Anne Robinson has revealed why she adopted her signature ruthless presenting style on the game show The Weakest Link.
The journalist and TV host, now 80, presented the BBC quiz from 2000 to 2012 and was notorious for her scathing remarks directed at the contestants.
In an interview with The i, Robinson explained that she decided to take a more brutal approach after meeting “real quizzers” and learning that they were “ruthlessly competitive” and ready to criticise one another.
Initially, she said, her brief was to “look like you know all the answers. Then ease the contestants’ disappointment when they have to leave”.
“But when I met real quizzers, I realised that they were quite prepared to be horrible to each other and ruthlessly competitive,” she added.
A savage remark from one contestant about another player’s inability to name the Teletubbies “put a light on in [her] head”, she recalled.
“I remember one rehearsal, in a shabby room at the BBC where I asked a man why he was voting off a woman called Janet,” Robinson said.
“He said: ‘Anyone who can’t name the Teletubbies shouldn’t be here.’ That put a light on in my head. I thought: ‘Great! I can be myself! I can look at the contestants and say what people on the sofa at home are thinking: why are you so fat? You’ve got an annoying laugh. Were you on medication when you bought that top?’”
“I said nothing I wouldn’t have overheard in my old office at Fleet Street,” she added.
Robinson’s signature presenting style was certainly controversial, with some fans finding her jibes hilarious while other viewers believed that the “Queen of Mean” went too far with her comments.
Reflecting on her stint on the show in an interview with The Oldie last year, Robinson said that she would “never be able” to behave in the same way if she was presenting the show now.
“You’d never be able to say all that now,” she claimed. “Half of it would be stamped out.”
“I always thought the contestants would feel short-changed if I were nice,” she added.
