Una vez en la vida

A classic of quiz shows, Constantino Romero, was the conductor of the programme in which the entire studio started off taking part. The spectators-cum-contestants were divided into 7 groups of 30 people. They were given questions so that some of the sections of people were gradually eliminated from the contest. Mental agility and speed in pressing the answer buttons were the rewarded skills, so that the fastest contestants passed through the early heats. After several questions, one section (classified alphabetically, from “A” to “G”) was the winner, with 300,000 pesetas: in other words, 10,000 pesetas for each of the spectators in this section.

From then on, 20 of the spectators from this section were chosen at random by computer to take part in the quiz on stage. Different questions eliminated the contestants so that, at the end, there was one winner with a bag containing 210 million pesetas which they could keep according to the result of the last series of questions, seven in all. Each incorrect answer signified dividing up this quantity so that 0 errors meant winning all 210 million. One mistake, 30 million; two mistakes, 6 million, 3 mistakes, 2 million; 4 mistakes, 1 million; 5 mistakes, half a million and 6 mistakes, 250,000 pesetas. If the contestant got all seven questions wrong (they were multiple choice questions) they won absolutely nothing. The final question session was undoubtedly the most exciting part of the quiz, since the results were not known until all the answers had been given.