Dale's Supermarket Sweep

Dale's Supermarket Sweep, also known as Supermarket Sweep, was a UK game show based on the American Supermarket Sweep TV show format. Presented by British television presenter Dale Winton from series 1 in 1993 until series 7 in 2001. Winton also presented a revival series of Supermarket Sweep in 2007.

Format

The game consists of three teams of two, each with a clock that starts with 60 seconds on it. The teams then attempt to add as much time as possible to their clock by answering questions and riddles posed by host Dale Winton. The time they accumulate determines how long they have in the 'Big Sweep' round to run around a studio mock-up of a supermarket, collecting shopping items. The team with the shopping trolley filled with items of the most value wins the chance to enter the final 'Super Sweep' prize round. Within the game there were a number of rounds.

Mini Sweep

The Mini Sweep is a question round. On answering a question correctly, they have 10 seconds added to their clock. Dale then gives the winning contestants a clue as to which item he requires. The contestants then have to find the item with a "Supermarket Sweep" logo on within the supermarket and return to the start with it within 30 seconds for a bonus of £25 (£50 in the revived version) to their sub total.

Games

There are a variety of possible games each week. Each correctly answered question or riddle is rewarded with 10 seconds added to the contestants' clock. Some games (such as Pick a Pair) offer a bonus 30 seconds if all contestants agree on an answer and that answer is correct.

Original games were: Counting Calories, Rhyme Time, In Betweens, Totals, Memory Game, Higher or Lower?, Pick a Pair, Random Reveal, Reverse Reveal, Scrambled Letters, and Dale's Bluff. These games were introduced later in the series: Wordsearch, Alphabet Soup, and Odd One Out.

Round Robin/Dale's Daily

If a team answer a question correctly, it wins 10 seconds; right or wrong, contestants then switch with their partners tasked with answering the next question. The categories can be: TV, Movies, Music, or Hot Gossip.

Big Sweep

This is the round where the contestants enter the aisles, starting with the team with the most time on their clocks and followed by the other two teams according to their times. The aim of this round is to gain as much value in their trolleys as possible in order to go on to the £5,000 Super Sweep game (formerly £2,000), at the end of this round the value of the shopping is calculated by Dale's checkout assistants Caroline, Justin and Sam. Various bonuses are available to boost their totals and there are penalties for dropped items. The lowest ever total was recorded in a 1997 episode and constituted a "sub-total" of £0. They did, however, manage some shopping. This resulted in a grand total of £56.

Bonuses

• Pick 'n' Mix: From series two, players weight 500g of five different varieties of sweets worth £50 on their subtotal.+
• Free range: Fill up a carton of eggs for a £50 bonus.+
• Pricing gun: Players price up 12 cans for a £50 bonus.+
• Dale's Display: Stacking up a set of cans for a £50 bonus.+
• Manager's Special/Dale's Sale: The teams must find a tin marked with their own team colour for a bonus worth £50.+
• Shopping List: Dale gives a shopping list of 3 items for the contestants to find. All three must be collected for a bonus of £100. No partial credit can be given.
• Inflatable bonuses: They are worth £25, £50, £75 or £100. Contestants are only allowed to collect one per team and do not know its value until after the sweep is complete.

Inflatables

Every episode featured a shopping list and inflatable bonuses as standard. Pick n mix, pricing gun etc. would feature regularly. However, in the revived version, the bonuses were just pick n mix and Managers Special (tins) (in addition to shopping list and inflatables). Inflatables were: Wine Bottle, Bunch of Bananas, Single Banana, Burger, Plant, Guitar, Cake, Hammer, Microphone, Crayon, Carrot, Jukebox, Saxophone, Fish, Lollipop, Devils Trident, Golf Club and Cactus (Revived version).

Penalties

Dale gives a penalty of £25 to teams who:

• Leave dropped items
• Break store items

His regular joke is that there would also be a penalty for "knocking over the cameraman".

Super Sweep

The team with the higher Big Sweep total (added with their sub total from bonuses and previous rounds) keeps their money and advances to the Super Sweep. The team has 60 seconds to find the £2,000 prize (£5,000 in the revived version), by solving three clues. The first clue is given by Dale and time doesn't start until the clue has been read. The team must find the item from the clue to get the next clue. The second clue leads the contestants to the final item, behind which the money is found. As with the US version, the team has to find all three items and have their hands on the money before time expires. If they don't, they only leave with the cash equivalent of the value of the goods in their trolley.

Transmissions

Original version

Revived version

References

External links

• Dale's Supermarket Sweep (1993-2001) at the Internet Movie Database.
• Dale's Supermarket Sweep (2007) at the Internet Movie Database.
• Dale's Supermarket Sweep (1993-2001) at BFI.
• Dale's All Star Supermarket Sweep at BFI.
• Dale's Supermarket Sweep (2007) at BFI.
• Dale's Supermarket Sweep at UKGameshows.com.