Now, on his The Rest is Entertainment podcast, the TV star revealed he has lined up a new role on rival broadcaster ITV. Richard says he will be presenting a new quiz show called The Golden Elevators, said to film later this year. He said: “Can I make an ITV announcement? Obviously I’ve left House of Games and Pointless and all of that, and I wanted to do a bit of TV and people have pitched me various quizzes and Studio Lambert, funnily enough, they came to me with a show called Golden Elevators, which is an ITV quiz that I am going to be filming this autumn.
“I’m looking forward to it very much indeed. I always think, if someone pitches me a quiz, ‘Do I like it as a quiz? Are viewers going to enjoy it? Is there something I could do to make this better?’
“Golden Elevators is the first one where I thought both of those things. It’s super simple but it takes a lot of skill to win it and I can present it in a really interesting, slightly unusual way, not kind of like a shiny floor, and I can give away a big prize.”
Richard’s podcast co-host Marina Hyde joked that his dream was to give away “a large amount of money on television with a sense of occasion”. Richard went on to reveal that the show will have a £100,000 cash prize.
He added: “I get to do that stuff, which I’ve done in runthroughs a million times in other people’s shows, where you go, ‘Okay, you have said Anne of Cleves, Marina, if Anne of Cleves is correct, you are walking away with £100,000, if it’s wrong, you’re walking away with nothing.
“That’s the thing I wanted to do and this show gives me an opportunity to do that. It’s a really, really fun show and you know, everything fails etcetera, etcetera, but I’m looking forward to doing it.”
Richard went on to reveal the production team have been doing run-throughs of the show in the past few weeks. Talpa, the studio behind the quiz, explains that The Golden Elevators sees 10 contestants starting in a skyscraper lobby attempting to reach the top floor and claim the jackpot.
Each round will begin with a trivia question, offering two answers that are linked to an elevator. The says that while it seems like a “simple choice” on the surface, the group dynamic “transforms the quiz into a psychological battlefield”.
Once a choice has been made, one lift will go on to the next floor while the other drops down, eliminating everyone inside. Jasper Hoogendoorn, from Talpa Studios, said: “This outstanding new format combines quiz and strategy elements with a gripping psychological layer and a strong, simple visual identity.”
