Вокруг света: Финская викторина о географии

Finnish quiz show

Maailman ympäri ("Around the world") is a Finnish quiz show shown on YLE TV1 from 2000 to 2004. The show was hosted by Finnish TV presenter Simo Frangén and had a geography theme. The main prize was a trip around the world (hence the name). The second prize was a luxury weekend trip in a randomly selected European country. Prizes below this level were much cheaper. Maailman ympäri had four contestants. Usually, two were men and two were women, and likewise two were celebrities and two were ordinary people. (The sex division and the celebrity division only very rarely correlated.)

Maailman ympäri consisted of four rounds, during each of which one contestant was dropped out.

Round one had numerical questions. There were four questions, each one about a different country. The countries were randomly selected with the first being from Europe, the second from America (comprising both North and South America), the third from Africa and the fourth from Asia (also encompassing Australia and Oceania). Frangén asked a question with a numerical answer (for example "How much ?") about each country in turn, and each contestant made a guess. The contestant whose guess was the closest got half a point. Upon reaching a full point, the contestant moved to round two. When only one contestant was left in round one, he/she dropped out, and round one was over.

Round two was a game of noughts and crosses. All three contestants had a 3 by 3 grid of squares, initially empty. The squares were labelled with different aspects of a country. Frangén again randomly selected one country from each of the four continents. Each contestant picked one country. (One country was left over.) In turn, each contestant picked an empty square and Frangén asked him/her a true or false question about that particular aspect of his/her chosen country. If the answer was right, the contestant got an X in the square and got to try another question. If the answer was wrong, the contestant got an O in the square and the turn passed on to the next contestant. Having three Xs in a row got the contestant to round three. Having three Os in a row, or being the last one left, dropped the contestant out of the game.

In round three, Frangén also randomly selected one country from each continent, but this time did not reveal their names. The object of round three was to guess the names of the countries. Frangén went through all four countries in turn, giving both contestants still left five clues about it, starting difficult with five points and then becoming easier and worth less points. Contestants wrote their guesses at each clue down in a list. After the fifth clue, the country's name was revealed, and both contestants scored for every right guess as many points as the clue's level indicated. After the fourth country, the contestant with more points got to round four.

In round four, Frangén also randomly selected one country from each continent. The countries were placed in a stack with Europe lowest and Asia highest. Round four was timed with a one minute time limit. Frangén began at the bottom of the stack, asking a multiple choice question with three choices about the country. A right answer moved up the stack, a wrong answer moved down the stack. Getting the Africa question right allowed the contestant two possible routes: Continue as normal or try a "one shot" question. If the contestant chose the one shot option, the time limit was abandoned, and Frangén asked a multiple choice question with two choices about the Asian country. Getting the answer wrong dropped the contestant out straight away, instead of moving down the stack. Getting the Asia question right earned the contestant the main prize of a trip around the world. Getting the "one shot" question wrong or exceeding the time limit earned him/her a second prize of a week end trip to a randomly selected European country.

The show was accompanied by a lottery game with the same name in co operation with Veikkaus. The object of the game, which was entirely a game of chance, was to guess the numbers of the countries chosen on the show.