1. There were teams of two, not one-on-one as usual.
2. Cash prizes were involved. (Obviously.)
3. No numbers round and no conundrum. Yep, you read that right. The first round was a regular numbers round of nine letters. Another round was the same, but with eight letters and a “wild.” Any team that could make a nine-letter word here won a $25,000 bonus.
4. Bonus round was unscrambling words of increasing difficulty.

It’s sad how they can’t take a classic, bring it over here and leave it alone!

Source:
http://www.usgameshows.net/x.php?show=Countdown1990&sort=0

And if this show seems too much like a talk show, maybe I should point out that the classic panel game shows (WHAT’S MY LINE?, TO TELL THE TRUTH, I’VE GOT A SECRET) were like that, focusing on interesting guests.

And I still believe each of the two rounds could have three letters rounds and one numbers round. For those who say the show is too talky, I must reply, weren’t talk shows what usurped game shows in the 1990s? Of course there weren’t that many great game shows created during that time (remember FAMILY SECRETS?). The casual atmosphere might work in its favor. And I’m sure someone like Danica McKellar would be glad to do this.

I would _LOVE_ an American game show renaissance where we start seeing more shows that celebrate intelligence, like University Challenge/College Bowl, Countdown, and heck, plenty of quiz game formats from the 70s and 80s. But clearly, the powers that be are under the impression that folks wouldn’t watch those shows. WE would, obviously, but we’re also folks who love game shows, so much so that we’re even willing to spend time commenting on a board devoted to them.

It has been the case recently that prime time game shows = big money game shows. A lot of formats fail when shoehorned into that. So, we’re left with the daytime option, but there you run into the choice of trying to displace some soap opera, Judge Pablum show, or Tyra-fraking-Banks.

The hope, as Alex did point out, is that there’s enough other channels out there doing their own productions that more game shows may become feasible (I’m surprised when I find people that would not otherwise watch other game shows that love Cash Cab). Fingers crossed, of course, so we’ll see.

“Des Chiffres et Des Lettres” – we get that in Canada, though I’m not sure if it’s the original show or a Canadian version. Very similar to “Countdown”, but I think they currently allow 45 seconds on the math rounds as opposed to the latter’s usual 30 seconds.

Rachel Riley’s first episode as hostess. Long-running hostess Carol Vorderman, who was with the show since the beginning 26 years ago, was asked to take a pay cut this season by Channel Four Television, either 33% or 90%, based on what tabloid you believe, and decided to bow out instead. The tabloids have been all over it since, especially after a former producer of the show or someone threw a glassful of wine at Channel Four’s programming director at a resturaunt in protest. Pesky global economy.

The bellhop from Barcelona still looks great after all those years.

Thanks again.

As far as the theme music goes, I find the current Countdown theme music and think music to be rather boring and flat. The current Countdown music is in dire need of a remix, IMO. I think a remixed version of the 1985 – 1995 Des Chiffres et Des Lettres theme music would work. I find it to be one of the best game show themes ever.

For those of you who are interested in hearing what the ’85 – ’95 DCeDL theme music sounded like, here’s a link for you: http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/Antenne%2B2%2B-%2BDes%2Bchiffres%2Bet%2Bdes%2Blettres/video/xnso7_generique-chiffres-et-des-lettres-a_ads

Moving on, I think this would work fine on cable, as said before. It could use some sort of in-between round, but if LINGO can get away with just one game, then Countdown could get away with only two. I wouldn’t alter the main rounds at all, because that’s the essence of the game. Computer update would work well, also like LINGO (hell, have Chuck and what’s-her-face host :P). If a computer is used, the bonus/extra rounds could be similar to some flash games where you get a set of letters, and you create a word with some of them. Those used letters disappear while new ones fill in their blanks, and the old letters “age” in some way. Letting a letter stay on for too long invokes a penalty/foul. Could have the same thing with numbers.

my format would be for kids (I seriosuly think this could work on PBS)

the payoff for the winner is $250 + $25 per point in the difference of the scores (i.e. win 80-60 difference of 20, 20 * 25 + 250 = $750) consolation prize for the losing contestant of $1 per point plus the “goody bag”. octochamps (8-time champs) are retired and win a $2,000 bonus.

challenge of champions played for a grand prize like a trip or a computer and a $2,000 scholarship, a $1,000 scholarship for the runner-up.

I’d use a scoring system similar to the french scoring system which is 1 pt. per letter in the longest word, 9 pts. and a $100 bonus for a 9-letter word. numbers is 9 pts. for hitting the target, 6 pts. for being the closest, the conundrum is worth 10 pts.

lastly, as a host my first choice (I’m ready to duck): Levar Burton, no hostess (the letters and numbers will be posted by computer).

Thanks to Keith Olberman, “Countdown (USA)” would be retitled “MindGames”, with perhaps the Conundrum renamed the “MindBender” (?) – just a thought…

Game structure: 2 rounds, each consisting of 2 letters and 1 numbers game. At the end of the second letters game in each round, a “Duel” is played. In the Duel, the contestants must either find smaller words within a 9-letter selection accompanied by a clue, or do some kind of mental math. Money is awarded instead of points. They do this on DCeDL.

Payout Structures

Letters Game: $50 for every letter in the word. 9-letter words are worth $900 (double score for getting a 9-letter word, just like the UK version).

Numbers Game: $500 for getting the target number right on the nose; $250 if you’re off by 5, and $100 if you’re off by 10.

Duels: $500 if you buzz in with the correct answer.

These amounts double in the second round.

Bonus Round: The Conundrum round from the UK version becomes the bonus game, albeit wiht a twist. Five conundrums of increasing must be solved within 45 (or 50) seconds. The first word has 5 letters, all the way up to the last one, which has 9. The letters in the words rescramble themselves every 2 seconds. Each correctly solved Conundrum is worth $5,000; getting them all pays $25,000.

Other Stuff:

-The 8 players with the highest winnings return at the end of the season for a $250,000 tournament of champions.

-Dictionary Corner replaced by a hostess with a computer.

-Letter board is digitized via a large screen. Contestants still pick letters, but the hostess’ computer randomly selects them. Same applies to numbers game. Basically, with the computer, the hostess can serve all three secondary functions (DC, numbers / letters games) at once.

-Set can stay as it is. The blue color with the letters and numbers background is awesome.

-Clock becomes digitized as well, via the large screen used for gameplay.

And that’s about it. Thoughts?