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The game show 3–2–1 was produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV and was very popular in the United Kingdom. It began airing on July 29, 1978, and ended on December 24, 1988, with Ted Rogers, a former Butlins Redcoat, serving as the show's host throughout its entirety. It was modeled after a Spanish game show called "Un, dos, tres... responda otra vez," and it combined a game show, a variety show, and a quiz show into a single program. The show was a smashing success, with consistently high ratings week after week. However, the first season, which was only supposed to be a filler for the summer, was watched by up to 16.5 million people, and succeeding seasons have never had a high audience of less than 12 million viewers. The majority of the show's tenure was spent airing on Saturdays in the early evening. Since there were 12.5 million people that watched the final Christmas special, it is still a mystery to this day why an eleventh series was not commissioned in 1989. In an interview from 1996, Ted Rogers stated his belief that "The Oxbridge crowd ended up in charge of TV, despite the fact that they did not want to be in that position. They didn't feel comfortable in that social setting. When they finally took it off the air after ten years, we were still receiving 12 million viewers. In today's culture, if a show receives nine million viewers, everyone participates in a victory lap ".