Intellectual game - "Weak link" - primary classes, presentations

Interesting Facts

During voting, a voiceover reports the results of the round - who is the strongest and weakest link, as well as statistics on their answers and adding money to the pot. On ORT this was done by Dmitry Roshchektaev, on Channel 5 by Pavel Kipnis, and on the Mir channel the voiceover is by Pyotr Kuleshov.
At the end of 2002, the presenters of Channel One game programs swapped places. Maria Kiseleva hosted the New Year's edition of the program “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”, and “The Weakest Link” was hosted by Leonid Yakubovich. This issue set an absolute record - the winner received a prize of 402,000 rubles (the main prize was 1 million rubles). The winner was actor Roman Madyanov.
The largest winnings (in regular episodes of the program, and not in special projects): with a main prize of 400,000 rubles: 232,000 rubles - Alexey Shashkin (July 8, 2004), 212,000 rubles - Mark Garth (March 2002) and Vladimir Vorontsov (14 May 2003), 210,000 rubles - Grigory Dubovitsky (March 10, 2003);
with a main prize of 350,000 rubles: 225,000 rubles - Sergey Filippenkov (June 26, 2005; relative game record - 64% of the maximum amount), 215,000 rubles - Viktor Gridnev (January 29, 2005), 202,000 rubles - Alexander (February 20 2005).

The smallest winnings (in regular episodes of the program, and not in special projects): 21,000 rubles - Anatoly (May 21, 2005), 31,000 rubles - Lidiya Kareeva (January 8, 2002), 34,000 rubles - Dina Nazarova (June 15, 2008), 35,000 rubles - Dmitry Romashkin (February 28, 2020), 37,000 rubles - Ramil (November 3, 2008).

The only time when presenter Maria Kiseleva may have broken the rules of the game occurred in 2005. In the penultimate round, two participants voted against a strong player, which raised suspicions among the presenter of collusion. She made her decision, and the participant who played the weakest left the game.

Immediately after winning one of the program’s episodes, participant Maria Shustikova went to the maternity hospital. The next day she gave birth to a son.

Natalya Pavlinova took part in the game four times, of which she won once. Semyon Rodygin participated in the game three times and won all three times out of three.

Since 2020, many members of the GameShows.ru forum have taken part in the TV game, including Andrey Bystritsky, Artyom Goryachev, Viktor Danilkin, Demid Naumov, Ilya Flid, Mikhail Dexbakh, Pavel Parusov and Savely Voronin.

The maximum round amount of 50,000 or 40,000 rubles was won at least 8 times: in issues of May 14, 2003, July 8, 2004, August 11, 2004, January 29, 2005, March 12, 2005, March 13, 2005, 21 August 2020 and September 18, 2020. Additionally, on the January 29, 2005 episode, the required amount was added to the pot a second before time expired, and was also doubled because it was won in the last round before the final. In the September 18, 2020 episode, the amount was also collected in the pre-final round and doubled.

Players reached the top of the chain once (this happened in the August 11, 2004 episode). In the December 25, 2002 and September 25, 2020 episodes, the team was one step away from putting the maximum amount in the pot early in the first round.

There were also situations when players did not increase the main prize by a single ruble during the entire round. This “phenomenal” result was achieved at least seven times - in issues dated August 11, 2004, August 30, 2004, February 17, 2008, May 1, 2008, October 26, 2008, March 27, 2020, and April 17, 2020.