New Season, New “1 VS 100″ Rules
Congratulations, NBC. You have officially screwed 1 VS 100, which was at one point a fantastic show. You’ve now made it into Who Wants to be a Millionaire + 100 Other People Who Wants to Answer Questions As Well. A Mob member has informed us of some of the rule changes. Gone is the idea of a bounty for each person you eliminate. In comes, you guessed it, a money tree! You get money for every ten people you eliminate now. Here’s how it looks.
10 Mob Members Eliminated = $1,000
20 Mob Members Eliminated = $5,000
30 Mob Members Eliminated = $10,000
40 Mob Members Eliminated = $25,000
50 Mob Members Eliminated = $50,000
60 Mob Members Eliminated = $75,000
70 Mob Members Eliminated = $100,000
80 Mob Members Eliminated = $250,000
90 Mob Members Eliminated = $500,000
All Mob Members Eliminated = $1,000,000
The old Helps survive. Also, if you use all of your helps you then gain Sneak Peek and can see the question, but not the answers. Strike two there. Also, the One can stop any time he or she wants, but obviously doesn’t want to until more than 10 people are gone. Strike three.
I would really love to hear why there was the need for a change. Were there budget issues? Just knock the dollar values in half like Australia’s version does. Did they want more people to risk money? Yet again, knock the dollar values in half. Was there that big of an ordeal last season? I feel awful for the Mob members. They aren’t going to get anything decent until at least 70 are gone.
Here’s what irritates me about all of this. It’s time for a BuzzerBlog Flashback. Look at this link. They had these exact rules back in July 2006 during trial runs of the game, just going by 5’s except 10’s at the end. They didn’t think it worked then and changed to the format we used to have. You know, the good one. Why did they feel the need to go back to the format that didn’t work?
I hate to throw in an advertisement, but I’d buy the 1 VS 100 electronic games just so you can relive the good edition of the show. I really gave Endemol credit for the show, as it was a challenging, interesting, and relatively different show. The show has now become Millionaire with the main player having 100 people facing him or her. It’s actually rather stunning that they messed it up. I applaud Endemol for doing something few rarely do: they managed to screw up a once popular, critically acclaimed, and all-around good show into this. Will it work in real life? According to our Mob member it did not work nearly as well as the last format did. You’ll have to watch on January 4th to judge for yourself.
I am probably one of the biggest fans of 1 vs. 100; I never got tired of watching the reruns on CNBC and NBC. It strayed from the current trend of game shows because it lacks luck, and relies more on wits. After six episodes, they created a third money ladder, which was great – they had finally found a niche where the money was good (Barry who won $343,000, and people who lose big as well, and moderate wins of around $160,000), just like Deal or No Deal.
Why they decided to change the money ladder again is puzzling, and to a different format makes it less exciting. Let’s do a little compare and contrast, with a sample game:
Round 1: First 3 questions – 23 eliminated x $1,000= $23,000 (old format), $5,000(new format: 23 eliminated)
Round 2: Next 2 questions – 26 eliminated x $2,000 = $52,000 [$75,000 total (old format)], $25,000 (new format: 49 people removed)
Round 3: Next 1 question – 17 eliminated x $3,000 = $51,000 [$126,000 total (old format)], $75,000 (new format: 66 people removed)
Round 4: Next question – 8 eliminated x $4,000 = $32,000 [$158,000 total (old format)], $100,000 (new format: 74 people removed)
Round 5: Next question – 8 eliminated x $5,000 = $40,000 [$198,000 total (old format)], $250,000 (new format: 82 people eliminated)
I see what they’re getting at: the money doesn’t add up quick in the beginning with the new format (and not to mention it’s fixed now, which sucks), but surpasses the old ladder after about 8 questions (remember this was just an example). This will now force the player to most likely risk what they have.
Do we even know if this is a permanent change for this season? I mean it says “a Mob member has informed us of some of the rule changes.” Do we know what show he is on? If it was the first aired one, maybe it changed on a later episode. Anyway, I will still watch this season, and hope that the old money ladder returns.
Playmania all over again. :(
That’s what I was thinking, Antony.
It makes no sense to have home games that refect the “old” rules then to change the rules on the upcoming season. Frankly, the new online rules ($100, $500, $1000, $2000, $3000, etc.) seem better than the new system. I think they want to focus on money for knocking out more mob members, else why the sneak peek after you have used all your helps? In that sense I see what they are up to. But it seems unfair that you score nothing for knocking out as many as 9 mob members on a question (though conceiveably a big hit could catapult you up the ladder quickly).
Expect the game to move faster and have tougher questions earlier on.
they’ve tried to make it easier to win it, and it is now much tougher than the old one (not to say the old one was easy!)
I’ll be honest. I’ll check this new system out but I’m sure the inner voice inside the contestants will be screaming obsenities like “What?! That’s all the f-ing money I get? This game sucks now.” lol
As much as this change bothers you all, it would probably benefit the fact that it would be less likely for a person to bail out early.
On a typical episode a player would have $250,000 and about 15 people left. If the person was at the $7,000 question, they would be risking $250,000 to win about $35,000 more assuming 5 people get it wrong.
My point is that players bail out too soon because they get to a point where the risk is too high versus the reward. Although it has not happened, it is very likely that if a player was down to 5 mob members, it would likely take about 5 questions to eliminate them all and not just 2 or 3. The rewards would be small compared to the amount in the pot in either scenario. I was curious to see how long it took for a real game to finish if a person went all the way. If anyone has seen the dutch version, how accurate am I with the number of questions needed to eliminate the last few people?
As much as I would like to see someone go all the way, I doubt it will happen under any money ladder except if the dollar amounts are very small and the final reward is large.
I haven’t seen the plug in and play version anywhere and i would love to play that version. I also thought of a second money tree and my escape idea still implies after 70 eliminated you can hit an escape button but cost you $50,000 if you think you have the wrong answer after you locked in. here is my second money tree idea ( which i wish NBC would do either of my money tree)
5 eliminated- $500
10 eliminated- $1,000
15 eliminated- $1,500
20 eliminated- $2,000
25 eliminated- $2,500
30 eliminated- $5,000
35 eliminated- $7,500
40 eliminated- $10,000
45 eliminated- $25,000
50 eliminated- $50,000
55 eliminated- $75,000
60 eliminated- $100,000
65 eliminated- $150,000
70 eliminated – $200,000
75 eliminated- $250,000
80 eliminated- $300,000
85 eliminated- $350,000
90 eliminated- $400,000
95 eliminated- $500,000
100 eliminated- $1,000,000
I think in some ways this money tree is somewhat better granted you dont’ win six figures until you knock out 60 but the money is pretty good after 60. I think people will risk more and it will almost be easy to win money after each question if they did it by every five which would keep my interest and probably the interest of others. Granted my 50 is the same as theres but I would like to see people risk more but not the way that either NBC or endemol is suggesting. I am not sure who made the new change whether it be NBC or Endemol but could be a bad move.
Just change the money chain to new randomly generated numbers on each episode. :P
“Whatever happened to predictability? The milkman, the paperboy, and evening TV?”
[BTW, those were actual lyrics to the "Full House" theme song.]
To quote comic book guy from the Simpson’s “Worst Decision Ever.” If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Noone was ever going to win the $1,000,000 on this show anyway unless they get really lucky or get a really dumb mob.
Scott M. gets it. I’m not a fan of the 20-tiered money ladder but Scott makes it look so good. The 10-fold leap from 40 eliminated to 60 eliminated irks me for some reason. Also, the growth is a little too slow for my taste and probably for the home audience as well. Other than that, perfect.
Modifying Scott’s ladder a smidge…
5 eliminated- $500
10 eliminated- $1,000
15 eliminated- $2,000
20 eliminated- $3,000
25 eliminated- $4,000
30 eliminated- $5,000
35 eliminated- $10,000
40 eliminated- $15,000
45 eliminated- $20,000
50 eliminated- $30,000
55 eliminated- $50,000
60 eliminated- $75,000
65 eliminated- $100,000
70 eliminated- $150,000
75 eliminated- $200,000
80 eliminated- $250,000
85 eliminated- $300,000
90 eliminated- $400,000
95 eliminated- $500,000
100 eliminated- $1,000,000
Mike’s got the idea with the Dutch style. I do think an option to quit helps, but I also think the Mob deserve a fairer shake.
Here’s what I’d do – Dutch formula, with the base value at $100,000, value-per-member-eliminated rounded down to the nearest $1. The three ‘escapes/dodges’ are all set to 50% (as per the UK), and that money goes to all Mob members who are correct on the ‘dodged’ question.
Once all three dodges have been used, and ONLY once all three dodges have been used, you can quit at any time. If you lose, the remaining Mob members do of course get your money; if you win, you gain an additional $1m on top of your existing total (thus distinguishing the show from every other million-dollar show).
Let’s do a theoretical game, based on that posted earlier by Jordan but done by each question (I’ve cooked up some numbers to split the 3/2Q rounds).
Question 1: 3 wrong * $1,000 per elimination = $3,000, 1 vs 97 – Q2 worth $1,030/elimination
Question 2: 9 wrong * $1,030 = $9,270, total $12,270, 1 vs 88 – Q3 worth $1,136/elimination
Question 3: 10 wrong * $1,136 = $11,360, total $23,630, 1 vs 78 – Q4 worth $1,282/elimination
Question 4: ESCAPE USED, 19 wrong – no money, total halved to $11,815, 1 vs 59 – Q5 worth $1,694/elimination.
(59 surviving mob members at this point split $11,815 – $200.25 each)
Question 5: 7 wrong * $1,694 = $11,858, total $23,673, 1 vs 52 – Q6 worth $1,923/elimination
Question 6: 17 wrong * $1,923 = $32,691, total $56,364, 1 vs 35 – Q7 worth $2,857/elimination
Question 7: ESCAPE USED, 8 wrong – no money, total halved to $28,182, 1 vs 27 – Q8 worth $3,703/elimination
(27 surviving mob members at this point split $28,182 – $1,043.77 each, total $1,244.02)
Question 8: ESCAPE USED, 8 wrong – no money, total halved to $14,091, 1 vs 19 – Q9 worth $5,263/elimination
(19 surviving mob members at this point split $14,091 – $741.63 each, total $1,985.65)
Player chooses not to walk at $14,091
Question 9: 6 wrong * $5,263 = $31,578, total $45,669, 1 vs 13 – Q10 worth $7,692/elimination
And on it goes. The money is very much concentrated at the end, so the risks and rewards are always growing, as they should; the Mob gets much more money; and the actual amount paid out is always the grand total accumulated during the game sans escapes, which for a game without a $1m payout can never be more than about $500k and in practice will be rather less.
Give it a chance – watch the first couple of episodes before you make a definitive conclusion. The new format encourages contestants to risk money (if they’ve eliminated 78 mob members, all they have to do is eliminate two more before they reach the next rung in the prize ladder.) It seems so easy to just kick off two small people, so guess what? They risk it. I think the biggest problem in the first season was that the 1 contestants were too conservative. I was a mob member first season and ended up winning just under $4000, so I’m not complaining about the old format. I just know that this new format has tremendous opportunity for some exciting game play. (And I’m just going to leave it at that! ;) )
I actually like the new structure. It promises a top-heavy payout. To be quite honest, I was getting sick of people knocking off 30-40 members of the mob and havnig the chance to quit with $100,000+. In order to win the money, you actually have to earn it. I don’t have a problem with the extra helps either, as that will tease the player to keep going and can make the answers even more devious.
The only think I would like to see is a bailout that forces the contestant to give back 50% of their winnings to the mob if they quit. Other than that, I look forawrd to seeing it in January.
G.
I actually like the new structure. It promises a top-heavy payout. To be quite honest, I was getting sick of people knocking off 30-40 members of the mob and havnig the chance to quit with $100,000+. In order to win the money, you actually have to earn it. I don’t have a problem with the extra helps either, as that will tease the player to keep going and can make the answers even more devious.
The only think I would like to see is a bailout that forces the contestant to give back 50% of their winnings to the mob if they quit. Other than that, I look forward to seeing it in January.
G.
I think they must give $10,000 per member eliminated. And in an event of wrong answer, lost money must go to the jackpot, which can be won if you eliminated all the mob, NOT TO THE MOB.