Mastermind fans fume as specialist subject "ruins" BBC quiz show: 'Shouldn’t be allowed'

"It's a sham of a mockery"



Mastermind fans have expressed their frustration at the show over one contestant’s specialist subject, suggesting it “shouldn’t” be allowed.

During Monday evening’s (March 10) episode, contestant Gary Austin opted for TV series Friday Night Dinner for his topic.

However, some viewers took to social media to complain about using knowledge of a short series, one suggesting that the BBC show “shouldn’t allow TV programs as specialist subjects”.

“You watched a few episodes of a program? Great. That’s not the [same] as studying world history, science, literature. Moan over haha,” they added on X.

“Friday Night Dinner is way too narrow a specialist subject for Mastermind. 15 hours of telly,” another added, while a third suggested it “ruins” the show “when someone answers sitcom questions”.

“They need to ban people from doing a sitcom as their specialist subject in Mastermind,” a fourth said. “It’s a sham of a mockery.”

However, Gary ended up as the big winner of the episode and went on to the next round, not only racking up a leading 12 points on Friday Night Dinner, but also doing well in the general knowledge round to take a winning total of 22 points.

Speaking afterwards, the contestant said he was “absolutely exhilarated” and “completely amazed”, admitting he is more of an “armchair quizzer”.

Explaining his specialist subject, he said: “I’m a massive fan of Friday Night Dinner, I had loads and loads of questions that I’d written on Friday Night Dinner.

“And rather than read them on my mobile phone, I asked my wife, would she be Clive [Myrie] and so everyday, she would read me a few hundred questions so that I could answer them and practise being in the spotlight.”

Mastermind airs on BBC Two.