Almost exactly 11 years ago, the final episode of Big Break, a British game show that paired ordinary contestants with professional snooker players to win cash and prizes, aired on BBC1. It was not the first billiards game show (an honor that belongs to Ten-Twenty, which aired in the 1950s). Nor was it the first billiards game show to feature “celebrity” pool players (check out Celebrity Billiards with Minnesota Fats from 1967). And it was certainly not the last game show to incorporate billiards (the short-lived Ballbreakers aired in 2005). But, by any measure, it was the most popular billiards game show, with 222 episodes, plus 8 Christmas Specials and 8 Trick Shot Specials, airing between April 1991 and October 2002.
The format of the show is well-detailed on Wikipedia, but I’ll summarize the main points, starting with the hosts. Off-color comedian Jim Davidson was paired with former snooker player John Virgo, who served as the “straight man” for Davidson’s barrage of banter, mockery, and impersonations. (In later years, Davidson became the subject of much controversy for his offensive jokes about ethnic minorities, homosexuals, disabled people, and rape victims. Some speculate, not surprisingly, that Big Break was ultimately canceled because of Davidson’s reputation.)
Each 30-minute episode paired three contestants with three professional snooker players. Though in the US, billiards players sadly do not achieve celebrity status, such was not case across the ocean in the United Kingdom. Starting in the late 1960s, with the BBC’s decision to broadcast tournaments, snooker became increasingly popular, and by the mid-1980s, the sport was at its apex, when 18 million TV viewers watched the World Snooker Championship in 1985. This back-story explains why a game show with snooker players could become so popular. In fact, many of the current and former stars of the sport at the time, including Dennis Taylor, Jimmy White, Alex Higgins, Willie Thorne, and Allison Fisher, appeared on Big Break. The episode below from 1993 features snooker stars Peter Ebdon, Ken Doherty and Terry Griffiths.
The first round of play was called Red Hot. In this round, contestants would amass 10-second increments of time by answering questions correctly. The snooker players then had to “pot” as many balls as possible in that rewarded time (maximum 40 seconds).
The contestant paired with the player who potted the fewest balls then had a chance to win a consolation prize (including a Big Break board game) in the mini-game Virgo’s Trick Shot. In this game, Virgo would make a trick shot, and then ask the contestant to make it. If s/he were successful (and often the hosts would “help” get the balls in), the contestant won the prizes.
The two remaining contestants then competed in the next round of play called Pocket Money. In this round, each snooker player had to play by traditional snooker rules for 90 seconds with the snooker balls being worth amounts of money. When the player missed, the contestant would need to correctly answer a question for play to resume. Whichever contestant won the most money moved on to the final round, Make or Break?
In the final round, contestants were given 90 seconds to answer five general knowledge questions. Each correct answer allowed the snooker player to remove one red ball from the table. After the questions were answered, the remaining time was given to the snooker player to clear the snooker table with the benefit of having had a certain number of the red balls removed.
It’s interesting to quickly compare the wild success of Big Break to the wild failure of its American step-cousin Ballbreakers, which aired in 2005 on the Game Show Network and lasted just one year. On one hand, each was a product of its time and origin. Though Big Break missed the snooker heyday era by at least five years, it still was birthed by a country that loved the sport and the professionals who played it. In comparison, the US TV networks have never looked favorably at billiards, and as a result, the US players, with the exception of Jeanette “Black Widow” Lee are basically unknown to the larger American TV-watching audience. In this sense, Big Break started in the penthouse; Ballbreakers launched from the basement.
But the other interesting point of comparison is that Big Break left the billiards to the professionals. And they were exciting to watch, especially under the 30- to 90-second time pressure of the different rounds. Ballbreakers made the terrible decision to let the contestants play the pool. This may sound very populist and cool, but it made for awful viewing.
All of this begs the question…could Big Break be remade in parts of Asia, where billiards players are already recognized as celebrities? Could it be remade today as an American game show and a way to increase the popularity of billiards in the United States?
You can find episodes of Big Break, including the Christmas Specials (with celebrities) on YouTube. Other relevant blogs on Big Break worth reading:
