that Northern Territory residents could not participate live. Regional affiliate WIN Television started broadcasting the programme on 1 October 2007 but axed it in February 2008, stating it merely wanted to provide entertainment to its viewers. The show was filmed on a large, extravagant set designed to look like the inside of a mansion, and was dogged by criticism that its questions were ambiguous and arbitrary.

Hosting

The Mint was hosted by Rob Mills, Natalie Garonzi, Angela Johnson, Lyall Brooks, Lucy Holmes and former Quizmania host Katrina Conder, with former hosts Cherie Hausler and Nathaniel Buzolic. Only two hosts appeared on any night; the remainder were said to be sleeping in 'the Mansion', the studio set also used for Commercial Breakdown. The combination usually consisted of one male and one female performing as a double act, but also included two females. Hosts mainly appeared on camera by themselves, except at the start, when a prize was won, and at the end, presenting from different rooms within the mansion.

Games

The show's name came from a large vault on set that held a jackpot; those who correctly guessed a three-digit combination won a share of the cash, with a 1 in 1000 chance of guessing correctly. The prize money in the vault increased each Monday night but was capped at $10,000, and only winners of selected on-screen games were eligible for a single guess. Cash prizes were bigger than those on Quizmania, but winners were less frequent. Examples of on-screen games included: filling in one letter in each of four words to form a new word, with only one pre-selected solution winning; adding numbers from three sentences beginning with 'The number of...'; finding one of six 'hot words' in a word search, each worth about $500; guessing words on a tower worth between $50 and $500; and a puzzle called 'Code Red' on 2 August 2007 where viewers had to find and call in to tell the host 'how many reds' were in the puzzle.

The prize money for that puzzle started at $1000, rose to $2000 within ten minutes, then to $2500 within the next ten minutes, before reverting to $1000 at 167 minutes into the show with 14 minutes left. Despite the show lasting three hours with numerous callers, no correct answer was given and no prize money was awarded; at the end the answer was revealed as 80, derived by counting the number of times the word 'red' appeared (including across spaces and backwards – 9) and the number of characters in red (71).

Technical difficulties

On 16 August 2007 the show finished prematurely after phone lines went down, requiring hosts Mills and Garonzi to stall for 30 minutes; the last 30 minutes were replaced by a repeat of Keynotes, a short-lived game show from 1992. The phone system was run by Be.interactive, formerly Legion Interactive, the same provider used for most Australian call-in shows including Quizmania and Big Brother. On 24 October 2007 the show started without a game to display as the phone lines were down again.