I learnt of the important "ambient drop" terminology yesterday where a counter drops but nobody can claim it so it just gets removed from the machine

No, I don't work in a betting office.

I take an interest in probability and odds and how they can be applied to game shows like Tipping Point, The Chase and Deal or No Deal. And The Code, as mentioned by JeffG1.

Despite the name, I'm male.

The name Sarahsaurus is in honour of Sarah Harding from Girls Aloud.

Although it sounds like a made up comedy name, sarahsaurus is a real dinosaur.

I think if you want to be recognised as male, you shouldn't call yourself Sarah

Well you learn something every day. I see that sarahsaurus is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur. (Let's wait for that question on Tipping Point )

Oddly enough, one of the characters in Michael Crichton's book The Lost World (the sequel to Jurassic Park) was called Sarah Harding, so there's another dinosaur/ Girls Aloud connection there.

Sarah Harding ( the Girls Aloud one, not the one in the book) was born Sarah Hardman. Not many people know that.

Not many people want to know that!

No prizes for guessing who will win today.

"A trumpeter plays which musical instrument?"

You have got to be kidding me! *roll eyes*

Nice to see Ben get his cuddle today.

Just clicked on the tipping point thread and was reading the posts for a couple of minutes before I realised they were from 2013! I had gone to first page instead of last.
You were a regular poster even back the VQ

Hi btw!

I've been around an awfully long time.
Hiya David. Hope business is good.

"How many hours are there in one day?"

Seriously? Just who is writing these questions!? *roll eyes*

How thick were the 2 in the semi final His dropping was rubbish and the woman was as thick as shite.

What on earth were the other 2 like

Today's episode was a repeat.

And?

I think most of us are aware that they are showing repeats at the moment. However, I for one haven't seen them before.

I think this is part of the round 1 strategy - to get someone to say something, to get the counters to start stacking up. And it's actually easy to trip up on those questions (not that one maybe!) just because they're so obvious you think - surely they didn't just ask that.

Take it from someone who knows! I don't mean I got an obvious question wrong, but I didn't get the round 1 strategy right, because I didn't give it enough thought beforehand (probably for the best as I'd have hated Ben to try and haul me up for a victory hug and have to take several months off for medical reasons). Once you're past there, that's when it's a proper general knowledge quiz.

Also, to answer something that's come up previously (I only found this site very recently), they do tell you to explain your answers and 'show your personality' once you get to round 3, or even to make the odd comment in round 1 as the counter is dropping, so that's why some people seem to be more talkative.

I'd encourage anyone to have a go because the production people make every effort to help you relax and have a great day, Ben is genuinely willing contestants to do well, as are the production team, and the chances of winning - and such a lot of money too - are very high. Compare that with something like Pointless.

Don't laugh, I got into a "mass debate" with a forum poster (it may have been on here) who swore absolutely blind that there were 12 hours in a day - because you had 12 hours of night. So he would have got that wrong.

Seriously?! lol

Did you tell them the number of hours in a "night" depends on the time of year anyway? So even by their dodgy theory they're still wrong!

A poor display of general knowledge by both contestants in today's head to head.

Amazed they did not make him retake that question in the final.

If she had got it wrong she would have a great case because Ben called 'Don Juan' (as in Don Whan) - Don Jewan!

It was the correct pronunciation as it is a satiric poem.

A couple of production things I noticed which you can probably confirm. I've been on The Chase and in the intros (which are filmed separately), it's an absolute no-no to start the intro with 'Hi' or 'Hello' - just straight in with who you are. I'm guessing you are told the same on Tipping Point - am I right?

Another thing - are you told to look straight ahead while Ben is doing the initial intro when the show starts? It seem pretty obvious to me - otherwise the contestants would be watching him.

You are right on both counts (I think that if we weren't told to look at the machine, as they put it, we'd end up reading the autocue, which would look strange to viewers as we'd be staring straight at the camera). The only thing they ask the 4th person to do is to add 'and' at the beginning of their intro. It was really interesting to see how they put a TV show together - first time for me. How did you get on in The Chase? I think that's a very good show all round, but so high pressure compared with Tipping Point!

So apparently, the letter M comes before R!

Some howlers from the blonde contestant today. Timbuktu is on which continent? She said Ireland. What does the O stand for in the computer operating system DOS? She said system. Needless to say she got none of her questions right.