‘Going on quiz shows for 25 years almost cost me my job’

Jon Stitcher has appeared on 12 quiz shows (Picture: ITV)

Going on one TV quiz show is impressive, let alone managing to secure a spot on 12.

However, a man who boasts an impressive streak on some of the biggest quiz programmes on television has revealed to Metro that his impressive hobby almost cost him his job.

Jon Stitcher has appeared on the likes of Mastermind, Countdown, Only Connect and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? just to name a few.

His first TV quiz stint took place in 2000 when he went on The Weakest Link, before going to the next level by starring on one quiz show a year between 2014 and 2021.

The former lawyer and ex-professional poker player, who now runs the Online Quiz League, admitted that he was ‘horrendously nervous’ when he faced Anne Robinson on The Weakest Link. But luckily, he seemed to find a way to get past his nerves in the years that followed.

It all started when he was a child who enjoyed playing Trivial Pursuit with his family, with keen quizzer eventually going on to join the Wirral Quiz League.

He first attempted TV quizzes on The Weakest Link in 2000 (Picture: BBC/Supplied)

After going on The Weakest Link 25 years ago, Jon attempted to bag spots on Countdown and Brain Teaser… before he looked into applying for The Krypton Factor, which resulted in him ‘almost losing his job’.

‘I was working for Barclays and they wouldn’t give me the afternoon off to go for the audition,’ he recalled.

‘And I genuinely said, “Well, what happens if I just go anyway?” and they said, “You’ll get sacked”. So I was like, fine, okay, so I didn’t go.’

Hwoever, a couple of days later, he saw that The Krypton Factor were holding another audition in Cardigg, so he rang in sick so that he could give it a try.

‘Instead of losing me for an hour or two, they lost me for a whole day whilst I went down to Cardiff.’

How can you get onto a TV quiz show?

While speaking to Metro, serial quiz show star Jon Stitcher revealed his top tip for how to get onto a TV quiz show.

‘To people who’ve asked me “How do you get on so many shows?” I just say, when you audition, be yourself but turned up to 11,’ he said.

‘They don’t want you to be someone you’re not, but they need to see the most extravagant version of yourself.

‘I think I’m naturally quite outgoing and confident, and that’s a key thing for TV shows, they don’t want someone who’s going to sit there all nervous, and they need someone who they know is going to be comfortable on the camera.’

He added that it helps to have ‘something on your application form that stands out to make you a bit different’.

Jon continued: ‘When I was getting on every show I applied for, my job title was professional poker player, and that just jumps out.

‘They must get hundreds and hundreds of accountants, and that’s not a boring job but there’s not a lot really to talk about with that.

He noted that perhaps now that he’s a company director, that might be why he’s not hearing back from quiz show applications.

‘It could be my age as well. I was in my 30s, now I’m middle-aged, white male, they’ve got plenty of people like me,’ he added.

Jon has starred on Countdown twice (Picture: Supplied)

‘I just kept applying for more and more shows… I did one a year from 2014 to 2021,’ Jon said, who made it to the final of Fifteen to One.

His main motivation for going on pretty much every quiz show you can think of was down to something very simple – he just ‘loves playing the games’.

But of course, having the chance to go home with a cash prize on some occasions was a brilliant added bonus.

Given his experience showing off his quizzing prowess on TV, Jon had the chance to brush shoulders with some of the most prominent presenters in the UK, including the ‘absolutely lovely’ Bradley Walsh.

Jeremy Clarkson also took the time to meet contestants on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? by coming to the green room and chatting to everyone before the show, Jon revealed, while Sandi Toksvig was able to spend time with the three finalists who made it to the end of Fifteen To One.

He risked his job for an audition for The Krypton Factor (Picture: Supplied/ITV)

‘It’s lovely to get to see them out of their presenter role, just seeing them as the normal people they are,’ Jon stated.

While Jon would love to add more quiz show notches to his belt, he’s hit an obstacle in his path – as he believes his past appearances on TV might be preventing him from being accepted onto more quiz shows.

‘I’m at the stage now where I’m not hearing back from applications. It used to be that if you’ve been on shows it was a plus because the researchers knew you could do it, you’d be ok on camera and you wouldn’t crumble,’ he explained.

‘Now I think they’re looking for new faces. Because of social media, there will be comments saying, “Oh not this guy again”.’

‘With the 1% Club, I was cast on that and had a recording date. About two or three days beforehand, they rung me up and said, “We’re really sorry, we can’t use you now and producers think you’ve been on too many shows.” So yeah it can go against you.’

Jon was prepared for backlash when he chose The Inbetweeners as his subject on Mastermind (Picture: BBC)

One time, Jon sparked attention on social media for another reason, as Mastermind viewers angrily expressed their belief that his specialist subject – The Inbetweeners – shouldn’t be a allowed.

‘I think what made it worse was at the time my job was a professional poker player and they put me on the show with three professionals – a lecturer, a journalist and a teacher – and their subjects were like, Leonardo da Vinci, JS Bach, and the Dreyfus Affair,’ he said.

‘So you’ve got three academics all doing very high-brow subjects, and then a professional poker player doing one of the lowest-brow sitcoms of all time.’

Jon stressed that he ‘didn’t cheat’, despite some viewers’ infuriated remarks, and emphsised that he ‘put in as much effort as anyone else’, scoring a perfect 15 out of 15 for his questions.

He was a reserve for a friend’s team on Eggheads in 2015 (Picture: Supplied)

Then when he went on The Chase, he didn’t let rude remarks that he was ‘smug’ bother him… considering he walked away with a hefty £12,000.

”’When I went on The Chase and I won, that was amazing. A lot of the comments were saying I was “smug” or “such a know-it-all” so I just retweeted them all. I came away with £12,000 so a few comments weren’t going to bother me,’ he said.

Despite his lack of success with applying for quiz shows these days, Jon isn’t planning on giving up.

In recent years, he’s applied for Jeopardy! and The Tipping Point, and is keen to attempt Red Dwarf as his next specialist subject on Mastermind.

Considering he’s made it this far already, we don’t see why he can’t achieve even more of his quiz show dreams.

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