More Information on “Grand Slam”

05 Jun

Posted by Alex Davis as GSN, Grand Slam

Today, GSN issued an official press release for Grand Slam. As previously stated, Dennis Miller will serve as host and the competition will be played for $100,000. Mr. Miller’s co-host will be Amanda Byram from Paradise Hotel and The Swan. The show will debut on August 7th at 8PM ET. Competitors will be from such shows as Jeopardy!, Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Wheel of Fortune, Tic Tac Dough, Lingo, and The Weakest Link. Known competitors as of now include Brad Rutter (Jeopardy! Ultimate Champion), Ken Jennings (Jeopardy! 74 game winner), Kevin Olmstead ($2.18 million Who Wants to be a Millionaire? winner), and John Carpenter (First winner on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?). The program will consist of a tournament-style single elimination format with two players going head-to-head each match. Matches will feature four rounds. Each round will include different sets of questions including; general knowledge, numbers and logic, words and letters. The winner moves on to the next match and the loser is eliminated.

17 Responses

Tony DuMont
1
June 5th, 2007 at 12:30 pm

I’m going to Friday’s taping in New York City! Anyone else?
Donald
2
June 5th, 2007 at 1:50 pm

I was just thinking that… what if someone on Deal or No Deal took home $1,000,000 before this show started, would they have been selected to appear on this show? I mean it would be considered a game show ‘Million Dollar’ win and most of these contestants won at least $1,000,000.

Shoot, even the Million Dollar Price is Right episodes come to think of it. I think that would be cool if that happened. Someone from Price or Deal wound up being the “Grand Slam” champion beating Ken and Brad. Heh heh.
dropzone5
3
June 5th, 2007 at 4:16 pm

I seriously doubt that. A player doesn’t necessarily have to win over a million bucks to play…Lingo players don’t even come close, nobody ever broke a million on TTD or WOF, and the $1,000,000 jackpot offered on WL wasn’t even close to being won.

I wonder if Thom McKee will show up…
Intelligentfan777
4
June 5th, 2007 at 5:34 pm

Well, TTD is one of the shows mentioned where at least one champion from that show will compete. Chances are, Thom will be there. The reason is because I think he’s really the only one that would be recognizable on a national level today. Anyway, it would be a treat to see him back in action to see if he’s still, “got it,” so to speak.

Hey Donald, think about this, if a TPIR “champion” were to go on Grand Slam and actually win the tournament, wouldn’t it seriously make you wonder (and this is no disrespect TPIR contestants in general, but…) why the heck that person decided to try out for TPIR in the first place, when they could’ve easily been a good champion on Jeopardy, Millionaire, et al? Definitely something to think about.
HAQ
5
June 5th, 2007 at 8:22 pm

Why don’t they let some people who didn’t win any money actually play the game instead of rich snobs?
Craig
6
June 5th, 2007 at 8:30 pm

In response to Tony’s comment, I’m going to Thursday’s taping. It should be a blast!!
Julia
7
June 5th, 2007 at 10:47 pm

In response to HAQ’s response…You do not get the point of the show. The whole reason this tournament style game show is to see the best of the best of game show contestants face off against each other to see who is the “best game show contestant of all time.” I actually could not care less if the winner got any money. Frankly, they should have made this a tournament for charity, but then again, not many but the most hardcore fans would watch. Also, not all the people on this show will be rich. How many people on Lingo do you know who made loads of money? The average win is about $5000, not counting the occasional Bonus Lingo jackpot win. I’m interested in seeing who the Wheel of Fortune contestant(s) will be.
dropzone5
8
June 6th, 2007 at 12:24 am

In response to Julia’s comment on Lingo and Wheel contestants, it got me thinking that there aren’t really many WL six-figure winners either. (There was one, but I don’t think that ever made it to air.)

Yeah, I wonder who the WOF (and even Lingo) reps will be…maybe some of the $100K winners and the biggest jackpot winner/ToC champs from Lingo?
Marc Power
9
June 6th, 2007 at 6:56 am

From Lingo it’ll probably be among the teams who won the mega jackpots I can’t think of their names but I know one team won $31,000, a second team won $35,000 and I think a third team won $41,000.
David Howell
10
June 6th, 2007 at 2:18 pm

The guy who got 10 on his own in Bonus Lingo and won $10,000 (and didn’t he win $5,000 more against online champs a while back?) would have made a good choice.

I’m betting on an all-J! final. Simply because the J! champs have to prove themselves in all areas of knowledge game after game and show sharp reactions, which is what this show does. I’m sure GSN would love a Jennings-Rutter final, maybe after one beat Carpenter in the semi-final.
icyhot
11
June 6th, 2007 at 3:24 pm

They could pad out the contestant pool with million-dollar-winner “Chance of a Lifetime” couples. Since their million was paid over twenty years and the show ran twenty years ago, it would be great timing from their perspective.
Haterade
12
June 6th, 2007 at 3:30 pm

Here’s some people for you that I can confirm…

Tic Tac Dough - Thom Mckee

Millionaire - John Carpenter, Nancy Christie, Kevin Olmstead, Ed Toutant

Jeopardy - Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter

21 - David Legler (He of the 1 million plus winners), Rahim Oberholtzer

Win Ben Stein’s Money - Leszek Pawlowicz

G.
Haterade
13
June 6th, 2007 at 3:32 pm

Oops - Forgot 1…

Greed - Phyllis Harris.

G.
Greg
14
June 6th, 2007 at 3:45 pm

Thom McKee? Awesome!
Andy
15
June 7th, 2007 at 9:12 am

What about Vicki from “The Price is Right”? She’s the biggest winner on CBS daytime winning over 146K in prizes.
Intelligentfan777
16
June 7th, 2007 at 1:37 pm

Probably not, Andy.

Now again, this is no disrespect to TPIR contestants in general, but even though there have been some stellar performances among contestants throughout the history of the show, if any of them did appear on Grand Slam, it makes me seriously wonder why they decided on appearing on TPIR instead of J!, Millionaire, etc,
Tony DuMont
17
June 9th, 2007 at 9:56 am

I attended the taping of the semi-finals and finals last night, and it was inded exciting. The game itself was similar to the UK show “Playing for time,” where they competed to answer questions before their clock ran out, and the first player to reach zero lost. I’m not saying who won but Dennis Miller described the winner as “a f***ing beast.”