Going for Gold

A quiz show where people from all over Europe compete.

Opening Round (Round 1)
Each edition began with a short general knowledge round to all seven contestants. Out of the contestants who started the show, four would go through to the next round (always referred to as the "first round proper" by Kelly). These four would be the first who managed to answer each of the four general knowledge questions correctly. These questions would usually take the form of a 20 to 30-second description of an object, person, animal or place (usually beginning "Who am I?", "What am I?", etc.), with progressively more details being revealed by Kelly until someone was able to identify it. By the Thursday show, there would be only four contestants left to play the opening round and so several questions were asked and the first person to two points would join the previous days' winners in "the first round proper". This round was dropped in the 2008 revival.

Beat the Buzzer (Round 2)
The Beat the Buzzer round was a general knowledge round, played with hands on plungers. Questions were either worth one, two or three points. The first question was always a general knowledge question worth a single point. A contestant who gave a correct answer would be told the subject of the next question, and got to choose the value of that question. If nobody answered a question correctly, another 1 point-general knowledge question was used next. The first three players to reach six points went on to play the next round.

Four in a Row (Round 3)
In this round, each of the remaining contestants were asked to pick a category (out of a choice of four). The order in which they picked the categories was based on the order in which they progressed from the previous round. Each would then have to answer questions on their chosen category for 40 seconds.

Players scored based on the number of consecutive questions they got right – if an incorrect answer was given, their score returned to zero, the score taken from this round was the highest point reached over 40 seconds. After this round, the two highest scoring players went through to the final round. A "first to two" general knowledge playoff was held if there was a tie, using the same style of questions from round 1.

Final Round
In the final, every question was worth between four and one point depending on how quickly they were answered. Again, the questions pertained to a famous person, place, thing, fictional character or event. However, only one player at a time was allowed to the buzzer, as indicated by a timer graphic running down the center of the screen. If a player gave an incorrect answer, their section of the time was passed over to their opponent and the time (and the question) continued.

In the original, the first player to score nine points won the game. While in the 2008 revival, this round kept on playing until time was up. When time was up, the player with the most points was the winner.

Tournament Format (Original Run)
Each series during the original run, was played as a tournament. At the beginning of each new week, seven English speaking-European players competed and those seven were widdled down to two for the final round. The winner of the final round won the daily game, and went through to the end of week final (an automatic place in the 'first round proper' on Thursday), from where, the winner progressed to the later stages of the series. The losing players all came back the next day, starting with the same pool of players each weekday, minus the winner of the week's earlier shows. On the Thursday show, the remaining five players played the opening round with two points needed to advance to the 'first round proper'. The winner of Thursday's game became the weekly winner and advanced to the semi-finals. The winners of the semis went the final match where the winner of the final match won a holiday (tickets to the '88 Summer Olympics in series 1).