The World Series of Pop Culture
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| The World Series of Pop Culture | |
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| Genre | Game Show |
| Running time | 1 hour (total) |
| Creator(s) | Michael Davies |
| Starring | Pat Kiernan and Lisa Guerrero |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original channel | VH1 |
| Original run | July 10, 2006– |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| IMDb profile | |
The World Series of Pop Culture is a VH1 game show tournament program sponsored by Alltel Wireless, based on Entertainment Weekly's Pop Culture Quiz. Sixteen teams, comprising three people each, compete in a tournament to determine which team, collectively, knows the most about elements of popular culture. Taping took place at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City on April 29 - April 30, 2006. A wide range of topics are covered such as movies, music, TV and other miscellaneous pop culture. The top prize is $250,000. The show began on July 10, 2006, and the finale for the initial tournament aired on Thursday, August 3, 2006. The hosts are Pat Kiernan and Lisa Guerrero.
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[edit] Gameplay
Each show begins with a declaration of the rules:
- "The game is played in a 'best of five rounds' format. After a category is announced, each team will send a representative to the microphone, who must play for the entire round. The player who answers the most questions correctly, out of a possible six total questions, in the round, will knock out his or her opponent. The first team to knock out all three members of the opposing team will be declared the winner and move on in the tournament."
During each round, the category will be revealed. Categories could be as broad as "Family TV" or as specific as "1980s Teen Comedy Films." Once the category is revealed, the teams have to send a teammate to the microphone to play for that entire category. Unless only one player is left remaining, a player may not compete in two consecutive categories.
The chosen players each get one question per round, and each category contains six questions (three to each player). If a player cannot provide the right answer, his or her opponent gets the opportunity to steal. At the end of each category, the player who gets the fewest questions correct is eliminated from the game. Once a player attains enough points that the opponent cannot beat, the category ends at that point.
In the event of a tie, a tiebreaker question determines who remains in the competition and who gets knocked out. A topic related to the original category is given, containing an even number of multiple answers. Both players give one answer in succession, starting with the player who answered first in the tied category, until one player gives an incorrect answer. When an incorrect answer is given, and if the score is still tied, the opposing player must give one more correct answer to win. If the opposing player already has more correct answers by virtue of going first, that player immediately wins the category.
If the tiebreaker ends unresolved, either with both players answering incorrectly or if all correct answers have been given, a new tiebreaker round begins, but the first player to answer is switched.
The first team to eliminate all three of their opponents wins and moves on to the next round.
In the World Series of Pop Culture final, airing first on August 3, 2006 each category (namely "Tom Cruise Movies", "TV Teen Dramas", "1990s Lyrics", and "Fictional Locales") involved ten questions rather than the typical six.
[edit] Bracket
Below is the progression of the World Series of Pop Culture. The final score represents the number of active team members (out of three) by the end of each competition.
| Sweet 16 | Quarterfinals | Seminfinals | Finals | ||||||||||
| July 10–13 | July 14 & 20 | July 27 & August 3 | August 3 | ||||||||||
| The Boeghy Bunch | 3 | ||||||||||||
| Highly Effective People | 0 | ||||||||||||
| The Boeghy Bunch | 1 | ||||||||||||
| PDX 503 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 3 the Hard Way | 0 | ||||||||||||
| PDX 503 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| The Boeghy Bunch | 1 | ||||||||||||
| The Velvet Rope Revolution | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Cheetara | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Team Smarty Pants | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Cheetara | 0 | ||||||||||||
| The Velvet Rope Revolution | 2 | ||||||||||||
| The Velvet Rope Revolution | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Lazer Wolves | 0 | ||||||||||||
| The Boeghy Bunch | 0 | ||||||||||||
| El Chupacabra | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Sexual Chocolate | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Peanut Butter & Ginelli | 2 | ||||||||||||
| Peanut Butter & Ginelli | 0 | ||||||||||||
| El Chupacabra | 2 | ||||||||||||
| We're What Willis Was Talking About | 0 | ||||||||||||
| El Chupacabra | 1 | ||||||||||||
| El Chupacabra | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Almost Perfect Strangers | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky & Mike | 0 | ||||||||||||
| I ♥ Jake Ryan | 1 | ||||||||||||
| I ♥ Jake Ryan | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Almost Perfect Strangers | 1 | ||||||||||||
| The Men of Vision | 0 | ||||||||||||
| Almost Perfect Strangers | 3 | ||||||||||||
[edit] Trivia
- The inaugural competition was won by Atlanta-area residents Mason Spencer, Jodi Roth and Alexandra Clark, collectively known as El Chupacabra. They split the $250,000 cash prize.
- This show is notable as being the first game show to have an entrance exam, called The PC IQ Test (Pop Culture Intelligence Quotient Test), to find a team of players who qualified online instead of via an in-person audition.
- Almost Perfect Strangers had an 'almost perfect' Sweet 16 round, in which they answered every question correctly, with the exception of a steal from the opposing team, Men of Vision. Almost Perfect Strangers was a wild-card team generated by VH1, composed of high on-line scorers of the PC IQ test, who met for the first time on the eve of their first competition.
- Kerry Jackson of Radio From Hell auditioned for the series with a team named "Shatner's Midnight Runners". However, his team was ultimately turned down for the show.
- In one instance, two contestants exhausted the list of possible tiebreaker answers (the category was American Idol finalists), which necessitated a second tiebreaker. Not only that, but they also listed the Idol finalists in order from first to fourth season.
- Even though the Semifinals were to be continued along with the Finals, VH1 gave away the teams that would be in the Finals by showing a commercial with the teams following the first showing of the Semifinals.
- Two members of Peanut Butter & Ginelli invented the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon trivia game.
- Velvet Rope Revolution team member Dave Callaham co-wrote the 2005 feature film Doom.
- The final question of the competition dealt with the name of the fictional college attended by Denise Huxtable on The Cosby Show. Both players failed to provide the correct answer, Hillman College.
[edit] Team names
- Almost Perfect Strangers was the only team composed of people who didn't know each other prior to qualifying, and is a reference to the 1980s sitcom Perfect Strangers.
- The Boeghy Bunch is a reference to the famous 1970s TV show The Brady Bunch, incorporating the last name of one of the team's players.
- Cheetara was the name of one of the characters on the 1980s animated series ThunderCats.
- El Chupacabra means goat sucker in Spanish, and is a reference to the mythical beast of Puerto Rican and Mexican lore. It may be a reference to an episode of The X-Files of the same name.
- Highly Effective People is named after the successful 1989 self-help book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
- I ♥ Jake Ryan refers to the character played by Michael Schoeffling in the 1984 brat pack movie Sixteen Candles.
- Lazer Wolves is a play on the character Lazar Wolf from Fiddler on the Roof. When asked how they got their name, a team member replied, "What's cooler than a wolf shootin' lasers out of its eyes?"
- PDX 503 is the airport code and area code of Portland, Oregon, the hometown of the team's contestants.
- Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky and Mike is a line in the bubblegum pop hit "Cool It Now" by New Edition.
- Sexual Chocolate refers to a fictional band in the movie Coming to America.
- 3 the Hard Way was the name of a blaxploitation film released in 1974.
- The Velvet Rope Revolution is a reference to the team's roots in Hollywood nightclub-hopping, combined with an allusion to the 1989 Velvet Revolution of Czechoslovakia.
- We're What Willis Was Talking About is a reference to the popular Gary Coleman catchphrase, "What'choo talkin' 'bout Willis?" from the 1980s sitcom Diff'rent Strokes.
