The 2nd season of the international television game showJeux sans frontières was held between 1 June and 14 September 1966. Broadcasters from Belgium, France, Italy, and West Germany participated in the competition coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Teams from towns from those four countries participated in a series of heats, with two cities being qualified for the international final. The team from Eichstätt, West Germany, won the season, giving the first overhall win for the country.
This was the first season featuring Gennaro Olivieri and Guido Pancaldi [it] as referees, an partnership that would last seventeen years, until the first series' end in 1982.[1]
Jeux sans frontières ("Games Without Borders" in French) is a international television game show, based on the French programme Intervilles which was first broadcast in 1962. It was broadcast from 1965 to 1999 under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which owned the format. In non-French-speaking countries, the show had alternative titles. It is also widely known as It's a Knockout, the title of the BBC's domestic version and national selection for the programme.
Participating countries and teams
All countries who had participated in the previous season returned for a second consecutive year.
Teams from Belgium, France, Italy, and West Germany competed each week in head-to-head competition between two cities or towns from two of the four competing nations. There would be sports events, but also studio-based quizzes each week. Eventually, all teams would have competed against each other and the teams with the highest cumulative points for each nation from the series would meet in two semi-finals, with the two winners meeting in the final. The heats had 7 games per event, with the seventh game being the quiz game named "Game of Questions".[2]