It's very annoying, true...
...but I suspect that the producers might gee up the contestants just a little bit.

I won £7,000 on Richard and Judy's You Say, We Pay compo (ok, ok, I was unemployed at the time, and the £150 I spent on their premium rate scamline turned out to be a good investment).
Once I qualified, they called me back then kept me hanging on for a good 15 minutes.
Mostly it was just the sound feed from the studio but every couple of minutes a production assistant would cut in and say something like "Ok you're in the queue. There's other people in front of you, but if the computer selects you, Richard and Judy like you to be really, really excited so make sure you say how excited you are to be put through. If you aren't selected the computer will just cut you off so please hang up if you hear a recorded message.".
Two minutes later "The computer has selected you for the next stage so you're still in with a chance. Are you excited? Don't forget to sound excited if you are the lucky person who gets through."
This went on and on and, in the manner of not thinking of an elephant, I defy anyone not to get excited and nervous by the time they eventually do get through live to the show, not least because you don't have any idea it's you until Richard Twunting Madeley says "It's Shinyscalp from Slapheadtown".

So I dare say that the production folks at Totally Random Dumb Luck keep whispering the idea that "Noel really likes it if you explain your reasoning as you go along" every few seconds (you don't think it's all recorded in one go, you you?).
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Mon 22 Mar 2010, 21:05, Reply)