The Third Degree: Week 1: Anglia Ruskin

So, here goes my first attempt to get some new stuff on here. Some may recall I posted about this show last week. It fills in the space previously occupied by Brain of Britain until Counterpoint starts. Steve Punt hosts, as three university students take on three of their lecturers, or 'dons', in a series of quizzes.

The first show of the third series came from Anglia Ruskin University, in Cambridge. The students were:
Jake Lowery, studying Film Studies and Creative Writing
Sam Matty, studying Social Work
Jeffrey Benton, studying Graphic Design

And the dons were:
Dr Nina Lupren (Film Studies)
Peter Scoufield (Social Work)
Will Hill (Graphic Design)

The first round sees each team get given questions, with the other team being offered a bonus if they don't know it. The teams generally did quite well in this round, with only one question not being answered by the team it was initially given to. At the end of the round, the Dons led 11-8.

We then got the first of the specialist round, where one student, and their respective don, being given a series of questions. If a don doesn't get the answer, the student can get a bonus, but the dons cannot answer dropped student questions.

The next round was a list round, where the teams had to give as many answers on a specified subject in 30 seconds. If they get eight, they get a bonus. The dons managed five on 'men or women who have been in space', while the students got four on 'rivers of the World longer than 2000km'; the students were soon restricted to naming British rivers, none of which were right. The Dons now led by 18-14.

After the second specialist round, we moved on to 'Highbrow-Lowbrow'. In this round, all six players are given a key word, and must decide whether to answer the Highbrow question, or the Lowbrow one. The catch is, the question they reject goes to their opposite number for a bonus. Students get two points for a correct highbrow answer and one for a lowbrow one; for the dons, it's the other way around. This round usually takes up most of the show, and is the most interesting round of the show. This week, only two players opted for the two-pointer question, meaning it was mostly one-pointers. After this round, the Dons led by 28-19.

We then had the third specialist round, before the final round, which is a straight buzzer round: one point for a correct answer, minus one for an incorrect interruption, and no bonuses are allowed.

The end result saw the Dons win 35-28. A good performance by the students, but not quite enough. The dons generally run away with it in 'Highbrow-Lowbrow', as they can answer the lowbrow questions better than the students can the highbrow.

I hope this review wasn't too complicated. It should run better next week, without the explaining of the rules.