El gran juego de la oca (The Great Game of the Goose) is a TV game show produced in Madrid, Spain from 1993 through 1995 and again in 1998 as El nuevo juego de la oca (The New Game of the Goose). It was a weekly show airing in a block of several hours on the Spanish channel Antena 3, and later Telecinco. The show was created by television producer Jocelyn Hattab, and first premiered in Italy as Il Grande Gioco Dell'Oca.
In January 2021, a remake produced by Endemol Shine Boomdog in Mexico has been announced, and an Argentinian version is to premiere on El Trece.
Hosts
Each season had a different trio of presenters – a lead male host and two female assistants – that shared hosting duties: Emilio Aragón, Lydia Bosch, and Patricia Pérez (1993–94) Pepe Navarro, Eugenia Santana, and Ivonne Reyes (1994–95) Andrés Caparrós, Elsa Anka, and Paloma Marín (1998, El nuevo juego de la oca)
In all seasons, at least one celebrity was invited as a guest host per episode, and was brought out several times to explain and/or participate in some of the challenges.
Premise and gameplay
Four adult contestants, two men and two women, played a giant board game based on the centuries-old children's game, Juego de la oca (Game of the Goose). A 63-space game board was set up around the perimeter of a large arena, with the object being to reach space 63 by exact count. Contestants earned money with each roll of the dice, which they then used to bet on how well they could perform pruebas, or Hollywood-type challenges and stunts that tested the contestants' minds, bodies, and nerves. The majority of these challenges took place either on a main stage (one of two in the second season), a giant cage, a circular swimming pool in the middle of the set, or on one of several large playing floors for the more elaborate challenges.
A contestant began the game with ₧100,000 (€601, then-equivalent to roughly US$800). On a turn, he or she "rolled" the electronic "dice", and advanced the number of spaces rolled. Each space traveled was worth ₧10,000. After landing on the designated space, the contestant was shown a prueba that he had to perform. After the host explained how to accomplish the task, the contestant wagered some or all of his money, depending on how confident he/she was that he/she could succeed. Successfully completing the stunt added the player's wager to his or her score, while a failed stunt deducted the wager. Not attempting a prueba, or refusing to go through a "punishment" sequence (such as the haircut space) where required, resulted in a contestant losing all of his or her money accumulated to that point; however, this rarely happened.
Spaces
Special spaces were distributed along the path, with the game generally getting more "dangerous" the further along a contestant moved. The special spaces included: Ocas (Geese): Landing on an Oca resulted in that player being escorted to the next Oca and rolling again. Ocas were found at spaces 5 (first season only), 9, 18, 27, 36, 45, and 54. (If a contestant landed on space #54, he advanced to space #63 and automatically won the game.) Traditionally, before a contestant took his second roll, he and the host recited a rhyme from the board game: De oca a oca... tiro porque me toca (From Goose to Goose, I roll because it's my turn.)