My Visit to The National Lottery Jet Set Show at BBC Television Centre in London, UK

Saturday 24 May 2001
A revisit on Saturday 19 January 2002

The National Lottery Jet Set at the BBC.

This is my 5th visit to a Lottery Show, which was broadcasted on Saturday 24 March 2001. This time was the National Lottery Jet Set hosted by Eammon Holmes. This is based around a quiz show. As in previous occasions, I requested a ticket to the show via the Internet. You do need to check the site every so often to see what was there.

As I was around the Oxford Street area for most of the day, it was a leisurely pace to get to Television Centre. Earlier in the day, I visited the BBC Experience at Broadcasting House just off Oxford Street (Oxford Circus Underground). It was interesting to find out the early life of the BBC.

I arrived at the BBC at 6pm. There was a large queue already there. Just two weeks before hand, a bomb in a taxi cab caused a bit of damage at the BBC and the repair work can be clearly seen.

After security, I headed towards the audience foyer. Here I saw the BBC shop which I brought a t-shirt and a mug. After 30 minutes, I was surprise to see that not many people turned up to see the show, compared to shows hosted by Dale Winton.

A few minutes to 7pm, the audience was called and all headed to Studio 4, where Lottery Jet Set is broadcasted. From the audience Foyer to studio, we went past the Jet Set limo and lots of television cables on the ground.

In the studio, we were all seated. 7:30pm came and compare came on explaining how the show works and this time, prizes where available, from Champagne to a Winnie the Pooh Easter Egg!. All we had to do is to be the best/funniest dancer or the loudest cheer/clap. A few minutes later, the whole audience danced to the song "YMCA"!. Eammon Holmes, the host of the show also turned up a few minutes before transmission.

Show time was at 7:40pm. The slight difference to this, compare to other lottery shows except National Lottery Big Ticket, is that a majority of the show is pre-recorded earlier in the day. The rules of the quiz. 6 players answering questions in turn. Get the question right and you stay in the game. Get the question wrong, the players are in the red. The contestant can either play or pass, depending on whether they wish to answer the question in the category which the host gives. At the end of the round, the player who is in the red is knocked out. This carries on until 2 players are left. Then the 2 players left play a head to head competition. The first person to get 4 points plays the head to head against the previous weeks winner. In the final, the first person to get 3 points wins a week on holiday, millionaire style. This week prize was a trip to Dubai.

Here are the various part of the show, indicating whether they are pre-recorded or live. All cheering and clapping are broadcast live throughout the show. All lottery draws are LIVE.

During the quiz, a card was held up in front of the audience, saying, "please do not whisper the answer", even though the first part of the quiz was recorded! I think this was meant to be used during the live broadcast of the final quiz.

During the drawing of the balls, the compare held up a champagne bottle and point to it, to remind us that someone is going to win it. When lottery extra was drawn, he held up the Winnie the Pooh Easter egg!

That's it. I hope you have a feel of what it is like to be an audience for The National Lottery Stars. If you do manage to get into London and tickets are available, do make a trip and see it. It is now just the lottery, but entertaining fun.

Revisit to The National Lottery Jet Set Show at BBC Television Centre in London, UK

I went back and revisit the National Lottery Jet Set Show on Saturday 19 January 2002, my 6th visit to a lottery show. Still hosted by Eammon Holmes. This time, it was only 2 weeks before the show I decided to apply for tickets.

At 6pm, I arrived at Television Centre. There was already a long queue. What I didn't know at the time was that around 100 people where allowed in. I was number 81. If you ever want to come and see the show, I say 5:30pm will be right.

After security, I headed towards the audience foyer.

A few minutes to 7pm, the audience was called and all headed to Studio 4, where Lottery Jet Set is broadcasted. It seems that most of the lottery draws are broadcasted from Studio 4. From the audience Foyer to studio, we went past the Jet Set limo and yet more television cables on the ground.

In the studio, we were all seated. 7:25pm came and compare came on explaining how the show works. Yet again, prizes where available, from Champagne to a t-shirt!. All we had to do is to be the best/funniest dancer or the loudest cheer/clap. A few minutes later, the whole audience danced to the song "YMCA"! (Sounds familiar as this happened in 2001 when I went to the show). Eammon Holmes, the host of the show also turned up a few minutes before transmission.

Show time was at 7:35pm. Rules of the quiz appears above. It appears that there are more live broadcast than the last series. At the start of the show, the 6 contestant were on the set. After the holiday diary was shown, the pre-recorded quiz was shown and behind the scene, there was a slight set change and we knew who was the 2 semi-finalist before the first person got eliminated.

Here are the various part of the show, indicating whether they are pre-recorded or live. All cheering and clapping are broadcast live throughout the show. All lottery draws are LIVE.

During the quiz, a card was held up in front of the audience, saying, "please do not whisper the answer", even though the first part of the quiz was recorded (again)

During the drawing of the balls, the compare held up a champagne bottle and point to it, to remind us that someone is going to win it. There was a slight delay after the 3rd ball was drawn on the Thunderball draw as the machine appeared not to function again!

The main difference between series 1 and series 2 is that there is a lot less pre-recorded parts in series 2 than series 1. Go and see the lottery show. It is a fun night out!