Domino Day

Television broadcast
Original title	Domino Day
Country of production	Netherlands ; Germany
original language	German
Year (s)	1998–2009, from 2021
Production ; company	Endemol
Broadcasting ; cycle	1998-2002, ; 2004-2009, ; 2021
genre	Live broadcast
idea	Robin Paul Weijers
Moderation	Germany ( RTL ) Linda de Mol (1998-2002) ; Frauke Ludowig (2004–2009) ; Austria ( ORF 1 ) Marie Christine Giuliani (2000-2002) ; Armin Assinger (2004-2009) ;
First broadcast	August 28, 1998 on RTL Television

The Domino Day was an annual event from 1998 to 2009 (with the exception of 2003), which accompanied the television station RTL took place and was tempted in every time a new world record of fallen stones in a Domino -Kettenreaktion, the so-called domino effect , to set up. Robin Paul Weijers from the Netherlands was the inventor and organizer of the event . Due to financial difficulties, Domino Day has not been held since 2009.

For 2020, the Dutch production company EndemolShine Nederland was planning a new Domino Day, which should be broadcast in autumn. Due to the Corona crisis, the program was postponed to March 2021.

Companies

The company behind Domino Day was Weijers Domino Productions B.V. The planning for the annual world record attempt began in March and lasted into July. During this period fields and projects were designed, techniques developed and the show worked on. The selection of the builders took place in August and one month later the preparation of the hall began, so that Domino Day could take place in November. In July, the dominoes for the weeks of construction were made and delivered by a Dutch manufacturer. The stones used were melted down again after the record attempt for the next year. However, as the demand for dominoes increased steadily, Weijers Domino Productions developed new stones under the name of Mr. Domino , which have been sold online since September 2009. The Mr. Domino logo is engraved in these .

After Domino Day 2011 was canceled, both companies founded by Robin Weijers filed for insolvency. Weijers Domino Productions and Mr. Domino will, however, continue under the production company One 4 New TV , which also belongs to Weijers.

General

dominoes

A domino field (this is not from a Domino Day)

The dominoes are 4.8 cm × 2.4 cm × 0.7 cm in size and have a different weight depending on the color, but are at least 8 grams in weight so that they can also fall under water if necessary. They are available in more than 250 secondary colors.

In order to achieve special effects when the stones fell, there were certain dominoes where the front and back had different colors; some were covered with photo film to make pictures appear. At Domino Day 2009 a total of 4,800,000 dominoes were built.

Effects

Robin Paul Weijers and his team worked out the numerous variations of the domino effect in preparation for Domino Day. During the chain reaction, no external energy should flow into the project (people, motors or other electronics), but each effect must be triggered purely mechanically by the domino that was originally triggered. This requires Guinness World Records for the recognition of a record, which has to be checked by a competent notary.

Construction

In connecting lines, the dominoes were placed side by side in rows of two with so-called “combs” (auxiliary tool for the builder that looks like a comb and in whose prongs the dominoes are placed). On the other hand, curves or buildings were also constructed, which were built up with the help of tweezers, for example.

Theme song

The TV show's theme song is an in-house production and has been in use since Domino Day 2004. The earlier version was part of the song Dominoes by Robbie Nevil .

Domino halls

Since every Domino Day tried to set up more stones than in the previous year and make them fall over, larger and larger halls were required over time. The first record attempt was made in 1998 in the FEC hall in Leeuwarden. The following year the company moved to the Prinds-Bernhard-Halle in Zuidlaren, where the record attempt was also held in 2000. In 2001 Domino Day took place in Maastricht's Expositie en Congres Centrum in Maastricht. From 2002 the world record event took place in a trade fair complex in Leeuwarden. The hall used there has an area of 10,000 square meters.

Challenges

The so-called "challenges" are tasks in which the domino builders, usually two, only had to set up a connection line in a certain time (usually 2 minutes) after the chain reaction had started. If they succeeded, a large domino field fell, which provided important stones for the record. The inventor and organizer Robin Paul Weijers decided which of the more than 90 builders had to face the challenge. However, the names were only finally announced a few minutes before the start of a challenge.

2004 ( *Challenges* )
task	Number of stones placed	Description of the task	Passed
1	100,000	400 stones have to be placed on a 7.2 meter long wooden beam in 10 minutes.	Yes
2	100,000	250 stones have to be erected on a 2 meter high spiral staircase in 12 minutes.	No
3	100,000	A distance of 5 meters must be bridged with 300 stones.	No

2005 ( *Theater of Eternal Stories* )
task	Number of stones placed	Description of the task	Passed
1	50,000	Noah's Ark : 7 builders have to build 7 domino towers to create the necessary connection.	Yes
2	100,000	Don Quixote : A builder has to fill three gaps in a domino row.	No
3	150,000	Hamlet : A builder has to hold up a beam on which another pawn builds a row of dominoes.	No

2006 ( *Music in Motion* )
task	Number of stones placed	Description of the task	Passed
1	400	Turntable : A builder who is half a meter above a domino field has to fill a series of openings with dominoes, the other moves one builder across the field.	No
2	4000	Cassette recorder : One builder moves a conveyor belt, the other has to set up a row of dominoes on the moving belt.	No
3	40,000	CD player : You have to build a row of dominoes on a rotating turntable.	No
4th	400,000	MP3 player : There must be eight openings filled with 88 dominoes in a domino line.	Yes

2007 ( *Falling into Life* )
task	Number of stones placed	Description of the task	Passed
1	100,000	Birth : A row of dominoes must be placed in equilibrium on scales representing a stork.	No
2	100,000	Puberty : Eight large dominoes should be moved over a row of smaller dominoes without knocking them over.	Yes
3	100,000	Midlife Crisis : A builder sends another blindfolded through a labyrinth. This should then place a large domino in a gap at the end.	Yes
4th	400,000	Life or death : a row of dominoes should be placed on a rotating second hand.	No

2008 ( *Celebrating 10 years of Domino Day - Breaking more World Records than ever* )
task	Number of stones placed	Description of the task	Passed
1	100,000	Party : A row of dominoes is to be built on a rising platform.	Yes
2	100,000	Cocktail : Dominoes must be placed on the edge of a wobbly cocktail glass.	No
3	100,000	Balloons : A builder directs another over the domino field while the other one snaps dominoes scattered across the field to build them in a line.	Yes
4th	400,000	Air bubbles / champagne : stones have to be placed on a tray with one hand and then built into a pyramid.	Yes

2009 ( *The World in Domino - The Show with the Flow* )
task	Number of stones placed	Description of the task	Passed
1	25,000	Earth : A row of dominoes is to be built over a subsurface made of sand.	No
2	25,000	Air : A connection is to be built via 50 freely suspended swings.	No
3	50,000	Water : A row of dominoes is to be built using a tank filled with 720 liters of water.	No
4th	500,000	Fire : With tongs, iron dominoes are to be placed on a burning crossbar.	Yes

Safety measures

Various precautions have been taken to prevent the dominoes from falling over too early. The hall was sealed off completely airtight before construction began and a thorough cleaning was carried out. From this point on, the hall could only be entered by authorized persons through an air lock to prevent drafts.

Locks were repeatedly used between the dominoes to prevent them from falling over prematurely. Shortly before kick-off, Robin Weijers and his team opened the last locks electronically.

Despite these precautions, an incident occurred in the run-up to Domino Day 2005 in which a sparrow got into the hall, brought down over 23,000 dominoes prematurely and was finally killed by a hunter on behalf of Endemol . This led to protests and actions by animal rights activists and a complaint in which the German Animal Welfare Association also participated.

Broadcasts

The program was marketed in numerous European countries. The event thus reached a nationwide audience of millions every year and was one of the most popular direct broadcasts of the year.

team

The team consisted of numerous employees from Weijers Domino Productions bv , who were responsible for the planning and organization, and several builders who were subjected to a casting before the several weeks of building, during which, among other things, their English skills and stress resistance were tested. As the number of stones to be built increased from year to year, more and more helpers were needed over the years. The auditions were organized and paid for by various television channels.

Robin Paul Weijers: is founder of Weijers Domino Productions and inventor of Domino Day. No mechanism and no domino field that had not previously been checked, tested and found to be suitable by him could be incorporated into the chain reaction.
Erwin Akkermann: was the leading notary who, with his 16 helpers, counted all the stones that had remained standing all evening and was therefore able to determine whether a new world record had been achieved or not. He visited the hall at regular intervals weeks before kick-off to check how best to count the stones.
The field coaches: were mainly there to coordinate the farmers and to help out with minor problems. They were the main employees of Weijers Domino Productions and partly also involved in the several weeks of planning.
Physio therapists: The physiotherapists at Domino Day worked under the supervision of Jochum van Brummelen. They helped the builders with tension, contortions and other problems. Most erectors were not used to hours of work on the floor and the associated body positions.

Information about the Domino Days

Setup for the first domino event ( Domino 1986 ) in Lisse

There had already been two corresponding events by Weijers Domino Productions before 1998, but they were not yet named Domino Days. The record from 1988 was also the one that was broken on the first Domino Day in 1998.

Events before the Domino Days
date	place	motive	trigger	built stones	fallen stones		New world record?
date	place	motive	trigger	built stones	absolutely	percent	New world record?
December 27, 1986	Lisse	Dutch landscapes	Sergio Orlandini	1,250,000	0.755.836	60.46%	Yes
02nd January 1988	Rosmalen ( Minimundus )	Europe in Domino (European Community)	Patrick van der Wijst	1,500,000	1,382,101	92.14%	Yes

Overview of the Domino Days
date	place	motto	trigger	built stones	fallen stones		New world record?
date	place	motto	trigger	built stones	absolutely	percent	New world record?
August 28, 1998	Leeuwarden (FEC hall)	Visionland	Linda de Mol	2,300,000	1,605,757	69.82%	Yes
0November 5, 1999	Zuidlaren ( Prins-Bernhard-Halle )	Europe without borders	Hans Klok	2,500,000	2,472,480	98.90%	Yes
0November 3, 2000	Zuidlaren (Prins-Bernhard-Halle)	reaction	Lionel Richie	3,112,000	2,977,678	95.68%	Yes
November 16, 2001	Maastricht ( Mecc Hall )	Bridging the World	Kylie Minogue	3,750,000	3,540,562	94.41%	Yes
November 15, 2002	Leeuwarden (FEC hall)	Expressions 4 Millions	Nick Carter	4,000,000	3,847,295	96.18%	Yes
November 12, 2004	Leeuwarden (FEC hall)	Challenges	Robin Paul Weijers (initially Shania Twain )	4,250,000	3,992,397	93.94%	Yes
November 18, 2005	Leeuwarden (FEC hall)	Theater of Eternal Stories	Anastacia	4,321,000	4,002,136	92.62%	Yes
November 17, 2006	Leeuwarden (FEC hall WTC-Expo)	Music in Motion	Kim Wilde	4,400,000	4,079,381	92.71%	Yes
November 16, 2007	Leeuwarden (FEC hall WTC Expo)	Falling into Life	Katie Melua	4,500,000	3,671,465	81.59%	No
November 14, 2008	Leeuwarden (FEC hall WTC Expo)	Celebrating 10 years of Domino Day - Breaking more World Records than ever	Salima Anita Peippo	4,500,000	4,345,027	96.56%	Yes
November 13, 2009	Leeuwarden (FEC hall WTC Expo)	The World in Domino - The Show with the Flow	Jeroen de Meij (winner of the public competition)	4,800,000	4,491,863	93.58%	Yes
2021	TBA	TBA	TBA	-	-	-	-

Domino D-Day 1998: On August 28, 1998, the program was broadcast for the first time. 2.25 million dominoes were set up by the helpers in the FEC hall in Leeuwarden on the subject of “Visionland”. The first stone was knocked by Linda de Mol. Only around 70% of the stones (1,605,757 pieces) fell over. Nonetheless, the previous record of 1,382,101 dominoes was broken. This event was called Domino D-Day in the Netherlands . However, RTL changed this title for the German live broadcast to Domino Day , as the allusion to June 6, 1944 ( D-Day ) seemed inappropriate to them. After a sequel had been secured for 1999, the Germans asked only to use the addition Day .
Domino Day 1999: Under the title Europe without borders , 50 projects with a total of 2.5 million dominoes were set up in the Prins-Bernhard-Halle in Zuidlaren. The fall of the Berlin Wall was also staged. There were even two records on this Domino Day. Once a new world record with 2,472,480 stones (98.90% of those built have fallen) and the record for the largest domino field (“Largest domino mosaic”) with almost 700,000 dominoes. A special and so far unique incident occurred here in the run-up to the show: A cameraman cleared the connection line to the aforementioned record field with his cable carrier. Only the last closed barriers were able to protect the field, otherwise the attempt at the record would have almost failed before it actually fell. Body builders were able to repair the lines before the start of the program, so that everything went according to plan afterwards. The official trigger of the chain reaction was the Dutch magician and illusionist Hans Klok.
Domino Day 2000: Japanese domino builders had set a new record on Millennium Night with 2,751,518 stones fallen. One more reason that Robin Paul Weijers planned and implemented another record attempt. This time Lionel Richie was allowed to start the biggest chain reaction to date. A total of 3,112,000 dominoes (based on the date of Domino Day, November 3, 2000) were placed under the theme of reaction . With 2,977,678 fallen stones (around 96%), a new world record was set in the Prins-Bernhard-Halle in Zuidlaren.
Domino Day 2001: After a new record by the Chinese and Japanese of 3,407,535 stones, another record attempt was made in the Mecc hall in Maastricht with 3,750,000 dominoes in ten different color worlds under the motto Bridging the World . Kylie Minogue pushed the first stone. With 3,540,562 fallen stones (94.41%) a new world record could be set.
Domino Day 2002

Domino Day 2005

love
have fun
dream
communication
Consumption / money
Let go / find peace
Growing up / developing
Struggle / failure
Travel / discover

With 3,671,465 fallen stones, the existing world record could not be improved this year for the first time. Only 81.59% of the stones built fell, the second-lowest rate in Domino Day history since 1998. Since the last Builders Challenge failed, the final field with 400,000 stones remained. But even if this field had fallen, it would not have been enough to set a new record.
Domino Day 2008: The world record attempt in 2008 took place on November 14th for the seventh time in the FEC hall in Leeuwarden. The motto was Celebrating 10 years of Domino Day - Breaking more World Records than ever (German: "We are celebrating ten years of Domino Day - We are breaking more world records than ever before"). The world records meant ten disciplines that were additionally set up or broken in the show. Guinness World Records introduced nine new categories. The first stone was kicked by Salima Anita Peippo, a high wire artist. With 4,345,027 of 4,500,000 stones, almost all stones fell and the team also set a new world record for the longest domino chain reaction. A new world record was achieved in the run-up to the broadcast: a circle of nine hundred stones was to be kept in constant motion. Each of the helpers therefore had to rebuild fifteen stones within thirty seconds. This was achieved over 35 minutes and 22 seconds.; The other ten records:

Most of the stones that were stacked on a single, normally standing domino (728 stones, one more than a German's previous world record, had to stand for an hour) - was broken
The largest 3D domino building - has been broken
The smallest dominoes - was broken
The largest dominoes - was broken
The largest domino field (one million stones) - has been broken
The longest domino wall - has been broken
The biggest chain reaction - was broken
The biggest spiral - has been broken
The highest domino that fell (relative to the ground) was broken
The fastest stones - was broken (the stones were the fastest stones in the world, but could not overtake the Olympic sprinter Churandy Martina )

Many of the ancillary disciplines listed have already been beaten several times by other domino builders.
Domino Day 2009: The last event so far took place on Friday, November 13th, 2009. 4.8 million dominoes were placed. The theme of Domino Day was The World in Domino - The Show With The Flow ("The World in Domino").

There were a total of seven subject areas:

North America ("The American Dream"; Eng. "The American Dream")
South America ("Latin Extravaganza"; German "Latin Extravaganza")
Africa ("The African Life"; Eng. "The African Life")
Europe ("Colors of Europe")
Asia ("Balancing Yin and Yang"; Eng. "Balancing Yin and Yang")
Antarctica ("Rough Ice"; Eng. "Raues Eis")
Oceania ("Sun, Sand and Sealife"; Eng. "Sun, Sand and Sea Life")

Weijers had a total of four Builders Challenges carried out, which were dedicated to the four elements of earth, fire, air and water. The last challenge was the most difficult as the dominoes had to be set up here in the fire. For this purpose, the builders wore special protective clothing and helmets with face protection, and the stones were set up with pliers. Despite this difficulty, it was the only challenge that could be solved, which largely caused the final field with 500,000 stones to fall over. At the end of the broadcast, a new record of 4,491,863 stones was announced, surpassing the previous record from 2008 by 146,836.
The first Championship Domino Building took place on Saturday, November 7th, 2009 . In the competition, the trigger for Domino Day 2009 was selected, and Jeroen de Meij prevailed in the final. Of all the applicants, he set up the most stones in a line within 2 minutes.
2010: There was no Domino Day this year . Despite interested sponsors, the promised budget was not enough.
2011: There was no Domino Day here either. RTL spokeswoman Anke Eickmeyer announced in April that no broadcast is planned for 2011.
2012: In November 2012 there was again no Domino Day because the financing of the event was not secured. This was announced by RTL spokeswoman Eickmeyer on January 25, 2012.
2013: On February 26, 2013 "Domino Day" was canceled for the fourth time in a row due to "unresolved financial and organizational issues". Since then, no further record attempts have been made. During the “30 years RTL anniversary show” on December 17 and 18, 2013, a world record attempt for the domino circle that had been in motion for the longest time failed. The previous world record set up at Domino Day 2009 was not exceeded.

2014: On April 4, 2014, a special edition produced by Endemol was broadcast on the French channel D8 (today C8), in which projects from different years of Domino Day were summarized. Valérie Bénaïm acted as moderator. Due to the good audience ratings, there were several repeats in prime time (November 1, 2014, New Year's Eve 2014, April 25, 2015 and September 26, 2015).

2019: In an interview with the media magazine DWDL on September 4, 2019, Jörg Graf, Managing Director RTL, announced the return of Domino Day .

2020: In February 2020, the Dutch branch of EndemolShine published job advertisements and a form for setting up a planned Domino Day 2020. On February 6, 2020, RTL announced that Domino Day will return to the screen in autumn.

International charisma

In addition to Germany and Austria, Domino Day was broadcast in several countries, partly as a live broadcast.

country	title	Moderation	TV station	live	Year (s)
Belgium Belgium	Domino D-Day (1998) Domino Day	Stefan Van Loock	vtm	Yes	1998-2009
France France	Domino Day - Record du monde	Denis Brogniart; Flavie Flament , Dave (2001-2005)	TF1 (2001-2005 ), TMC (2006-2009)	Yes	2001-2009
France France	Domino Day - Les records les plus incroyables	Valérie Bénaïm	D8	No	2014
Greece Greece	Ημέρα του ντόμινο	Katerina Karavatou, Fotis Sergoulopoulos	ANT1	Yes	2008-2009
Croatia Croatia	Domino Day	Antonija Mandić, Dorijan Klarić	RTL Televizija	Yes	2005-2009
Netherlands Netherlands	Domino D-Day (1998) Domino Day	Hans Kraay, Jr., Wendy van Dijk (1998-2004) , Nance (Nancy Coolen) (2005-2009)	SBS 6 , NET 5 (1999)	Yes	1998-2009
Poland Poland	Dzień domina	-	TVN	Yes	2005-2009
Russia Russia	День Домино	Egor Pirogov	REN	No	2005-2009
Slovakia Slovakia	Domino Day	Mateja Cifru	TV JOY	Yes	2007-2009
Spain Spain	Domino Day	Constantino Romero (2001-2002) , Carlos Sobera (2004-2007)	Antena 3	No	2001-2007
Hungary Hungary	Dominó Nap	Zoltán Szujó, Éva Horváth	RTL club	Yes	2000-2009
United Kingdom United Kingdom	Domino Day	Christian Stevenson	Channel 5	No	2005-2009
United States United States	Domino Day 2001	Rich iron	ABC	No	2001

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Successful Domino Day will not be available in 2020. In: RTL Boulevard. June 15, 2020, accessed June 29, 2020 (Dutch).

↑ Weijers Domino Productions' Dominoes for Sale

↑ insolventies.rechtspraak.nl ( Memento of the original from December 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ usatoday.com: Sparrow knocks over 23,000 dominoes before being shot , November 14, 2005
^ Abendblatt.de: "Domino Day": shot dead on sparrow outraged animal rights activists , from November 16, 2005
↑ casting-agentur.de: Wanted to display the "Domino Day 2005"! ( Memento of the original from May 4, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , dated August 8, 2005 @1@ 2

↑ ^a ^b dominodomain.com

↑ guinnessworldrecords.com

↑ dwdl.de

↑ quotenmeter.de

↑ dwdl.de

^ Domino Day: les records les plus incroyables

↑ "If we bet on events, 'Domino Day' is close". In: dwdl.de. September 4, 2019, accessed September 10, 2019 .

↑ Vacatures Domino Day. In: EndemolShine Nederland. Retrieved February 3, 2020 (Dutch).

^ Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland - Kommunikation. Retrieved February 7, 2020 .

[rtlboulevard-1] Successful Domino Day will not be available in 2020. In: RTL Boulevard. June 15, 2020, accessed June 29, 2020 (Dutch).

[2] Weijers Domino Productions' Dominoes for Sale

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