Australia was one of only two countries to produce its own version of the British series. Although there were pilots made for seven other European countries, and in the United States for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), Russia was the only other country to pick the series up.
The Australian version of Shafted debuted on the Nine Network from 11 February 2002 and ran until the 5 April 2002 when the show was axed due to poor ratings. This was still ten times longer than the original British series Shafted (2001) lasted.
In early episodes, if one of the six contestants was returning, referred to as a Master Shafter, their identity was revealed to the other contestants at the start of the game. When this frequently made them a target for being the first contestant shafted by an opponent, which they only avoided if they won the right to shaft by having the most money at the end of the round, this was later changed so that the contestants would only be told if one of them was the Master Shafter at the start of the game (only the viewer would see who this person was), and their identity would only be revealed to the final two contestants after they had locked in their final share-or-shaft decision.
Although it was based on the British series Shafted (2001), several changes were made to the game-play in the qualifying rounds of the Australian version. The maximum amount of money that the six contestants could bring into the game at the start was significantly lower in Australia ($500 compared to £25,000 for the British version). Most of the questions asked were toss-up questions that any contestant could answer if they pressed their buzzer first, with only the last question asked in a round being the half-question more commonly used in the British game. The amount of money at stake in the final decision on the Australian series was the sum of what the final two contestants had earned, rather than just the leader's total as was the case in Britain, and the Australian series allowed a contestant who won the entire stake by shafting their final opponent and convincing them to share to return in the following episode as a Master Shafter.
This is one of two game shows to run on the Nine Network from 11 February to 5 April 2002 - the other is Pass the Buck (2002).