'Dominatrix' Robinson is BBC's £30m link to an international hit

A television game show which encourages contestants to gang up and humiliate each other to win a few thousand pounds looks set to make the BBC more than £30m in world-wide sales.

A television game show which encourages contestants to gang up and humiliate each other to win a few thousand pounds looks set to make the BBC more than £30m in world-wide sales.

The BBC's "mean TV" quiz programme, The Weakest Link, is about to be sold in at least 10 countries around the world - and could make the BBC £30m within the next five to ten years, its founder David Young said yesterday.

The hit show features Anne Robinson in dominatrix mode, ticking off contestants for poor performance and forcing them to walk the humiliating "walk of shame" off the show when their team members vote them out for being "the weakest link" if they fail to answer enough questions correctly.

"About 10 companies in America have put in bids to do the show, and we are in the final stages of deals with television companies in Germany, Italy, France, Australia, the Netherlands and Portugal," said Mr Young, who is the BBC's head of light entertainment.

The overseas sales, says Mr Young, owe a huge debt to the global success of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? " Millionaire is the greatest format ever done, and we are not in Millionaire's league," he said. However, Weakest Link has been able to follow Millionaire into markets where British quiz shows are deemed to be hot property.

"What Paul Smith [the inventor of Millionaire] has done is make my job cool," said Mr Young. "It used to be done by naff old men in sparkly jackets."

Domestically, the programme is the BBC's most successful new light entertainment programme in 10 years. On its first outing at BBC1 prime time, on Tuesday, an average of 7.8 million viewers tuned in, and at times the show beat the ratings for ITV's police drama, The Bill. In its BBC2 daytime slot, the programme is breaking records by attracting more than five million viewers.

Two hundred editions have now been commissioned, and BBC1's controller, Lorraine Heggessey, said yesterday she would make an assessment at Christmas about running it more than its initial once a week. Mr Young said that a special "champion of champions" edition at Christmas would carry a larger cash prize than the £20,000 currently on offer - the largest the BBC has ever offered. "I quite like the idea of doubling up the money," he said.

The overseas sales will probably, according to Mr Young, make millionaires of Fintan Coyle and Cathy Dunning, who initially suggested The Weakest Link idea to the BBC - although, in its early stages, the quiz show itself was completely different.

The attraction of the programme, according to Dr Glen Wilson, a psychologist, is largely due to the embarrassment of failed contestants. "It's a bit like Japanese endurance shows," he said. "People have a sadistic streak and they like to see others being humiliated."

He also points to the school-ma'm-verging-on-Gestapo approach of Anne Robinson. "The concept of the superbitch is a turn on to certain males. They like a dominant female ticking them off."

On balance, though, he thought that contestants on Millionaire should be more frightened.

"The fear of being shown up on television would be even worse against Chris Tarrant," he said. "Because on Millionaire you are more high profile."