RTL 4 will broadcast a new domino contest from Saturday evening. Led by broadcaster Robin Nikolai go to Dominoes Challenge Eight of the best construction teams in the Netherlands compete. After years of success Domino’s Day Another domino program back on the tube. Look back at those striking ratings.
under name Domino’s Day From the 1980s onwards, building and altering whole circuits with dominoes kept Dutch and international television viewers in its grasp for almost twenty years. It has always been about the record for the most fallen dominoes.
In the 80s, the annual event has not yet been called Domino’s Day It was part of the TROS . program the first, which included all kinds of registration attempts. The first broadcast took place in December 1986. In 1988 the first record was broken by more than 1.3 million fallen rocks. This resulted in the menu in Guinness Book of Records†
No further registration attempt was made under the name until ten years later Domino Day Broadcasting on SBS6. The software was produced by Endemol. After a complaint from Germany about the name D-Day, which would refer too much to World War II, the program’s name was changed to Domino’s Day† A world record domino effect was set by 1.6 million stones dropped.
Big stars knocked on the first stone
It has grown into a major annual event, which as of 2009 was watched by over two million Dutch people. Worldwide, it is spread in more than ten European countries, attracting more than 50 million viewers.
Year after year, millions of stones were placed in a huge hall in Leeuwarden in all sorts of creative buildings with themes as diverse as Europe or music. The goal has always been to break a world record. Last year it aired on SBS6, it was a world record bid of 4.8 million stone. Meanwhile, the makers had to implement all kinds of “challenges”. For example: blindfolded walking through a maze and placing a large domino at the end.
Hans Kraaij Jr. has become Permanent face as presenter, first with Wendy van Dijk and later with Nance. The usual part was the first stone being pushed by a celebrity. It started with Dutch stars like Linda de Mol and Hans Klok, but they’re becoming more and more international. Lionel Richie, Kylie Minogue, Shania Twain, Nick Carter, Anastasia, Kim Wilde and Katie Melua appeared to push the first stone and continue the entire game.
The sparrow incident
The 2005 edition is known as the “dominomus” edition. The bird flew into the hall during the preparations and knocked about 23,000 dominoes. An employee of the Animal Department shot the sparrow, which caused an angry reaction.
The employee received death threats and the website no style Radio DJ Ruud de Wild called for the domino program to be sabotaged. They offered a reward for those who knocked over a million stones before broadcasting.
Later, the Ministry of Agriculture reported that the sparrow was shot illegally. The show continued as usual and a new world record was set. The sparrow was later created and displayed by Natuurmuseum Fryslan.
It was the last broadcast of . Currently in 2009 Domino’s Daywhich was canceled the following year due to the financial crisis. There were no more sponsors to be found. The domino record of 4,491,863 stones still goes back to that year.
The return of Domino Day has been postponed
Endemol Shine producer announced in 2020 that Domino’s Day He will return that year, but the program has been postponed due to the Corona crisis. For this reason, the program cannot continue in 2021 either.
RTL has announced a replacement that can be seen from Saturday evening. It’s not about breaking a world record, but about “the most creative and admired domino masterpieces”. With two million dominoes at their disposal, eight building teams compete against each other.
With this, RTL dives into the popular toy genre, which in recent years has produced programs that include, among other things, LEGO bricks, marbles, miniatures and radio-controlled cars.
Dominoes Challenge It can be seen every Saturday evening at 8pm RTL 4.