New York, NY – BBC AMERICA’s Summer of London programming continues on Wednesday, July 25 with a tribute to the London Games featuring the US premieres of the uplifting drama Going for Gold – The ‘48 Games, starring Doctor Who’s Matt Smith, and Absolutely Fabulous: Olympics special starring comedy icons Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. Going for Gold is a British television game show that originally aired on BBC1 between 12 October 1987 and 9 July 1996. It was revived for Channel 5 from 13 October 2008 to 20 March 2009. including Copper’s Tom Weston-Jones. The Nerdist: Comic-Con premieres Saturday, July 28, 9:00pm ET/PT. In The Nerdist: The programme has been adapted in France, where it became a very famous game show Questions pour un champion, which still airs today on France 3, is hosted by Samuel Étienne since February 2016, replacing long-time fixture Julien Lepers (November 1988 – February 2016). Going for Gold – BBC One London – 18 March 1992". BBC Genome Project. 18 March 1992 . Retrieved 22 May 2016.

The 1987–1996 run of the quiz show each week had seven contestants that spoke English (each representing a different European country, although each of the home nations of the United Kingdom fielded their own contestants) who would compete against each other for a place in the finals. The show followed a repechage format (now common, but was unusual then), whereby unsuccessful contestants from Monday's show would return on Tuesday, and so on throughout the week. Each episode lasted for 25 minutes, including four rounds. Going for Gold – BBC One London – 31 March 1988". BBC Genome Project. 31 March 1988 . Retrieved 22 May 2016. Going for Gold – BBC One London – 22 March 1990". BBC Genome Project. 22 March 1990 . Retrieved 22 May 2016. Going for Gold – BBC One London – 12 November 1993". BBC Genome Project. 12 November 1993 . Retrieved 22 May 2016. Players scored based on the number of consecutive questions they got right – if an incorrect answer was given, their score returned to zero. The score taken from this round was the highest point reached over 40 seconds. After this round, the two highest scoring players went through to the final round. A "first to two" general knowledge playoff was held if there was a tie, using the same style of questions from round 1.

I had rowed a very small bit at school. Matt, I don't think, had ever been in a boat ever before," says Hoare. "We had this amazing coach who works for [the elite] Leander Club and also coaches the GB team." The Finals week consisted of eight winners from the Semi-Finals (four from each week) competing in a standard week format of three daily heats with the winners advancing to the Grand Final (directly to the Beat the Buzzer round). The Grand Final episode would start with a "First-to-Two" Elimination Round amongst the remaining five contestants and play as normal to the Head to Head where the winner would receive the star prize holiday (as described in every episode) and the runner-up would get a consolation prize (e.g. a colour television, or a gold-plated Going for Gold plate). Going for Gold – BBC One London – 25 August 1994". BBC Genome Project. 25 August 1994 . Retrieved 22 May 2016. Going for Gold – BBC One London – 12 October 1987". BBC Genome Project. 12 October 1987 . Retrieved 22 May 2016.

The Beat the Buzzer round was a general knowledge round, played with hands on plungers. Questions were worth one, two or three points. Beginning with a general knowledge question worth one point, a contestant who gave a correct answer would be told the subject of the next question, and got to choose the value to play for. If nobody answered correctly, it restarted with another general knowledge question worth one point. The first three players to reach six points (or nine in the 2008 version) went on to play the next round. The Semi-Final weeks occurred at the end of each half of the season with between 7–10 weekly winners (depending upon season length). Each week was made up of four daily heats with the winner of each heat going through to Finals week and the losing players returning each day (there was no weekly final). By this point the contestants were buzzing in noticeably earlier as the standard of competition increased.How best to market "the Jubilympics" as a joint branding venture between the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics. Going for Gold – BBC One London – 7 September 1992". BBC Genome Project. 7 September 1992 . Retrieved 22 May 2016. There were ten series in total (two in 1992). The first five series were broadcast during the winter, and many of these were split in half by the Christmas break. The (second) 1992 and 1993 series went out in the autumn, the last three were broadcast during the summer. The 1996 series featured competitors from the United Kingdom only and was moved to an earlier time slot, immediately before the 1.00 pm news. Going for Gold – BBC One London – 6 November 1989". BBC Genome Project. 6 November 1989 . Retrieved 22 May 2016.