In keeping with darting tradition, the celebrities were given or adopted nicknames.
Rowland Right Here Rivron
Johnny The Saint Vegas
Keith Cheggers Chegwin
Vicki The Vixen Butler-Henderson
Phil The Cat Tufnell
James The Galloping Major Hewitt
Michael Spirit Le Vell
Holly Hard to Beat Willoughby
Format
The eight celebrities were split into two groups of four, each captained by top darts professionals Andy Fordham and Bobby George who trained their respective teams in preparation for the event. The darts professional trained their team members at very different venues: Andy trained his team at "The Rose", a Dartfordpub that he runs with his wife, while Bobby trained his at his mansion, George Hall, near Colchester. The four players from Fordham's group competed against each other in a round-robin format and the four players from George's group did the same. The matches consisted of one-leg where the first to reach exactly 501 wins two points. In the event that no player checked out in the time allocated for the match, then the winner was the player who achieved the highest score with 3 darts in a sudden-death shootout. These points were recorded in each team's league table and the top two contenders in each group will then progress to the semi-finals and then the final, where the champion was awarded the Showbiz Darts 2006 trophy.
Results and Broadcast Dates
Andy Fordham's Group 2 October: Rowland Rivronbeat Johnny Vegas in sudden-death shootout 4 October: Keith Chegwin beat Vicki Butler-Henderson 6 October: Vicki Butler-Henderson beat Rowland Rivron 10 October: Johnny Vegas beat Keith Chegwin 12 October: Keith Chegwin beat Rowland Rivron 16 October: Johnny Vegas beat Vicki Butler-Henderson Vegas plays Chegwin in semi-final Bobby George's Group 3 October: James Hewitt beat Phil Tufnell 5 October: Michael Le Vell beat Holly Willoughby 9 October: Michael Le Vell beat Phil Tufnell 11 October: James Hewitt beat Holly Willoughby 13 October: Phil Tufnell beat Holly Willoughby 17 October: Michael Le Vell beat James Hewitt Hewitt plays Le Vell in semi-final Semi Finals 18 October Johnny Vegas beat Keith Chegwin 19 October Michael Le Vell beat James Hewitt Final 20 October Michael Le Vell ' beat Johnny Vegas ' by 2 legs to 1. Vegas won the first leg in 47 darts, Le Vell the second in 53 and the last in 28. Three Dart Averages Le Vell 35.60 Vegas 35.21
Phil Tufnell hit 120, the highest 3-dart score of the tournament, during his defeat to Michael Le Vell broadcast on 9 October. Tufnell also managed the best leg of the group phase, with a 34 darter against Holly Willoughby in his last group match. Despite these two statistics, he failed to qualify for the semi-finals.
The highest checkout was achieved by Johnny Vegas who finished with 47 in his last group game on 16 October.
Holly Willoughby was the only player who failed to win a single match in the competition, Michael Le Vell managed to win all five of his matches en route to the title.
Showbiz Darts: Extra Arrows
After each episode of the main programme, the celebrities featured on Showbiz Darts: Extra Arrows, a half-hour spin-off show hosted by former MTV presenter DP Fitzgerald where they discussed their game and coaching, as well as celebrity gossip. There was also a daily darts challenge between the two team captains, Bobby George and Andy Fordham.
Viewing figures
The BARB audience viewing figures website reports the top 10 programmes for each multi-channel television station. It lists Showbiz Darts' sister show, Extra Arrows, as reaching the top 10 programmes on several occasions – however the main programme was broadcast at 10:30 pm, so this could possibly be mis-reporting.
