The Big Showdown

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The Big Showdown was a game show that aired on the ABC television network from December 23, 1974 to July 4, 1975. Jim Peck was the host, and Dan Daniel, then a disc jockey on New York City's WHN radio, was the announcer. The series was recorded at ABC's New York studios and packaged by Don Lipp and Ron Greenberg, with assistance by MCA Television and Dick Clark Productions[1]. Greenberg had previously packaged NBC's The Who, What, or Where Game (1969-1974).

Contents

[edit] Front game format, round 1 (The Big Showdown)

Peck read the first question of the game to three contestants (usually including a returning champion) as a one point toss-up for control of the board. The player who answered it got to choose from six categories, with questions ranging from 1-6 points (symbolized on the game board as faces on a die) in value, depending on the category. The player who answered the first question began the game by choosing a category, with its corresponding point value. All of the questions were toss-ups; with the first player to buzz in and answer correctly gaining control of the board. There were no penalties for answering incorrectly; however, any player missing a question got locked out for the rest of the question, with the other players eligible to buzz in and answer.

A number was determined before the round to be the "payoff point," and the first player to hit it would win a cash bonus varying from $25 to $500 (set by a randomizer dial in host Peck's podium). A player had to hit the payoff point exactly- if a contestant was in danger of surpassing it with any correct answer, he or she would be locked out of that particular question, and a player could not select a category that was worth more than the value needed to hit the target number. In the event of a "double block" (two contestants who could not attain the payoff point on a particular category), the player who selected the category got to hear the entire question unopposed (although he or she still had to buzz in to answer). Trailing contestants often used this as a vital strategy to disable the contestant(s) in the lead, in order to gain an upper hand.

Once the target number was reached, that player won the cash bonus, and a new target number was established, raised proportionally to several points above the leading contestant's score. The first round consisted of at least four target numbers, sometimes five, depending on the amount of time used before going into the "speedround" (discussed below).

Two sets of categories were played (the first one using only two target numbers; the second set of categories using its third and subsequent target numbers), and a 90-second "speedround" finished off the first segment (with each payoff point after the one currently in play worth $100). At the end of the round, the player with the lowest point score retired from the game with his or her winnings, and the two remaining contestants advanced to the "Final Showdown." In the event of a tie for second place, Peck asked the two players a tie-breaking question from the one-point category, with the first to buzz in with a right answer moving on to the second round, and an incorrect response eliminating that player from the game.

[edit] The Final Showdown

In the "Final Showdown," the two remaining contestants competed to hit a payoff point of seven. Three categories were played (again represented by faces on a die), and the point values were 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The same rules from the first round applied; a player could not exceed seven points, and all questions were toss-ups. The first player to reach seven points won the game and an additional $250.

[edit] The bonus round

The champion of the day now had a chance to win $10,000 by rolling dice. The dice were standard six-sided dice, but the sixes were covered up with a board on which the words "Show" and "Down" were printed on one die apiece. Model Heather Cunningham joined the show at this point to assist the contestant by handing him or her the dice to roll.

The player would then throw the dice onto a long table (similar to that used on High Rollers, but with a well at the end in order for host Peck to remove the dice). If "Showdown" came up on the first roll, the contestant would win $10,000. If not, the number shown (between one and ten) would serve as the payoff point. The contestant then had 30 seconds to roll the dice as many times as he or she possibly could, with Cunningham handing off new pairs of dice for each roll and Peck removing a completed roll from the well. Every time the player hit the payoff point, it netted the contestant $250 and an extra five seconds of rolling time after the conclusion of the original 30 seconds. If "Showdown" came up, the contestant earned $5,000, plus any money won by hitting the payoff point.

If after the initial 30 seconds the player had not rolled "Showdown," but had hit the payoff point at least once, he or she would receive whatever bonus time he/she had earned (five seconds per point) to roll "Showdown;" the payoff point bonus, of course, went out of play at this point. If the player rolled "Showdown" during the bonus time, he or she earned $5,000.

Every champion who rolled "Showdown" retired undefeated. Otherwise, he or she returned as champion.

Statistically, a player should have won $10,000 on at least one show out of 36 attempts, but far more than 36 shows went by without a winner. The results in the $5,000 rolls demonstrated that the dice were unbiased, but as the weeks went by, the producers likely became somewhat embarrassed by the big prize never being awarded. Finally, on the 100th show sometime in March or April 1975, the winner rolled "Showdown" on her first roll, winning the $10,000 prize. The producers wanted regular viewers who may have missed that day's episode to know the prize had been hit, so on the next week's shows, they used a clip of the $10,000 roll to open the show. Beginning sometime in January, the show began with a montage featuring clips of players making $10,000 and $5,000 rolls; this was almost identical to the opening sequence of the program preceding Showdown on ABC's daytime schedule, The $10,000 Pyramid. (Episode 68, however, which featured Jim falling down the stairs [see below] only showed $5,000 winners in the sequence)

It should be noted that the sides of the dice showing "Show" and "Down" did not count as a six. Instead the point total on any roll where only one of the words was displayed was the number showing on the other die. Therefore, with this set of dice it was possible to roll a count of one. It also changed the probability of rolling certain numbers from those of standard dice. The probabilities with this set of dice are:

1: 2 out of 36
2: 3 out of 36
3: 4 out of 36
4: 5 out of 36
5: 6 out of 36
6: 5 out of 36
7: 4 out of 36
8: 3 out of 36
9: 2 out of 36
10: 1 out of 36

[edit] Jim Peck's fall

During the program's 68th episode (about half-way through the series' run), Peck was walking down the spiral staircase at the back of the set to his podium at the program's opening as usual. Upon doing so, however, he tripped and fell, resulting in laughter and applause from the audience. After the fall, he got up and remarked, "Sure! You people would applaud a lynching!" Later on in the same episode, he walked back to the staircase, giving the offending stair a swift kick.

[edit] Broadcast History/Scheduling

ABC placed Showdown at 2:30 p.m./1:30 p.m. Central, replacing an updated remake of Queen for a Day titled The Girl in My Life. The dominant program in the Nielsen ratings in that time slot was NBC's The Doctors, and Showdown made no headway against it, despite the continuing decline of the other competing show, CBS' Edge of Night, which would move, ironically enough, to ABC five months after Showdown's cancellation. A Bob Eubanks-hosted game, Rhyme and Reason, replaced it on the schedule.

Jim Peck, a Milwaukee TV personality, made his national debut on this show. Other than several syndicated shows, he only hosted ABC programs.

[edit] Pilot

The show's pilot, called "Showdown", featured a slightly different set and theme, and Mark Frederickson was the announcer. It featured identical rules to the actual show.

[edit] Episode Status

Episode #68 and the pilot are believed to be the only two episodes of the series that still exist, although one clip of a bonus round from another show does exist.[citation needed]

[edit] References

  1. ^ YouTube - The Big Showdown Part 3

[edit] External links