Street Smarts was a United States game show that features two in-studio contestants trying to predict the outcome of interviews of people that were found on the street. The show aired in syndication from October 2, 2000 to September 23, 2005, hosted by Frank Nicotero.
A French-Canadian version, Les beaux parleurs, hosted by Patrice L'Écuyer, aired in 2001-02 on Radio-Canada. A British version, Does Doug Know?, aired in 2002 on Channel 4.
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Before the game actually starts, two studio contestants are introduced, as well as three "street savants", whose interviews were pre-recorded.
A question is posed, and the studio contestants must choose which of the three "savants" gave the correct answer (indicated in the first season on a trilon). A correct guess earns $100. Three questions are asked in this round; sometimes two "savants" will answer correctly. Sometimes, as an aside, Frank will call for a wrong-answer clip to be played to add humor to the show.
This is similar to the first round, but the object is to guess who got the question wrong; for each question, only two of the "savants" are considered (one of whom answered correctly), and correct guesses are now worth $200.
Also, a Dunce Cap is in play in Round Two; Once the question is posed, an in-studio contestant can hit their buzzer if he/she thinks that his/her opponent doesn't know the answer. The person hitting his/her buzzer usually placed the Dunce Cap on his/her opponent. The "dunce" is allowed to hear the question in its entirety, and must then answer the question within 5 seconds. If the dunce gets the question wrong, $200 goes to the person who hit the buzzer. However, if the dunce does know the answer, then the "dunce" gets the $200 and is allowed to place the dunce cap on his/her opponent (that is, the person who hit the buzzer originally). In either case, the cap must be worn for the remainder of the round. Also, only one dunce cap opportunity is available.
Each contestant, starting with the person trailing (or whoever won a pre-show coin toss in the case of a tie), picks one of the "savants" to work with for the entire round. Each question goes to an individual contestant, who must decide whether their "brain/pony" got the question right or wrong (indicated in the first season on a paddle). Three questions are asked of each contestant, for a total of six in the round. Correct guesses are now worth $300. The Dunce Cap is back in this round, regardless of whether it was used in the previous round. Once again there is one dunce per round, but dunces are now worth $300.
The "right" reference is indicated in green; the "wrong" reference in red.
Before the final commercial break, a question is asked. During the commercial, the contestants each choose, in secret, 1) which "savant" they wish to pick, 2) whether they got the question right or wrong, and 3) the amount of their score that they wish to wager. A correct guess adds the contestant's wager to his/her score, while an incorrect guess loses the wager. High scorer at the end of the game keeps their money, and, in season 5, has the opportunity to risk their winnings for the possibility of a slot in the season-ending Tournament of Champions (see below). An exception to this rule occurs when celebrities play for charity: the winning player's charity receives the money won, with a minimum of $1,000; the losing player's charity receives $500, regardless of the actual score.
The theoretical maximum win on Street Smarts was $4,600; this requires getting all questions right and winning both "Dunces."
If the game ended in a tie at more than $0, one final question was asked to both studio contestants. The first player to buzz-in chooses to either answer the question or pass it to his/her opponent. If the buzzing player chooses to answer, he or she must answer based on the information given to that point; if he or she passes, the other player is allowed to hear the entire question. A correct answer by the responding contestant wins the game; answering incorrectly awards the game to their opponent. The tiebreaker only takes place if the players have money; if both players have $0, then the game is over and nobody wins.
Most of the questions asked of the savants are designed to be things people should know, but apparently don't (similar to the segment Jaywalking on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno). For example, in one episode, a savant was asked "What color is the exterior of the White House?" After some thought, the savant answered "Beige." Another notable example was an elderly woman who claimed to be a nurse and, when asked what HMO meant, she got it confused with the premium television channel, HBO. Occasionally Nicotero, when asking the savant, would break the fourth wall, such as when a savant who was in the US Navy was asked to define "league" as in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. After getting it incorrect, Nicotero walked up to the camera and said to the contestant "I bet you thought she would get this right!" Sometimes the questions would be vocabulary-based, in which a word, such as pinochle was shown to the contestant, who would then have to speculate whether or not the savant used the word properly in a sentence.
Other questions are trick questions that are designed to catch some people off guard. These are also to see if the savants are paying attention. For example, Nicotero asked one savant, "Canada is the capital of what state?" (Mark DeCarlo was able to successfully put the dunce cap on Mark L. Walberg on that same question and earn $200 for it.) The savant replied, "Australia!" Later, another savant pointed out the right answer by saying, "It's not! It's a country!"
Sometimes shows took on a certain theme, with Nicotero interviewing the savants in a costume akin to the theme. A couple episodes had been known as "Revenge Episodes", in which savants who believed they had been humiliated on air could get the chance to make money as contestants themselves. In November 2000, one episode revolved around the United States 2000 presidential election where Nicotero wore an Uncle Sam costume when questioning savants and all questions pertained to American elections or political workings, such as "Why did Bill Clinton refuse to seek a third term?"
Other shows invited classic television stars and game show hosts to play for their favorite charities. The episode that pitted Mark L. Walberg (who at the time was hosting the game show Russian Roulette) against Mark DeCarlo (who at the time was voicing Jimmy Neutron's dad on Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius) was notable in that Walberg won the game with $2 to DeCarlo's $1. But because it was a charity episode, Walberg received $1,000 for Goodwill Industries of Southern California while DeCarlo received $500 for the M.S. Society of America.
As celebration of being the first street interview show in over 20 years to reach a fifth season, Street Smarts announced a $100,000 tournament where the top winners of the season would play a single-elimination tournament for a grand prize of $100,000.
During that fifth season, the winner of each show had the option of keeping their money or risking it for a chance to play in the tournament. This gave contestants who won with just $1 a way to win more money.
The $100,000 Tournament featured the top 32 contestants of the season who gave up their winnings to be in the tournament. The contestants played for points instead of dollars, with the winner of each game moving on to the next round. Each round had a special name:
The winner of this tournament was Teresa Lee. She defeated Brandon (last name unknown) on the final first-run episode of the series, which had aired on Wednesday, May 25, 2005.
Reruns of the show have aired in the past on both WGN America and Game Show Network.