Only Connect
Only Connect is a British television quiz show presented by Victoria Coren Mitchell. In the series, teams compete in a tournament of finding connections between seemingly unrelated clues. The title is taken from a passage in E. M. Forster's 1910 novel "Howards End": "Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted". "Only Connect" aired on BBC Four from 15 September 2008 to 7 July 2014, before moving to BBC Two from 1 September 2014. From 2008 until 2013 the show was recorded in Studio 1 at the ITV Wales Studios based at Culverhouse  Cross in Cardiff, which have now been demolished. It moved temporarily to Roath Lock Studios in Cardiff in late 2013, before settling in Enfys Studios in Cardiff from 2014 onwards. Format. "Only Connect" is deliberately difficult, and its contestants are often characterized – including within the show itself – as nerdy or geeky. Teams are encouraged to take names which reflect specialist interests or hobbies, such as the 'LARPers' or 'Francophiles'. The show's questions will cover any topic, and many may require knowledge of both arcane subject areas and popular culture. Questions may also be self-referential, or based on linguistic  or numeric tricks, rather than requiring any particular factual knowledge. When presented with the clues, contestants are not told the type of the connection, and as such part of the gameplay involves establishing whether the connection is thematic, linguistic, factual, mathematical, etc. Coren Mitchell's presenting includes very dry, sarcastic humour, which may include a gentle mocking of herself, the contestants, the viewers, the show's production team, celebrities, or other popular quizzes. Each programme has two teams of three people competing in four rounds of gameplay. In the first three series, clues in Rounds 1 and 2 and the  connecting walls in Round 3 were identified by Greek letters. In series 4 Coren Mitchell announced that this idea had been dropped, ostensibly due to viewer complaints that it was too pretentious. Henceforth Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs (two reeds, lion, twisted flax, horned viper, water, and the eye of Horus) would be used instead. The show's opening sequence displayed Greek letters in the first episode of Series 4, but these were replaced with the hieroglyphs in subsequent episodes. Series 1–6 had a straight round-robin "knockout" format, which was then modified to a double-elimination tournament, in a rule change  that Coren Mitchell said that even she did not fully understand. Series 12–13 shifted to a format identical to "University Challenge", with a knockout first round combined with a repechage for the best performing losers and double-elimination quarter-finals. The number of competing teams has fluctuated: 16 in series 1, 3–6, 10–11 and 14; 8 teams in series 2, 8 and 9; and 24 in series 12–13. The difficulty of questions generally increases by each round. For Series 16 changes had to be made to the production of the show due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the new British  government requirements and guidelines on television productions. For this new series, each team now sit at their desks socially distanced with perspex screens dividing the team members, with no huddled conferring permitted. For the connecting wall round, each team stands socially distanced apart, with perspex screens separating them, with only the team captain permitted to use the keyboard. These changes were kept in place for Series 17. Round 1: Connections. Teams are given up to four clues and must try to figure out the connection between them within 40 seconds. The team is initially shown one clue, and may request  the remaining three clues at any time within the 40 seconds (they are not automatically shown). The team may press their buzzer to guess after the first clue for 5 points, the second for 3, the third for 2, or the fourth for 1. If the team guesses incorrectly, or fails to buzz within the time allotted, the question is posed to the other team for a bonus point, after being shown any remaining clues. Typically, one of the six puzzles involves pictures, and another uses pieces of music, both classical and contemporary. Music questions are generally considered among the  toughest questions in the quiz, and a team's dismay upon realising they have chosen the music question is a frequent source of humour on the programme. Round 2: Sequences. In this round, each set of four clues forms a sequence. Teams may see a maximum of three clues, and must figure out the fourth item in the sequence, again as early as possible. Teams score points for a correct answer even if their explanation of the connection is incorrect, or if they provide an alternative connection between all four clues. Some sequences may have more than one accepted answer , while others only have one. As in the previous round, each team will play three sets; again, if one team fails to guess, it is thrown over to the other team, who can see any remaining clues and earn one point by guessing correctly. As in Round 1, one of the sets of clues involves pictures. Starting from the quarterfinals of Series 10, there is occasionally a sequence made by three music clips, and the contestants must supply the title of the fourth unplayed music clip. For example, sequential clues of "Anger", "Bargaining" and "Depression" would be correctly followed by  Acceptance, these being the 2nd through 5th stages of the Kübler-Ross model of grief. Round 3: Connecting Wall. Each team receives a wall of 16 clues and must figure out a perfect solution, consisting of four groups of four connected items. The puzzles are designed to include red herrings and to suggest more connections than actually exist, as some clues appear to fit into more than one category. Teams score 1 point for each group found within 2 minutes 30 seconds. They try to create one group at a time, and may make unlimited guesses on the first two  groups. Once two groups have been identified, they only have three chances to identify the remaining two groups. Should the team fail to complete the wall, the missing groupings are shown. Teams can then earn 1 point per group for identifying the connection, regardless of whether they correctly identified the grouping. A team that identifies all four groups and all four connections earns a 2-point bonus, for a total of 10 points. Unlike the previous two rounds, teams have no opportunity to score on their opponents' wall. On 1 March 2010, an interactive online version of this round was  put on the Only Connect website. From mid-2011, coinciding with series 5, the website took online submissions for new Connecting Walls; the online game was discontinued for series 10. Round 4: Missing Vowels. In a final buzzer round, the teams are presented with a series of word puzzles. The category of the puzzles is given before they are displayed, and each category contains a maximum of four puzzles. Each puzzle is a word or phrase with the vowels removed and the spaces shifted to disguise the original words. For example, in a category of "Booker Prize-winning novels", a puzzle  of "VR NNGDLT TL" would be correctly answered as ""Vernon God Little"". Teams answer simultaneously using buzzers, and score 1 point for each puzzle they solve. Initially there was no penalty for guessing incorrectly on this round, but starting with the quarter-finals in Series 1, teams have faced a penalty of 1 point for each incorrect answer. Additionally, if the team that buzzes provides an incorrect answer (even by a single letter) or fails to answer quickly, the opposing team is given an opportunity to answer for a bonus point. The round lasts for between 90 seconds and three  minutes. The team with the most points at the end of the game is the winner. If teams are tied, then a single sudden-death puzzle is given to the captains of each team. If a captain buzzes in first and gives the correct answer then their team wins, but an incorrect answer automatically forfeits the game. Although no category is officially given, they make reference to their own role as sudden-death questions. Examples are "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish", "To the Victor, the Spoils" and "Winner Stays On".