Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!
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| Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! | |
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| Genre | Game show |
|---|---|
| Running time | ca. 50 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Languages | English |
| Home station | WBEZ |
| Syndicates | NPR, WBEZ |
| Hosts | Peter Sagal |
| Announcer | Carl Kasell |
| Creators | |
| Producers | Murad "Rod" Abid Mike Danforth Emily Ecton Melody Kramer |
| Executive producers | Doug Berman |
| Recording studio | Chicago, Illinois |
| Air dates | 1998 to present |
| Audio format | Stereophonic |
| Opening theme | B.J. Leiderman[1] (composer) |
Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! is an hour-long weekly radio news quiz game show produced by Chicago Public Radio and National Public Radio. It is distributed by NPR in the United States and on the Internet via podcast, and typically broadcast on weekends by member stations.
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[edit] Format
The show is hosted by Peter Sagal. When the program debuted in January 1998, Dan Coffey of Ask Dr. Science was the original host, but a revamping of the show led to his replacement in May of that year.
Carl Kasell is the show's scorekeeper. Each week, a panel of three is chosen to participate in the program; frequent panelists include Roy Blount, Jr., Tom Bodett, Amy Dickinson, Adam Felber, Kyrie O'Connor, P.J. O'Rourke, Paula Poundstone, Paul Provenza, Charlie Pierce, Roxanne Roberts, Luke Burbank, Mo Rocca, and most recently, Drew Carey.
Wait Wait… listeners also participate by telephoning or sending e-mails to nominate themselves as contestants. The producers select several listeners for each show, and call them to play games on the air on a pre-taped basis with questions based on the week's news. The prize for winning any game is to have Carl Kasell record a greeting on the contestant's home answering machine. In late 2002, the prize also included the newly published book of the same name as the show, with a not-so-subtle suggestion that it makes a great gift (and so would a dozen). In most cases, the contestants are given a bit of latitude in getting the correct answer, such as getting another guess and a hint should they initially guess wrong, or being credited for being able to identify everything about a newsmaker except their name. These games include:
- Who's Carl This Time?
- The contestant must identify the speaker or explain the context of three quotations read by Morning Edition news-reader Carl Kasell. Two correct answers constitutes a win. In a variation of this game, Carl Kasell's Countdown, three popular songs are played and the contestant must identify the related news story. In another variation (debuting on May 18, 2008), Carl Kassel's Answering Machine, Carl Kassel reads three fictitious voice mail messages based on recent events.
- Bluff the Listener
- The contestant hears three odd but related news stories read by the panelists. Two of the stories are invented by two panelists, with the actual story being read by the remaining panelist. The listener must determine which one is true and not a product of the panelists' imaginations. The show uses a sound bite from the actual story to reveal the answer.
- An Internet Destination Called Carlslist
- Carl Kasell reads postings from the fictional Internet site "Carlslist" (a parody of Craigslist) based on recent news events. The contestant must guess the person or event being referred to in the "posting" to score points. Debuted on October 21, 2006.
- Listener Limerick Challenge
- The contestant must identify the last word or phrase in three news-related limericks read by Carl Kasell. Two correct answers constitutes a win.
- Not My Job
- A specially invited guest takes a three-question multiple-choice quiz on a topic completely unrelated to the celebrity's field, with a unique appropriate category name used each week. Originally, the guests on these segments were NPR personalities and reporters, but the pool of guests later expanded to include mostly celebrity guests, ranging from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who was asked questions on the history of Hugh Hefner and Playboy magazine,[2] to author Salman Rushdie who was asked about the history of PEZ.[3] Two correct answers constitute a win and the prize goes to a randomly selected listener who contacted the show but was not chosen as a contestant. At least one exception to this rule has been recorded when, in June 2005, Sagal made an "executive ruling" in favor of then-major Robert Bateman, who was participating as the celebrity from his station in Baghdad, Iraq.
- Wait Wait… Television
- Carl Kasell reads commercials for fictional television shows based on recent news events. The contestant must guess the person that the "commercial" references to score a point. As with the other games, two correct answers out of three possible yields the prize. Debuted on October 1, 2006.
In between games, Peter Sagal asks the panelists questions from the week's news and the panelists earn points by giving correct answers. These questions are generally based on less-newsworthy stories of the week, and phrased similar to questions in The Match Game or Hollywood Squares to allow the panel to give a comedic answer should they be unaware of the real one. A panelist also earns a point if a contestant chooses his/her story in the Bluff the Listener game, whether that story was true or made-up. At the end of the show, the panelists take a Lightning Fill-In-The-Blank quiz. Each panelist is given a series of eight fill-in-the-blank questions about news stories, and must answer as many as he or she can (the stories become more frivolous and humorous as the quiz progresses) and are scored 2 points for each correct answer. After the quiz, all the points are totaled, and the panelist with the highest score is declared the week's champion (in the event of a tie for first place, the tying contestants are declared co-champions). Panelists do not receive prizes for winning.
The show typically closes with the Panelists' Predictions, during which each panelist provides a headline that is designed more to make the listener laugh than to actually predict a real news story. That segment usually ends with Carl Kasell stating that if any of those come true, "we'll ask you about it on Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me!"
Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! is currently recorded in front of a live audience at Chicago's Chase Auditorium in the Chase Tower on Thursday nights. Until May 2005, the show was recorded in one of Chicago Public Radio's studios, with no audience and often with one or more panelists calling in from other locations. The show often travels to various cities in the United States and produces a road show in front of a live audience.
[edit] Parodies
Al Franken's former talk radio show, The Al Franken Show, contained a segment called "Wait Wait… Don't Lie to Me!", where contestants had to determine if a soundbite played was truth, lie, or "weasel" (technically true, but designed to deceive).
[edit] Awards
In April of 2008, Wait Wait won a Peabody Award. [4] Its website was also nominated for a 2008 Webby Award in the category of Humor[5]
[edit] References
- ^ BJ Leiderman, NPR Biography. NPR. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
- ^ Madeleine Albright. Interview with Peter Sagal. Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!. NPR/WGBH. 6 December 2003. (Interview [Audio]). Retrieved on 2008-01-13.
- ^ Salman Rushdie. Interview with Peter Sagal. Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!. NPR/WGBH. 9 September 2001. (Interview [Audio]). Retrieved on 2008-01-13.
- ^ NPR'S IRREVERENT NEWS QUIZ SHOW WAIT WAIT...DON'T TELL ME! WINS PEABODY AWARD, THANKS POLITICIANS, NEWSMAKERS AND CELEBRITIES FOR PROVIDING FODDER
- ^ Webby Nominees
[edit] External links
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