You Bet!: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

You Bet! was a British game show based around the format of the German show Wetten, dass..? developed by Frank Elstner. You Bet! ran on ITV, mostly on Saturday nights but sometimes on Fridays, between 20 February 1988 and 12 April 1997, initially hosted by Bruce Forsyth from 1988 to 1990, then by Matthew Kelly from 1991 to 1995 and finally by Darren Day from 1996 to 1997.

A panel of celebrities would bet on the ability of members of the public to achieve unlikely challenges and stunts, within a limited amount of time. The studio audience would also place a bet on the outcomes. The panellists would receive points for each outcome they predicted correctly, based on the percentage of the studio audience that also placed a correct bet. The celebrity sponsoring the challenge always had to bet that their challenger would be successful. The accumulated total of points achieved by the celebrities would be added to the points totalled by the studio audience, increased several times over, converted into pounds and donated to a charity chosen by the celebrity panellist who had achieved the highest score.

Series details

• Title: You Bet!
• Format: Game Show
• Language: English
• Genres: Action, Family
• Premiere date: 1988-02-20
• Final broadcast date listed: 1997-04-12
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: ITV1
• Network country: United Kingdom
• Typical episode runtime: 60 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 5517
• TVDB ID: 279646

Cast and credited roles

• Matthew Kelly — Host
• Bruce Forsyth — Host
• Darren Day — Host

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 1988-02-20; final listed air date 1988-03-26; episode order: 6.
• Season 2: premiered 1989-01-28; final listed air date 1989-04-01; episode order: 10.
• Season 3: premiered 1990-02-17; final listed air date 1990-04-21; episode order: 10.
• Season 4: premiered 1991-02-16; final listed air date 1991-04-20; episode order: 10.
• Season 5: premiered 1991-09-06; final listed air date 1991-11-15; episode order: 10.
• Season 6: premiered 1992-09-04; final listed air date 1992-12-26; episode order: 10.
• Season 7: premiered 1993-09-10; final listed air date 1994-04-30; episode order: 16.
• Season 8: premiered 1995-02-25; final listed air date 1995-04-29; episode order: 10.
• Season 9: premiered 1996-06-01; final listed air date 1996-08-17; episode order: 10.
• Season 10: premiered 1997-02-08; final listed air date 1997-04-12; episode order: 10.

Source and licence

Adapted from You Bet! on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.