ITV place their bets with Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern

Best on the Box choice for December 7th…

An old friend is back on ITV1 and STV this evening, having been away for quite some time. You Bet! is back, refreshed for 2024.

Hosted by Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern, the epic gameshow brings to screen ordinary people who take on extraordinary challenges. From spectacular daredevil stunts to quirky tests of passions and pastimes, get ready for a brand new Saturday night spectacular!

For each challenge, a star-studded celebrity panel and the studio audience must bet if the challengers can do it – YES or NO? And the stakes couldn’t be higher because the audience’s favourite challenger of the night will win a massive £10,000…whilst the losing celebrity must take part in the dreaded forfeit finale.

“You Bet! aired on ITV for 10 series in the 1980s and 1990s. Originally hosted by the great Sir Bruce Forsyth and later by Matthew Kelly, it was a stalwart of Saturday night TV. Now, it’s back…supercharged and reimagined for 2024.” – ITV

LWT 1988: Bruce Forsyth launches You Bet! for ITV. Bruce hosted the series until 1990 when he returned to the BBC.

Holly Willoughby:

“You Bet! is a challenge-based gameshow that the whole family can get involved in. Ordinary people come on the show claiming they can do extraordinary things, and you simply bet whether they can or can’t do it – it’s a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ guessing game. We also have our celebrity panel who place their bets. If they are incorrect, they are in with a chance of doing our celebrity forfeit at the end of the show. And no one wants to do that!”

Members of the public will use their unique abilities to pull off the most outrageous challenges imaginable, all for the chance of winning a big cash prize. Based on the original ZDF format ‘Wetten Dass?‘, the new ITV version will be produced by Rollercoaster Television which is part of ITV Studios.

The format remains unchanged from those familiar with the London Weekend Television production of old as a panel of celebrities and the studio audience must predict if each challenger can complete the extraordinary challenge with which they are faced. Guess correctly and points are added to the celebrities’ score, based on the percentage of studio audience who voted the same way.

Holly Willoughby:

” I remember watching You Bet! as a kid, and I loved it. For me, it felt like true Saturday night telly. I remember being glued to the TV whilst watching a digger pick up 6 delicate eggs in its giant jaws and placing them on egg cups, all in a minute. I remember looking at my Dad who was equally as enthralled as I was. I think the show works for all ages and is real family viewing.”

From 1990 to 1995 Matthew Kelly, who also at the same time hosted Stars In Their Eyes, fronted You Bet! / LWT

Stephen Mulhern:

“The great thing about You Bet! is that, unlike any other gameshow on TV, everybody watching can play along. Everybody can bet on the challenges, deciding whether our challengers can do it…or whether they can’t. Every time I’ve ever been asked if there was a show that I could ever bring back, I’ve always said You Bet!. So now is the chance for younger viewers who have never seen the show before to enjoy it and the older audience to reminisce and also see the show being brought up to date.”

At the end of the show, the studio audience vote for their favourite challenger who takes home a whopping £10,000. At the same time, the celebrity with the highest score wins £10,000 for their chosen charity, while the celebrity with the lowest score takes on the entertaining final forfeit. With a host of special celebrity guests, jaw-dropping skills, lots of surprises and fun for all the family, it’s all to play for! Do you want to bet on it? You Bet!

The series launched on ITV in 1988 with Sir Bruce Forsyth as host, followed by Matthew Kelly in charge and finally a less successful run with Darren Day overseeing proceedings. The final edition aired in 1997 after a revamp that saw viewers turn off across its final two series.

Stephen Mulhern:

“Holly and I love working together and we had so much fun on the show! But some of the challenges are really nail-biting and we were literally hanging onto each other. In one challenge the challenger is attempting to scale the outside of a multi-storey car park to get to the top faster than a professional driver can drive up it. The climber slipped, the driver was almost hitting the posts, we could hardly watch, so I’m so glad we had each other for support.”

You Bet, tonight at 8.15pm on ITV1, STV, ITVX and STV Player

LWT: Diane Youdale and Darren Day – You Bet!