The Mint answers: We have a winner.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
Stop the press. Somebody solved a Mint puzzle.
There has been much talk about unfair puzzles on Nine’s The Mint, especially from readers of this site.
The show comprises much of its content by endlessly rejecting callers who never seem able to work out the puzzles -several of which are mathematically, if cryptically, based.
The hosts advise viewers to think laterally in order to solve their puzzles. A challenge indeed. As part of an ongoing monitoring of the show’s construct it seems only fair to acknowledge that last night a puzzle was solved.
So how was it done? You let us know.
Here was the puzzler that was solved:
Add the numbers:
1. The number of ears on eleven Christmas Elves.
2. The number of wheels on eighteen bicycles.
3. The number of vowels in the word “TRIFLE”
The correct answer given by viewer ‘Lisa’ was 264 who won $6000 for her efforts.
The basis of the show’s puzzles is such that the formula that arrives at an answer can be re-applied to similar puzzles.
The second puzzle, a ‘Beer Monster’ with imagery last night asked “How Many Litres?”
Lager 96 litres
Ale 21 litres
Ale 2 litres
Light Beer 12 litres
Beer 10 litres
After nobody correctly solved it the answer given was 463.
Bring on the conspiracy theories guys.
Note: stock photo courtesy GiveMeTheRemote.
See also: GiveMeTheRemote
Mint Watch
34 Responses
Of course the answers arent going to be the obvious ones. They arent just going to give the money away. For example, with the add the numbers question – if you had said to yourself “Well, 11 elves ears equals twenty two and there are two vowels in TRIFLE and 18 bicyles have 36 wheels… NO WAIT, what if only one bicyle has two wheels and the other 17 have 13 wheels each” then you would get the correct answer of 264 and win the money. It really is that simple.
Cuppa: Yes you’re right. Amy needs a go (I think she can be rehabilitated?)
Unfortunately around Melbourne, thanks to the Nine Network, we still stagger under their remorseless greed. Oh, how I wish I could get Win which courageously rejected ‘The Mint’.
For some forlorn reason, I keep wishing that relevant Nine network executives will face the legal results of their handiwork.
Thanks for the *Nine News watch* alert Ian. I saw Amy reporting last night and you’re right, she was pretty good. She even said who she was at the end of the report.
Of all the duds on Quizmania, she was the least offensive, having a few brains and being quite witty, although every time she called Melbourne “Mel-Vegas” and called everyone “Darlin'” I winced big-time.
Never mind, her new life as a reporter really suits her. And let’s face it…she probably wants to forget her stint with Quizmania as much as we all do.
Now that The Mint has been off air in Victoria for a few weeks (you say it is still on in Vic Ian? Not in country Vic it isn’t), I wonder which of the desperado-type Mint ‘presenters’ will grace our screens in other personas?
Blond Amy Parkes, one of the former presenters of the Nine network’s Quizmania has recently turned up as a reporter on Nine News in Melbourne. Strangely, she’s pretty good as a reporter.
The Nine network has shown ‘honour amnong thieves’ by providing her with this job. Quizmania was axed for The Mint (although pushy Katrina from Quizmania made the jump to The Mint easily).
But as a reporter, in my opinion, Amy has zero street cred. I can’t forget her earlier performances on Quizmania. Unusually, Nine News is very coy providing by-lines for poor old Amy. She keeps appearing as an anonymous reporter.
Maybe, if they provided her with a mask or birka we could forget the whole Quizmania schmozzle.
Bad luck guys!
Those crooks and their rotten show are still destroying entertainment for viewers in Victoria.
It’s business as usual, three hours of rorting four times a week.
But spare a thought for the sit-at-home, do nothing, investors in Channel Nine who need those big, fat, misbegotten dollars.
Hay it must be happening in Victoria too. I’ve only seen WIN tv twice this week around that time and a new Ellen DeGeneris show was on. The penny has just dropped – it must be off here too.
I wonder if repeated puzzle-rigging complaints have got it off earlier than the planned June finish? Wouldn’t that be good, and what would be better is the show paying money back to everyone who wasted a fortune on phonecalls. If they are proven to have rigged the puzzles, they should be made to hand back money they [allegedly] stole.
Good pick-up silver smurfer, the show may well have been canned very unceremoniously. What’s happening in other states?
Looks like we might not have to worry about this show in Tassie. It’s been a week or more since its been on! I don’t remember hearing or reading anything to explain it! Could somebody enlighten me as to whether its gone for good or is it just off our screens in Tassie???
Nikki,
Sorry you lost the dollars. The show has obviously mastered all of the rip-off techniques, including deliberately putting on repeat callers to make it look easy to get through. The presenters ask “did you get through earlier?” when they do it, to make their point.
When you consider that even once you have spent a fortune to get through, your answer will be wrong, imagine how much they are making from this scam.
The ultimate insult (included in the show’s conditions online) is that if you win a prize and owe the telephone company any money, your prize money will first be used to cover your phonebill, and you get what’s left over. True. Telstra with its billion dollar profits is laughing all the way to the bank as well.
Not only are the answers rigged, but they make so much money just from people ringing and not getting through, a freind told me it must be easy to get through as she has heard several people get through more than once. We decided to test the theory as I disagreed. We made 75 phone calls, of those calls only twice did we get past the first round where they say bad luck try again you did not get through to the studio this time. Then as if that wasn’t bad enough the 2 times we got through to the studio we were told to hold as we may be talking live on air any moment, however after 2 minutes both times we were cut off by another recorded message saying sorry your call was not chosen this time but feel free to try again. So we spent $42 on calls and did not even get a chance to give an answer……hmmmm, I think its time to start a petition and get this crap off our tv’s. If people want to throw good money down the drain, thats what the pokies are for!!