Author Topic: The Easiest Game Show To Be On? (Read 8020 times)

bwood · « **on:** September 06, 2003, 10:42:41 PM »

What do you guys think is the easiest game show to win on? One that requires no real knowledge, etc. The show can be local (lottery) or national.

My pick has to go to Ohio Lottery's Cash Explosion Double Play. How to become a contestant on CE is hard, since you have to get an ENTRY ticket and then get drawn out, but once you're on you're guaranteed at least $3,200) All you do is pick squares, nothing to it, my kind of show!

Side note: My ENTRY ticket was in the drawing tonight but didn't get picked

clemon79 · « **Reply #1 on:** September 07, 2003, 12:22:50 AM »

[quote name=\'bwood\' date=\'Sep 6 2003, 07:42 PM\'] What do you guys think is the easiest game show to win on? One that requires no real knowledge, etc. The show can be local (lottery) or national.

My pick has to go to Ohio Lottery's Cash Explosion Double Play. All you do is pick squares, nothing to it, my kind of show!
[/quote]
I wouldn't want to be on a show where my complete hopes of winning are left entirely to the vagaries of chance.

Given my choice, I'd rather go on Wheel. It strikes me as having the greatest ratio of available money to opposing contestant IQ among shows on today.

bwood · « **Reply #2 on:** September 07, 2003, 01:26:27 AM »

Yeah, the show is entirely based on luck, but, hey, it cost me a whole $1 ($1.37 with stamp to send it in) and if that $1.37 is going to turn into at least $3,200, count me in!

Plus, I live less than an hour away so I'd drive to Columbus for that little chunk of money

Wheel is an excellent choice and I wish they would come back to the Ohio State Fair to tape while it's going on, but that will never happen.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #3 on:** September 07, 2003, 10:46:21 AM »

Quote

Yeah, the show is entirely based on luck, but, hey, it cost me a whole $1 ($1.37 with stamp to send it in) and if that $1.37 is going to turn into at least $3,200, count me in!

You're confusing the easiest show to BE on with the easiest show to WIN on. In your own thread! You also make it sound like an investment of $1.37 guarantees that you're going to make at least $3,200. Wake up and smell the scratch-off tickets.

Understand that the state lotteries are in the business of making it LOOK easy to win big when it's really not. In fact, if you took all the money you spent on lotteries and played slot machines at a casino instead, you would almost certainly end up with a better return on your investment. (Technically, what that really means is that over time, you would lose less money at the casinos than on lottery tickets. They're both in the business of TAKING your money, not giving you money.)

The Ohio Lottery WANTS you to think it's easy to get on the show and easy to win. But just remember that for every dollar they give away, there's a sucker like you who bought a ticket and fantasized. Every dollar. Every ticket. That's the way a lottery works. There are a small number of winners, and for everyone else, all you get out of it is a small entertainment value and the narcotic effect of the fantasy.

Lotteries are a tax on poor, stupid people. I don't think they should be banned, there are a lot of poor, stupid people out there who need that narcotic, and the states need their money. But I do think it's outrageous that 49 states can pass restrictive laws banning gambling while most of those same states run their own numbers game.

I doubt any of this changed your mind. Cold, boring mathematics and the real world can never compete with brightly colored fantasies of riches. But maybe somebody else will see this and think twice about spending meal money on such a longshot bet.

bwood · « **Reply #4 on:** September 07, 2003, 03:04:49 PM »

I know how lotteries work, and this, believe it or not, was the first and only lottery ticket I have ever bought. It happened to be an Entry and I said \"what the heck, it's probably a waste of a stamp, but oh well\". It's not like I said \"WOW, an Entry! That means I get to go on the show\". Sorry that it sounded so misleading.

The original topic is \"The Easiest Show To Win On\". I'm not talking about the easiest to get on through auditions, etc.

The thread did start out \"The easiest to win on\" and Chris said (refering to CE) \"I wouldn't want to be on a show where my complete hopes of winning are left entirely to the vagaries of chance.\" So I replied with my reasoning behind possibly going on the show.

That Don Guy · « **Reply #5 on:** September 07, 2003, 03:21:05 PM »

[quote name=\'bwood\' date=\'Sep 7 2003, 02:04 PM\']The original topic is \"The Easiest Show To Win On\".[/quote]
Well, if lottery shows count, California's The Big Spin (or whatever it's called now) is probably easiest, if you qualify for the big wheel. It's been a while since I've seen it, but I think the minimum win is $25,000. (When it started in 1985 or so, with Chuck Woolery as host, there were only four prizes: $10,000, $50,000, $100,000, and $2 Million.)

Other than lottery shows, the \"easiest show to win on\" would have to be one where you're not competing against anybody, like WWTBAM? or the old The $64,000 Question. (Say, whatever happened to Ben Stein's planned $640,000 version...and who here would try to get on with \"Game Shows\" as their category?)

Side note: one of the most deceitful commercials I've ever seen was when the California lottery announced that the Big Spin would have \"more chances to win $1 Million\" - not mentioning that they did it by getting rid of all of the prizes larger than $1 Million and replacing some of them with $1 Million and others with smaller amounts, so the chance of winning $1 Million or more actually decreased. (You couldn't blame the lottery for that; it happened right after Lotto started in California, and needless to say, most people switched to that because of the larger jackpots; in fact, most people voted for the lottery in the first place under the assumption that Lotto would be used eventually.)

clemon79 · « **Reply #6 on:** September 07, 2003, 04:22:17 PM »

[quote name=\'That Don Guy\' date=\'Sep 7 2003, 12:21 PM\'] in fact, most people voted for the lottery in the first place under the assumption that Lotto would be used eventually.) [/quote]
Funny, I was under the impression that most people voted for the California Lottery because of the six cents on the dollar that went to the school system, not aware that the idiot legislature would use that as an excuse to cut their own funding to the schools by, oh, about 6%....

rugrats1 · « **Reply #7 on:** September 07, 2003, 04:55:48 PM »

Quote

When [The Big Spin] started in 1985 or so, with Chuck Woolery as host, there were only four prizes...

I thought Geoff Edwards was the first host of The Big Spin? (Chuck was doing \"Love Connection\" at the time.)

zachhoran · « **Reply #8 on:** September 07, 2003, 07:35:13 PM »

[quote name=\'That Don Guy\' date=\'Sep 7 2003, 02:21 PM\']
Other than lottery shows, the "easiest show to win on" would have to be one where you're not competing against anybody, like WWTBAM? or the old The $64,000 Question. (Say, whatever happened to Ben Stein's planned $640,000 version...and who here would try to get on with "Game Shows" as their category?)

[/quote]
There was talk of a revived $640K question in 1999, right before Millionaire bowed for the first go round. Valleycrest/Buena Vista who packaged WBSM were to produce it IIRC, but I don't think Ben Stein had anything to do with it. Greg Gumbel did a $1,024,000 Question pilot in early 2000 for CBS, and reportedly did an admirable job as host, but CBS passed on picking it up as a series(possibly due to the then-recent failure of WInning Lines and Moonves' enmity towards gamers)

clemon79 · « **Reply #9 on:** September 07, 2003, 08:21:54 PM »

[quote name=\'rugrats1\' date=\'Sep 7 2003, 01:55 PM\']

Quote

When [The Big Spin] started in 1985 or so, with Chuck Woolery as host, there were only four prizes...

I thought Geoff Edwards was the first host of The Big Spin? (Chuck was doing "Love Connection" at the time.) [/quote]
No. Woolery was first, then Edwards did it for a while, and the announcer Rich Hardaway was doing it for a bit (at this point they brought in the ubiquitous Spanish interpreter and started calling her the \"co-host\", a la WOF), then former Truth or Consequences host Larry Andersen, and now it's Pat Finn, innit?

That Don Guy · « **Reply #10 on:** September 07, 2003, 09:13:06 PM »

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Sep 7 2003, 03:22 PM\']Funny, I was under the impression that most people voted for the California Lottery because of the six cents on the dollar that went to the school system, not aware that the idiot legislature would use that as an excuse to cut their own funding to the schools by, oh, about 6%....[/quote]
Actually, it was, and still is, 1/3 of all money going to schools (doesn't New York give 1/2 to its schools?), although you have to realize that \"the schools\" include all of the state-run universities (10 \"Universities of California\", including the new one in Merced and the medical school in San Francisco, and 23 \"California State Universities\", including the California Maritime Academy), and the money is supposed to be distributed on a same-amount-per-person basis..and (a) yes, the legislature has pretty much managed to shift an equivalent amount from the education budget to the general fund, and (b) what \"bonus money\" that does trickle down to the schools used to be given to the teachers as paybacks for pay cuts in the years between Proposition 13 and the start of the lottery.

Quote

I thought Geoff Edwards was the first host of The Big Spin? (Chuck was doing \"Love Connection\" at the time.)

Didn't Woolery host it when it was in Los Angeles, but Edwards took over when it was moved to Sacramento?

DrBear · « **Reply #11 on:** September 07, 2003, 09:50:55 PM »

Well, if you want the easiest to WIN on, it would have to be the Oxygen version of IGAS. Those four couldn't guess a naked man whose secret was that he wasn't wearing any clothes, although JmJ. might ask him for a date.

(yeah, I know, Betsy Palmer and carrots in his ear. I picked the Oxygen version because of Mo'Money)

Dbacksfan12 · « **Reply #12 on:** September 08, 2003, 01:33:11 AM »

[quote name=\'That Don Guy\' date=\'Sep 7 2003, 08:13 PM\'] [quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Sep 7 2003, 03:22 PM\']Funny, I was under the impression that most people voted for the California Lottery because of the six cents on the dollar that went to the school system, not aware that the idiot legislature would use that as an excuse to cut their own funding to the schools by, oh, about 6%....[/quote]
Actually, it was, and still is, 1/3 of all money going to schools (doesn't New York give 1/2 to its schools?), although you have to realize that "the schools" include all of the state-run universities (10 "Universities of California", including the new one in Merced and the medical school in San Francisco, and 23 "California State Universities", including the California Maritime Academy), and the money is supposed to be distributed on a same-amount-per-person basis..and (a) yes, the legislature has pretty much managed to shift an equivalent amount from the education budget to the general fund, and (b) what "bonus money" that does trickle down to the schools used to be given to the teachers as paybacks for pay cuts in the years between Proposition 13 and the start of the lottery.

Quote

I thought Geoff Edwards was the first host of The Big Spin? (Chuck was doing "Love Connection" at the time.)

Didn't Woolery host it when it was in Los Angeles, but Edwards took over when it was moved to Sacramento? [/quote]
Illinois, per the back of their tickets, donates all proceeds to the general Illinois school fund...

clemon79 · « **Reply #13 on:** September 08, 2003, 01:54:12 AM »

[quote name=\'That Don Guy\' date=\'Sep 7 2003, 06:13 PM\'] Actually, it was, and still is, 1/3 of all money going to schools [/quote]
You're right. I got my slices of the pie mixed up. Six cents on the dollar goes to the person selling the ticket. But you see my point.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #14 on:** September 08, 2003, 09:28:25 AM »

Quote

Illinois, per the back of their tickets, donates all proceeds to the general Illinois school fund...

You're missing Chris' point (a very valid one, BTW, so you shouldn't miss it). States love to claim that the lottery money goes to education, making it sound like a noble thing. But lottery money doesn't give EXTRA money to education, the states just take away the amount of regular tax money that would have gone to education and spend that money on something else.