BBC Mastermind sparks fiery debate as fans rage at ‘ridiculous’ specialist subject choice: ‘Shouldn’t be allowed!’
BBC Mastermind fans have been left outraged, with many slamming the show after they felt one contestant’s specialist subject “shouldn’t be allowed”.
During Monday night’s episode, host Clive Myrie was asking questions to do with the subjects Henry II, Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple novels, and Wales rugby union test matches.
However, it was retired teacher Gary Austin’s topic of choice, TV sitcom Friday Night Dinner, which failed to impress viewers and caused outrage.
The Channel 4 series ran from 2011 to 2020, received two Bafta nominations, and starred Tamsin Greig, Paul Ritter, Simon Bird, Tom Rosenthal and Mark Heap.
However, as Austin racked up 12 points during the round, some viewers found it unfair and took to their social media accounts to express their annoyance.
One penned on X: “#Mastermind shouldn’t allow TV programs as specialist subjects! You watched a few episodes of a program?
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“Great. That’s not the same as studying world history, science, literature. Moan over haha.”
Another agreed: “At the least, they should ask questions about the production. Very rarely are there any questions about the writers, actors, or even when was it first aired.
“It’s often quite marked the relative differences in the first and second round scores.”
Someone else quipped: “A show that was on relatively recently and ran for 6 seasons Just binge watching a TV show doesn’t feel like studying for.”
“Can we please up the bar for acceptable specialist subjects?’ a fourth wrote, before another expressed: “6 series and 37 episodes. That’s not a specialist subject, that’s a passing interest.”
Another seethed: “They need to ban people from doing a sitcom as their specialist subject in Mastermind. It’s a sham of a mockery. Friday Night Dinner is way too narrow a specialist subject for Mastermind. 15 hours of telly.” (sic)
Despite the backlash the show received for allowing Austin’s topic, the contestant proved he wasn’t just an expert on Friday Night Dinner during the second round of Mastermind.
To his delight, he scored a total of 22 points from the general knowledge questions, marking his victory and sending him through to the next round.
Speaking about his success, he said: “Having won, I’m absolutely exhilarated. Completely amazed. I was delighted when Clive said that I’d gotten all of my specialist subject questions right.
“And then I thought I had a bit of a cushion against some of the others who might have had better general knowledge because I’m not really a quizzer.
“I’m not in a team, not in a league, I’m basically what you might call an armchair quizzer. I’m a massive fan of Friday Night Dinner.
“I had loads and loads of questions that I’d written on Friday Night Dinner, and rather than read them on my mobile phone, I asked my wife.
“She would read me a few hundred questions so that I could answer them and practice being in the spotlight.
“For someone who loves quizzes as much as I do, I think the glass bowl of Mastermind is the pinnacle of anything you can win, so to win that would be a dream come true.”