The Challengers (game show)
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The Challengers was an American syndicated game show hosted by Dick Clark who originally was the host of The $100,000 Pyramid and American Bandstand. The show premiered in September 1990 and was cancelled one year later.
The game was based somewhat on The Who, What, or Where Game, a popular show of the early 1970s hosted by Art James.
A twist to this game was that many questions were over current events, which was made possible by the fact that shows were taped shortly before their air date (a weeks worth of shows were taped on the Friday of the previous week, which allowed for popular categories of the program "This week on TV" or "Today at the movies"). This went against standard American game show practice of taping shows well in advance, usually the five episodes for a week taped in a single day. For instance, a question might be about a television show that was schedule to air that night, or about a very recent sports event. To emphasize this up-to-date feature, the air date was announced during the show's opening. (This practice was discontinued toward the end of the show's run).
Three contestants, one a returning champion, competed.
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[edit] Rules of the Game
[edit] The Challengers Sprint Round
This game-beginning round was added halfway through its run.
The game started with a 60-second speed round called The Challengers Sprint. Host Clark would ask the contestants a series of rapid-fire questions, contestants buzzing in when they knew the answer. Each correct answer was worth $100, each incorrect answer cost players $100. Contestants were not given any money to start; this later changed to each contestant being spotted $200.
After the Sprint, the person in the lead would get control of the round one board.
[edit] Round One
On the board were 6 categories, each with three questions per category. The questions varied in dollar value. Originally, the questions were worth $150, $200, and $250 (this was later reduced by $50 for each question with each player getting $200 to start). As always, correct answers added to your score, while incorrect answers took away from it.
Each player would lock in the question they wanted to play at their podium. If all three players picked a different question, they would all be asked the different questions. If two players picked the same question, a toss-up was played. Players could buzz in at any time, but if they were incorrect, their opponent could either play or pass (not an option if all three pick differently). The third player would then get their question unopposed.
If all three players picked the same question, the values would double, and a toss-up would be played. The same toss-up rules applied, but the player answering correctly could now choose to play any of the other questions in the category and could pass at anytime. An incorrect answer on any of the other questions lost money in the value of the question and forced the contestant to pick a new category.
[edit] Round Two
The rules were the same for round 2, except the dollar values were doubled.
After two rounds were played, any players with no money were eliminated. The remaining players played The Final Challenge.
[edit] The Final Challenge
One category was played, with the three questions having varying degrees of difficulty, and thus different odds on the question. The easiest question paid off at even odds, a harder question paid off 2:1 (bet $500, win $1000), and the hardest paid off 3:1 (bet $1000, win $3000). This time the players would place wagers on the questions they wanted to play.
A correct answer netted the player the amount of the wager multiplied by the odds, while an incorrect answer only deducted the amount of the original wager.
As always, if all three picked different categories they would play their questions. If two or more players picked the same category, the player who made the highest wager would get the question. At the end of The Final Challenge, whoever was in the lead won the game and got to return the next day. All players kept their winnings, in the form of a CitiBank Visa card, with the total winnings as the balance (but Clark on some occasions would mention after CitiBank was plugged in the show that they could take their winnings in cash).
[edit] The Ultimate Challenge
Originally, for every three games a player won, he/she would play a bonus round at the beginning of the next show: The player would choose from two categories and would have to answer 3 questions correctly to win. If successful, the player would win a cash jackpot that started at $50,000 and went up $5,000 when it was played for and missed. If the champ could not answer all three questions (with five seconds thinking time for each) the player would receive $1000 for each correct answer.
A second iteration of the bonus round had the jackpot start at $25,000; and increase $1,000 each day until it was won, whether or not it was played for.
Still later, The Ultimate Challenge became a daily bonus round, with players playing for $10,000 at the end of each show. The champ was asked a single question; a right answer wins the $10,000, a wrong answer wins nothing extra.
Champions played until beaten, and the biggest winner in the show's one year was Stan Newman, who won $112,480 (including two Ultimate Challenge jackpots and the $25,000 Invitational Tournament of Champions).
[edit] Tournaments
The Challengers held two tournaments over the year. The first was the Challengers Invitational Tournament, in which the nine biggest winners to that point in the series were invited back. The three winners of the Monday through Wednesday show would come back for two games on Thursday and Friday. The scores from both days would be totaled, and the player with the highest score would win $25,000, as well as whatever they had won in the 2 games. The other two players collected whatever they won up to that point. This tournament was held during the week of November 12-16, 1990 (intended to compete with the annual tournament on rival show Jeopardy!). Originally, the intent was to have the returning champion finish his/her week the previous Friday and return the Monday after the tournament to continue his run. However, since the defending champion at the time, Stanley Newman, was one of the nine highest winners when the tournament began, he was invited to play in the tournament, even though he'd be returning the following week to continue his reign as champion. Newman went on to win the tournament, adding over $40,000 in winnings to his total. He would eventually retire with $112,480 in cash, which included the tournament win and two Ultimate Challenge jackpots.
The other tournament was a Teachers Tournament, with a $10,000 grand prize. Both tournaments were played focusing more on general knowledge than current events so the shows could be aired any time.
[edit] Episode status
All episodes exist. GSN has not reran this show. It could be, in part, because of the date information at the start of the show (and on one of the monitors behind Dick Clark's podium), which, of course, is outdated.
