The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: aaron sica on June 01, 2021, 08:37:55 AM
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As a complement to the post of the easiest bonus rounds, what are the hardest?
This occured to me yesterday while watching the 9am Concentration on BUZZR. I think the "guess two rebuses in 10 seconds for a car" has to be pretty high up there.
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The concept of the Concentration '73 bonus round wasn't difficult in and of itself IMO, but when the showrunners insisted on solutions like "JIMMY STEWART WAS A FAMOUS ACTOR WHO STARRED IN IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE" and "MY VERY EXCELLENT MOTHER JUST SERVED US NINE PIES," it definitely became one of the hardest.
I'd say Carmen Sandiego once they increased the goal to 8 correct answers ranks up there, especially if a contestant was unlucky enough to get the Africa map. And even though it was thoroughly discussed on the board recently, Nick Arcade.
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The way the Winner's Big Money Game on Sale was set up was quite tricky most days. Not only were the puzzles written so that they were a shot in the dark until the fourth word, you had virtually no chance of making up lost time with an incorrect answer or if you waited too long on one of them.
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I don't know if it qualifies as a bonus round, but the endgame on the Chase is up there in terms of loss/win ratio.
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In the history of game shows, this one was just a blip:
It Takes Two w/ Dick Clark...
IIRC, I don't think ANYBODY won the Waverunner Bonus Round. The winning "range" was always different from show to show and the teams answer was based on the average of contestant's two guesstimates without any consultation between the players.
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The concept of the Concentration '73 bonus round wasn't difficult in and of itself IMO, but when the showrunners insisted on solutions like "JIMMY STEWART WAS A FAMOUS ACTOR WHO STARRED IN IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE" and "MY VERY EXCELLENT MOTHER JUST SERVED US NINE PIES," it definitely became one of the hardest.
And to think all you got out of it was a lousy Vega or Chevette. Anyone who could solve puzzles like that deserved at least an Impala.
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Also (and I'm sure there's someone here that can fill in my foggy details).
One of the bonus rounds on an episode of "Pass the Buck" was beyond impossible. It was a letter of the alphabet, you had to say one word that began with it, and there was only one right answer.
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Along the same lines of the Concentration example...one of the reasons I generally don't watch WoF is because it's usually blatantly obvious when the producers don't want the bonus round to be won and the puzzle is something like ZUCCHINI PIZZA or JAZZ XYLOPHONIST.
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Also (and I'm sure there's someone here that can fill in my foggy details).
One of the bonus rounds on an episode of "Pass the Buck" was beyond impossible. It was a letter of the alphabet, you had to say one word that began with it, and there was only one right answer.
I went down a Pass the Buck rabbit hole over the weekend, courtesy of Adam and Matt's Bill Cullen FB group. One episode had naming a word starting with Z. That was lost. Another episode asked for a Q word on the top row. Not only was it won, it was the first word out of the player's mouth--QUACK.
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The bonus round on Scattegories, to me, was overly difficult. I don’t know whether that was due to contestants’ incompetence or judging being a little too strict but it seemed like almost every time I watched it, it wasn’t anywhere close to winnable.
In previous posts I’ve mentioned the 5 in 30 round on Caesars Challenge and the aforementioned Double Play round.
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Any time the artifact was put in the rooms directly to the left of the pit on Legends of the Hidden Temple, they were setting up for a loss because the route would invariably take the first player the longest possible way around the temple only to get pulled out by a second temple guard with like 25 seconds to go.
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Depending on one's definition of hard, I've often thought one of the hardest of bonus rounds was the original Chain Reaction. Sure, it was frequently won, but having two people try to follow each other's descriptive thoughts concisely took a great deal of effort and flexibility. One poorly chosen word, and it might take another eight words to get the question back on track. Winning Streak's bonus was also tough.
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I don't know if it qualifies as a bonus round, but the endgame on the Chase is up there in terms of loss/win ratio.
The Chase, as much as I generally love the game, has done a lot to sour me on formats where a player/team spends the first phase of the game building a bank and then goes home empty-handed if they fail to defend it in the second phase. At least throw in some pity cash.
Along the same lines of the Concentration example...one of the reasons I generally don't watch WoF is because it's usually blatantly obvious when the producers don't want the bonus round to be won and the puzzle is something like ZUCCHINI PIZZA or JAZZ XYLOPHONIST.
And even when they do use less-uncommon letters, it's still TERRIFIC UKULELE or some other thing that's a logically-coherent phrase but not in anything resembling common use.
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The Chase, as much as I generally love the game, has done a lot to sour me on formats where a player/team spends the first phase of the game building a bank and then goes home empty-handed if they fail to defend it in the second phase. At least throw in some pity cash.
I used to be of this opinion as well, but it kind of defangs the whole mythos of "trivia amateurs take on a master" when you know that even if they fail they'll get consolation money.
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Tenable's final round requires a perfect 10/10 to win the money, making it very difficult for teams to take the money home. And this series in particular, I'm noticing more and more final lists with one answer that's meant to be a stopper.
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Tenable's final round requires a perfect 10/10 to win the money, making it very difficult for teams to take the money home.
See also POINTLESS.
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Win Ben Stein's Money. I recall someone (maybe on this forum) once making the case that the win rate and low payout made it mathematically the hardest game show pot to win.
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Win Ben Stein's Money. I recall someone (maybe on this forum) once making the case that the win rate and low payout made it mathematically the hardest game show pot to win.
I was quite disappointed to find that a tie only got the player an extra $1,000. I thought it should've been at least half of "Ben Stein's Money".
I'd add the Big Numbers from High Rollers, mainly because of the luck element.
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The first season of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? - especially the Europe map, where the host would spend a few seconds describing something in the country first, so if you waited until he actually mentioned the country, you might get through six of the seven before the time ran out.
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Win Ben Stein's Money. I recall someone (maybe on this forum) once making the case that the win rate and low payout made it mathematically the hardest game show pot to win.
I really wish it had been a weekly event (maybe two episodes on Friday?) with a $10,000 prize. That said the writers certainly knew that they could help the contestant or Ben in the final bout depending on what sort of categories the ten questions came from.
The bonus round on Scattegories, to me, was overly difficult. I don’t know whether that was due to contestants’ incompetence or judging being a little too strict but it seemed like almost every time I watched it, it wasn’t anywhere close to winnable.
That wasn't what I remember--I recall either the premiere or first episode and the team managed to avoid duplicating all five celebrities so it didn't matter who was hiding the money, and even when they went to three tick marks to win the money I don't recall the jackpot rising to more than six grand at any time. Perhaps it would have been better if they had a double-or-quit element where the team had to decide whether to match wits with each new panelist.
Regarding Legends I felt that they should have secured the artifact either in the same location every time (maybe a nook that is accessible from either of the leftmost rooms) rather than a random route that is not helped by the fact that the contestants are moving through 3-D space and we get to see it play out in two dimensios.
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That one team in Spain that played the bonus round on Boom! over 500 times before winning it raises a compelling case for that show.
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Pasapalabra's jackpot rolled along for a hot minute too.
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When the producers of Caesars Challenge ended the show's run, the bonus round was switched to solving five scrambled words of increasing length in sixty seconds. The problem was the letters were shown much to briefly for the players too hazard a guess before the word display went into a time-wasting scramble mode. The round was only won once so that highlight would be shown on every show just to prove it had been won.
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Wasn’t “Caesar’s Challenge”’s second bonus round :30, making it even more difficult?
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Yes, and it was won on consecutive days.
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Travis got it; evidence on the Tube of You (no spoilers) suggests it was won at least 3 times. But certainly one of the most difficult bonus rounds, and much harder than the one it replaced.
-Jason
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I’ve long been a critic of the Caesars Challenge second bonus, but really the first wasn’t a lot better.
And this also ties into what I felt was the underlying problem with the show from the start: the lame attempt at replicating the shopping round on Sale of the Century. Unless you’ve got a keen eye for random word scrambles, it’s probably gonna take you a few days to get enough letters placed to have your best chance at solving the word. And by that point you’ve probably won somewhere in the upwards of $10,000, at least, in trinkets you know you won’t have use for. And if you take in that you can refuse delivery, the reality is you could still walk with nothing for your effort unless you win the car. (Unless they gave you an option to take your total in cash, which in my opinion they should have done from the beginning.)
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I'd have to say "Mega Match" is the hardest to win.
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After being reminded of the Game Show Network's April Fools Stunt in 2003, Cram had a VERY difficult bonus round considering you had to do two things at the same time.
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I’d add “Save to Win” and “Funny You Should Ask”. Both involve a blind shot in the dark for a measly $5,000.
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There were times on Whew! that too many of the bloopers Tom read in the Gauntlet were just too hard, and at times, the bloopers were a bit too long, making it next to impossible to win the $25,000, even with the bonus seconds.
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Having recently had the treat of screening Baffle, I'd definitely add that as one of the most ridiculous bonus rounds.
The contestant has 30 seconds to guess 5 random words out of 3 displayed letters, with no category at all that links the words.
Example: CJL for "cajole", or FLP for "floppy". Any correct answer was worth 3 seconds to guess a final 'tougher' word for the grand prize.
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A few years back, I caught about 15-20 episodes of "The Link," a BBC quiz from the mid-2010s hosted by the guy who played Ron Weasley's dad in the "Harry Potter" films (Mark Williams).
The bonus game was essentially the last incarnation of the SOTC bonus game on steroids. Per Wiki ...
The team has 60 seconds to identify the links between sets of items. One contestant plays at a time, and is shown one item at a time in a list of 10. The clock begins to run when the first item is revealed, and stops when either the contestant buzzes-in to guess the link or all 10 items have been revealed, whichever comes first. A correct response moves the team one step up a six-level money ladder, using the same values as Round 1, but a miss requires the same contestant to play a new list.
After any correct answer, the team may choose to stop the game and keep the money won to that point, or risk it and continue playing. If they continue, the partner of the contestant who played the last list takes control. Identifying six links in 60 seconds awards £2,000 plus the cash total brought in from Round 2. If time runs out, the team leaves with nothing.
I did not catch a single bonus win during my viewings. No team came close to having a stone's throw of winning the jackpot. It wouldn't surprise me if there were 1-2 bonus wins max in the 65 episodes aired.
JD
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I’d add “Save to Win” and “Funny You Should Ask”. Both involve a blind shot in the dark for a measly $5,000.
I would add the bonus round on the 1970s editions of You Don’t Say to that, because you really need to be on the ball with your clues and even then you’re not guaranteed to win the big bucks.
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The concept of the Concentration '73 bonus round wasn't difficult in and of itself IMO, but when the showrunners insisted on solutions like "JIMMY STEWART WAS A FAMOUS ACTOR WHO STARRED IN IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE" and "MY VERY EXCELLENT MOTHER JUST SERVED US NINE PIES," it definitely became one of the hardest.
Did they make the puzzles any shorter when they changed to the variety of prizes?
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One has to be The $100,000 Pyramid during $100,000 weeks. They weren't going to let it be won before at least a week went by, no way, no how.
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I’d add “Save to Win” and “Funny You Should Ask”. Both involve a blind shot in the dark for a measly $5,000.
In Save To Win's case, nobody ever won the $5,000. One of the clip shows at the end of the season actually faked a clip of a team winning the bonus round; said team did indeed win their episode, but didn't really win the $5K, and didn't pick the spaces that were revealed in the fake clip. The most that anyone ever truly won was $1,900, the clip show played that round in full.
FYSA's bonus round has been won a scant few times, but it's much more difficult than it should be. Season 3 didn't see a bonus round victory until four months in.
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One has to be The $100,000 Pyramid during $100,000 weeks. They weren't going to let it be won before at least a week went by, no way, no how.
Not quite. Out of the 12 Clark tournaments, seven (https://web.archive.org/web/20030206145825/http://www.xanfan.com/celebrities/100k-clark.htm) were won in the first week. Of the remaining five, only one went into a third week.
All five of Davidson's tournaments (https://web.archive.org/web/20030206174348/http://www.xanfan.com/celebrities/100k-davidson.htm) lasted one week.
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One has to be The $100,000 Pyramid during $100,000 weeks. They weren't going to let it be won before at least a week went by, no way, no how.
Not quite. Out of the 12 Clark tournaments, seven (https://web.archive.org/web/20030206145825/http://www.xanfan.com/celebrities/100k-clark.htm) were won in the first week. Of the remaining five, only one went into a third week.
All five of Davidson's tournaments (https://web.archive.org/web/20030206174348/http://www.xanfan.com/celebrities/100k-davidson.htm) lasted one week.
Neumms' post would probably be more accurate to say "They weren't going to let it be won before at least three days went by, no way, no how."
I believe Keefe was the only one to win it on a Tuesday, and Monday in particular was seemingly designed to be impossible. Logical, as they probably wanted to be sure the third player got at least one shot.
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I have to echo the sentiment of the “Winner’s Big Money Game” in the late portion of NBC $ale. Players have virtually no margin for error; one wrong answer or a delayed response by even a second or two would’ve taken the champion out of contention for winning the big one. The difficulty could’ve been slightly tempered if they used the same clock system that sister show Scrabble utilized, adding tenths of seconds to the timer to loosen the restrictive play, if only a little bit.
Speaking of Scrabble, the Bonus Sprint can qualify for the same reasons as the WBMG.
Also gotta give a nod to High Rollers’ “Big Numbers,” which is largely luck based.
The Inquisitive One
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One has to be The $100,000 Pyramid during $100,000 weeks. They weren't going to let it be won before at least a week went by, no way, no how.
Not quite. Out of the 12 Clark tournaments, seven (https://web.archive.org/web/20030206145825/http://www.xanfan.com/celebrities/100k-clark.htm) were won in the first week. Of the remaining five, only one went into a third week.
All five of Davidson's tournaments (https://web.archive.org/web/20030206174348/http://www.xanfan.com/celebrities/100k-davidson.htm) lasted one week.
Neumms' post would probably be more accurate to say "They weren't going to let it be won before at least three days went by, no way, no how."
I believe Keefe was the only one to win it on a Tuesday, and Monday in particular was seemingly designed to be impossible. Logical, as they probably wanted to be sure the third player got at least one shot.
Let's say that a $100K Tourney was won on Day One: Would the 3rd "odd man out" player be invited back to the next tourney?
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No, why? The reward of posting a faster time is getting to play first.