Limitless Win
Ant & Dec's Limitless Win, sometimes known simply as Limitless Win, is a British game show hosted by Ant & Dec. It premiered 8 January 2022 on ITV. It was created and is produced by Hello Dolly Ltd. It is also produced by Ant & Dec's Mitre Studios. The set's AR elements use Unreal Engine 4.
Gameplay
Two contestants work together as a team to answer a series of questions whose solutions are all positive integers. In a preliminary round, they must answer as many questions as possible in 60 seconds, earning five "lives" for each correct response and incurring no penalty for a pass or miss. The contestants alternate turns; no conferring is allowed, and a contestant's turn only ends once they give a correct answer. The hosts decide in advance which contestant will receive the first question. If the team fails to answer any questions correctly, they are immediately dismissed with no winnings; these are normally cut from airings, so this has yet to happen after four series.Examples of questions used in the preliminary round:
- How many odd numbers are there between zero and one hundred?
- The London Eye typically takes how many minutes to complete one full rotation?
- Which song about partying was Prince's first UK Top 40 hit?
Examples of questions used in the main game:
- On 21 June 2021, the longest day of the year, the Shetland Islands experienced the most hours of daylight in the UK. How many hours was that?
- The Natural History Museum's Dippy the Dinosaur, which went on a national tour in 2018, is how many metres long in its displayed pose?
- How many countries have a land border with Germany?
If the team gives an exact guess, they receive five more lives and their bank is increased to match the highest cash value they have reached to that point. They may end the game at any time and keep their banked money, as long as they have not locked in a guess for the current question. The first 12 values displayed on the Limitless Ladder are £500, £1,000, £2,500, £5,000, £10,000, £20,000, £30,000, £50,000, £75,000, £100,000, £150,000, and £250,000. Onwards, every 10 additional steps will increase the prize by a further £250,000. There is seemingly no upper limit to the potential top prize.
If the error between the team's guess and the correct answer is exactly large enough to use up all remaining lives, the game moves into a "sudden death" phase. Any inexact guess on the next question ends the game and sends the team home with no money, while an exact one gives them five lives, banks the last value reached, and returns the team to normal play.
Reception
Michael Hogan of The Daily Telegraph felt that Limitless Win was Ant & Dec's first new success after a string of previous "flops", and not having been involved in a new format for a decade. He felt that "the game itself was a little fiddly but swept along in its propulsive momentum, viewers soon got the hang of it", and that the format felt "genuinely groundbreaking" in a "crowded" market for game shows.Stuart Heritage of The Guardian felt that Limitless Win was essentially Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? with "a few bells and whistles", and that the show suffered from pacing issues and "gratuitous complications" in its format. However, he praised Ant & Dec's hosting for their "perfectly weighted performance" in conducting the game, easily explaining the rules, and conversing with the contestants, and deemed it to be their "most effective new venture in probably two decades".
Viewership
The series premiered to over 6.3 million viewers, making it ITV's highest-rated non-scripted series premiere since The Masked Singer. With average viewing figures of 4.7 million, it was the highest rated game show of 2022. The third series opened to 3.8 million viewers.Transmissions
A sixth series has been commissioned.International versions
Banijay Entertainment owns international format rights.On 1 March 2022, it was reported that Banijay subsidiary Endemol Shine North America was pitching a US version of the series to local networks.
On 22 August 2022, RTL announced that they commissioned a German version of the show, Ohne Limit, to be produced by Endemol Shine Germany.