Friday, February 1, 2008

7 Hours to Go Until Derren Brown's System is Revealed

With Derren Brown's "The System" only hours away, about 70 people have taken me up on my challenge.

Several new articles about the upcoming show have appeared since my last post. For the most part, they reiterate facts already reported. A piece in the Mirror, however, reveals the following new facts:

In the special, Khadisha, a single mother, wins five consecutive horse races based on Derren Brown's anonymous tips. He then reveals his identity to her and gives her a final tip. She bets several thousand pounds. Then he explains how the System works, and we all tensely watch to see whether her horse wins.

If my prediction is correct, then for five horse races to be correctly predicted by DB, with six horses in each race (which appears to be the average), DB would have to initially involve 7,776 people (each receiving anonymous tips in round one).

In comments to my prior posts, people have complained that he could not possibly film thousands of separate participants. But there would be no need for him to do so. In fact, the two actual participants who commented on my prediction page make it clear that they were not followed by camera crews (although they did do initial on-camera interviews).

DB has a production budget of several million pounds for each of his shows. He could certainly pull off the System in the way I have predicted.

One of the comments left on my blog purports to be from Sara Kandasamy, a producer of DB's shows, stating that my prediction is wrong. I contacted Ms. Kandasamy by e-mail to confirm whether the comment was really hers, but she did not respond. The comment could easily be a hoax because Ms. Kandasamy's name was identified in a blog I linked to.

In the Mirror article, DB states: "Unfortunately it would be disastrous if a few people know how [the System] works before everyone else does."

Here at aboutderrenbrown, we don't "know" how the System works, but we have our suspicions. I am as excited as anyone to find out the answer tonight. Enjoy the show!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just started watching it. This is SO a hoax. It could well be that the woman is an actress perhaps. This is all being done to prove that gambling is a mug's game and that there are no systems.

I can't see C4 and DB doing something that will encourage more people to gamble. I think the idea of this programme is the opposite!

Anonymous said...

He just revealed the secret and it's right and that woman is gonna lose $4k. I pity the fool...

Anonymous said...

She didn't place the bet, he did - or did he?!?

William_Tapscott said...

Thanks for the report -- I'm happy to hear that the prediction was correct.

Ironically, I don't have any way of watching the broadcast live. But I plan to watch it soon.

Sharada said...

For the last bet, I reckon he bet £4k on every horse and then done some sleight of hand switching so she ended up holding the right ticket. I don't know why she was so worried at the end, I would have known that Derren/the production company would fork up. Like they would have ended the programme with her losing £4k!

Anonymous said...

Although Derren Brown is amazing I the only woman who thinks he is sexy? Does he have a partner? Ha ha!

Anyway, I too think production company bet on each horse...no way they could leave a single Mum in further debt.

What I want to know is how he got the racing professionals to pick the pictures of people who shared their initials? Does anyone know? He said he would reveal all later (Well I think he did...you can never be sure with Derren :)

Some of his shows I avoid watching because they are too spooky. As a Christian anything involving seances etc... are a no no for me.

I don't gamble either in case anyone is wondering, but I am not a boring Christian I am interested in the world and peeople in it. That said I know Derren used to be a Christian and I hope your new book will reveal more about his early life and faith and how and why that changed.

He is truly an intriguing individual. But what is more worrying is that millions of people in the world share his mind skills and work them on us everyday...many of them are known as 'salesmen'!

Looking forward to the book...wish you all the best with it x

William_Tapscott said...

Thanks! My forthcoming book does include a discussion of Derren's Christian upbringing and current atheism.