Sport Mastermind is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 television quiz show

Quiz Show

Quiz Show is a 1994 American historical drama film produced and directed by Robert Redford. Adapted by Paul Attanasio from Richard Goodwin's memoir Remembering America, the film is based upon the Twenty One quiz show scandal of the 1950s...

 first broadcast by BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 television in July and August 2008. The show is a spin-off of the long running quiz show Mastermind

Mastermind (TV series)

Mastermind is a British quiz show, well known for its challenging questions, intimidating setting and air of seriousness.Devised by Bill Wright, the basic format of Mastermind has never changed — four and in later contests five contestants face two rounds, one on a specialised subject of the...

and is themed on sport. Veteran TV sport presenter Des Lynam

Des Lynam

Desmond Michael "Des" Lynam, OBE is an Irish television and radio presenter based in the UK.He has hosted television coverage of high profile events for many years...

 was the host and question-master, with the show itself titled Des Lynam's Sport Mastermind in many TV listings.

Format

The format of the show was nearly identical to that of Mastermind, using the same famous theme music and black chair. Contestants answered two minutes of questions on a sport-related specialist subject followed by two minutes of questions on general sport knowledge. The contestant with the highest total score was the winner of the heat. Whereas in Mastermind heat winners advanced to a semi-final round and then to the final, Sport Mastermind used a leaderboard system with the 6 highest-scoring heat winners advancing to the Grand Final.

Winners

The first champion and Sport Mastermind 2008 was Chris Bell from Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, who took The British and Irish Lions

British and Irish Lions

The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...

 as his specialist subject in his heat and The Life and Career of Geoff Boycott in the Grand Final.

External links

• BBC Press Office release