Power of 10 (SA) is a South African television game show based on the American show of the same name created by Michael Davies, in which contestants predict how a cross-section of South Africans responded to questions covering a wide variety of topics in polls conducted by M-Net.
The top prize is R10-million, making it the biggest prize in South African television history. The series is produced by Rapid Blue for M-Net Original Productions and is hosted by Mark Pilgrim.
Power of 10 (SA) premiered on M-Net on Sunday 3 August 2008, at 18h00. There are 19 hour-long episodes in the first season, which ends on 7 December.
It premiered on DStv's M-Net Series channel on Friday 8 August 2008, at 21h00.
Synopsis
Power of 10 centres around people's perceptions about the world and contestants need to predict popular opinion as accurately as possible.
A market research company polls thousands of people around South Africa with a host of questions on a variety of topics. The contestants then have to accurately predict what percentage of South Africans answered the questions in a specific way.
The tone of the questions include the results of quirky surveys like:
What percentage of South Africans have used load shedding as an excuse for arriving late at work?
What percentage of South African men prefer wearing boxer shorts to jocks?
What percentage of South Africans would prefer having a female president?
Format
In the first round of the show two contestants go head-to-head in a best-of-five elimination to see who gets to play for the cash. The questions get read, contestants get 10 seconds to make their prediction and lock in their answer and the person who gets to three points first wins the round - which takes them onto the money round.
Once playing for money, the style of the questions remains the same but the contestant can predict a range in their answer to get closer to the correct percentage.
For instance, if they want to predict that 60% of people have used load shedding as a excuse to get off work they can either lock in 60% exactly or they can guess a range, e.g. 50-60%. The wider the range, the less cash they play for.
To win the R10-million they have to accurately predict the exact percentage. See "The Game Explained in 10" below.
To make the game a little easier, the show includes several game show innovations to assist contestants. When nerves start setting in, they get the opportunity of checking whether their opinion matches those of the studio audience and a family member or friend at their side before they lock in their answer.
The Game Explained in 10
1. Two contestants go head-to-head in a challenge to decide who's going to play for the cash. The first contestant to get three answers correct wins and gets to play the game.
2. They then answer a series of questions that take them to R10-million. The first question is for R1,000 and the money increases times 10 for each question - so the process looks like this:
Question 1: wins you R1,000
Question 2: wins you R10,000
Question 3: wins you R100,000
Question 4: wins you R1,000,000
Question 5: wins you R10,000,000
3. The questions are based on statistics gathered from South Africans across the country. A marketing research company called Markcorp gathered all sorts of data from 2,400 South Africans everywhere - including rural areas - and collated the answers into stats for the game.
4. To answer the questions contestants need to guestimate what they think people said in response to the research questions posed. An example of the type of question: "What percentage of South Africans think we're being conned by Eishkom?"
5. As the money increases, the answer becomes more difficult because contestants have to get closer to the exact correct percentage.
6. Based on the example, contestants need to answer like this:
Question 1: they need to give an answer that has a 40% give-or-take around the correct percentage e.g. they might answer that 60-100% of South Africans think we're being conned. If the correct answer is 78% they win the R1,000. If it's 35%, they don't.
Question 2: they need to predict the answer within a 30% give-or-take, eg: 30-60% think we're being conned.
Question 3: the prediction needs to fall into a 20% range, e.g. 55-75% think we're conned.
Question 4: the prediction needs to fall into a 10% range, e.g 60-70%.
Question 5: Has to be the exact percentage. If the contestant gets Question 4 correct they're given the chance to try to predict the exact percent.
7. When a contestant gets Question 4 right, they can choose if they want to play for the R10-million or leave with a R1-million.
8. If they play and get the answer spot-on, they win - if not, they lose the million and take home R10,000.
9. Each contestant brings along an assistant/friend who they can consult if they're having second thoughts about an answer.
10. As soon as a contestant gets an answer wrong, they're out of the game and a new head-to-head begins.
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