Another New “Chain Reaction” Bonus

12 Feb

Posted by Alex Davis as Chain Reaction, GSN, Opinion, Reader Input

You read right, Embassy Row changed the “Chain Reaction” bonus again. Here’s the rundown.

*It’s now 60 seconds.
*If you get five right, you win $5,000. They did raise the money a bit, but you read right: just five to win.
*If you don’t get them all, you get $100 for each one right. You win up to $400 or $5,000.
*Once you press the buzzer to answer, time stops for a few seconds.
*Time resumes once you answer correct, incorrectly, or wait too long.

So what do you guys think? Personally, I think it’s a tad bit more broken. I’m happy the money went up a bit, but it’s so easy to win now it’s not even funny. There’s really no excuse not to win $5,000. I’d like to think at some point Embassy Row would go “OK, this bonus isn’t working. We need to make something else.” I respect trying to stay with the classic and I respect what Embassy Row does, but it’s evident this bonus is not working. No changes are being made to the main game at this point. We should have more information from a contestant this season later this week.

11 Responses

King Erroneous
1
February 12th, 2007 at 12:41 pm

I liked the bonus round from the USA version where you have to complete a chain. You are spotted the first letter of each words, and you can get at most seven more letters for the entire chain.
Mark
2
February 12th, 2007 at 1:00 pm

5 in 60 for 5 grand sounds okay, but $100 per word sounds too cheap. I’d have put it to $250 for sure, so that if you don’t get all five, you can still leave with and extra $1,000. Why not give $10,000 for getting 7 words in 60 seconds, with 5 still winning the $5,000? That sounds like a better idea.
LostCluster
3
February 12th, 2007 at 1:21 pm

Sounds like they decomplicated the game. They’re eliminating the low-odds high-jackpot possiblity of a team sweeping the main game with all sucessful $500 bets in the betting round, but also making it much easier to win a GSN-standard $5000 jackpot.
CarShark
4
February 12th, 2007 at 3:21 pm

I can’t believe they found a way to make the bonus round worse. They made it cheaper and too easy. Why are they changing the game instead of the contestant selection process?
Ben Williams
5
February 12th, 2007 at 5:44 pm

It’s BETTER,,,but still just-not-right.
Brandon
6
February 12th, 2007 at 6:08 pm

I can see why they did this. The game play during the bonus round was absolutely pitiful, and the contestants passed way too often. The word would show up, and they’d pass before they could even try and make a sentence. Not good TV.

With the new bonus round, I wouldn’t be surprised if they still didn’t get a lot of $5,000 winners.
abric
7
February 12th, 2007 at 6:21 pm

BROKE! BROKE! BROKE!
Rob Hoffmann
8
February 12th, 2007 at 6:53 pm

abric said: “BROKE! BROKE! BROKE!”

Who let the Swedish Chef in here?

On topic: does breaking the connection between main-game winnings and the bonus round hurt the main game? I mean, I realize that most players showed they weren’t rocket scientists in their last-chain betting, but without the chance to triple the main-game score, will it change players’ strategy? Such as it was?
Stevie
9
February 12th, 2007 at 10:29 pm

Go all the way GSN, and bring back the best known bonus round format from NBC,
10 in 90 for $10,000, or $100 a word. But I do agree making each $250 or $5K for 5 in 60 would be a wiser choice
Adam Kendall
10
February 13th, 2007 at 7:38 pm

I have a question. If certain contestants in 1980 could get 9 or 10 in 90 seconds, then why is it that in 2007 NOBODY can could get 10 in 90 to triple the money.

Is the contestant pool for the GSN version that slim, or have society’s communication skills taken a nosedive?
Pierre Kelly
11
February 15th, 2007 at 8:39 am

That’s a good idea…and replace “I’ve got a Secret” with something else. the reuns are getting tired on me.