“Trivial Pursuit” Information
Wwe have some information about Trivial Pursuit. If you’ve been following us at all over the past few weeks, you’ve noticed we’ve posted next to nothing about the show. And there’s a very good reason. We’ve had nothing to post. No real information has come out since the host, Christopher Knight, was announced. It worries me a bit because I seem to remember a similar thing happening with Crosswords and Temptation. But who knows. Here’s what we do know, though.
Oddly enough the format seems to be remotely similar to the pilot, which was a bit bland if you ask me. The entire point of the game is “America’s Team”, which are people who have submitted questions to the show either online or in one of the casting locations. Questions in six categories are given to the three studio players. Like the board game, the goal is to answer questions correctly to fill your pie piece up. After round two, the player with the least pieces goes home. Whoever wins the game (by filling their piece up) plays the end game: Hot Pursuit. A question in each of the six categories is given to the player. If the player answers right, more money goes into their bank. A wrong answer puts money into America’s bank. Whichever team has more money at the end of the show takes it home (in the case of America’s bank, the money is divided between the question readers for the day).
And there you have it. Hopefully it’s a bit more fun to watch with a few more curve balls thrown in, because it seems relatively plain from the description I was given. However, the main focus of the show is obviously the interactive feature, and in that sense it does well. I get more emails about submitting questions than anything else, so people obviously care. What has me worried as well is the description of the host.
During the early tapings of this show, he was flat with not a lot of charisma for a host. He limited himself to what he was told by the producers. I hope this changed as he got more comfortable with hosting during later tapings.
And this is what worried me about him. It’s become very apparent that dipping into the VH1 list of hosts, in recent times, has barely worked. I do think getting an actual game show host, or at least someone with actual hosting experience, would have worked better. I’m glad they got someone with name recognition which will drive some people to tune in who wouldn’t have done it otherwise. However, once they see a crappy host like I’m getting a picture of, they’ll turn it off just as quickly. Again, it’s early tapings and people tend to improve as they go along. But overall, the show doesn’t look that bad and the interactive feature has been exciting many. We’ll have to see if it translates to viewers when the show debuts on Monday, September 22nd, in syndication.
Hi Alex,
I taped an episode of Trivial Pursuit: America Plays recently. Your description is basically right on.
Sometimes game shows change rules in midstream, so what I write below may not be correct today, but you are right: the gameplay is fairly straightforward.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO UNDERSTAND
The contestants as a group and America’s Team each have a bank balance that is determined by the gameplay. If the FIRST contestant given an opportunity to answer a question correctly answers, then the money assigned to the question goes to the contestants’ bank. Otherwise, the money is given to “America’s Team”‘s bank. Depending on the ability of the contestants, the money is generally about even by the final round. If, before the final round begins, the contestants are much ahead, it usually indicates that the contestants were very knowledgeable. If, however, before the final round begins, the contestants are far behind, it usually indicates that the contestants were NOT very knowledgeable.
Round 1: 3 contestants vie for wedges. The first two contestants to obtain 3 differently-colored wedges (i.e., pie pieces) go on to round 2. Here is where randomness has the greatest effect. A contestant who answers a question correctly is given the exclusive opportunity to answer the subsequent question. In this way, a contestant that gets “hot” at least 3 times in a row can go to the next round without interference from the other contestants. However, answering a questioning correctly more than once in the same category does not add to the number of tokens you acquire, just like answering the same colored wedge question in the board game would not help you in the board game.
The categories do not correspond to any particular edition of Trivial Pursuit, but a la Jeopardy! correspond to general categories that the producers believe tie questions together. For example, “Hollywood” is a pretty general category name that gives someone some idea of what kind of questions might be asked.
Round 2: Two contestants vie for wedges. Every question will represent a wedge you do not currently have and each question is “all play”. The first contestant to fill her token (i.e., obtain 3 more wedges to fill the 6-hole token) gets to go to the final round. So, basically, answer 3 questions right first and you get to go to the final round.
Round 3: The remaining contestant faces off against “America’s Team”. Six new and specific categories (e.g., specific TV shows or movies, particular sciences, etc.) are spun randomly, leaving wedges pointing to 1 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 5 o’clock, 7 o’clock, 9 o’clock, and 11 o’clock. The 1 o’clock question is worth $500, and the other wedges increase in value in $1,000 steps clockwise from $1,000 to $5,000.
The contestant is then asked the questions in increasing monetary value. A right answer gives the amount of money to the contestant’s bank; a wrong answer gives the money to “America’s Team”. Whoever has more money at the end wins the money in their bank.
This questioning proceeds until a winner is determined. If, for example, the contestant has $11,000 and America’s Team has $4,000 with one question to go, the remaining $5,000 wedge will NOT determine the outcome of the game. If, however, the contestant has $7,000 and America’s Team has $4,000 with one question to go, then the remaining $5,000 wedge WILL determine the game.
In the case that the game is determined in the contestant’s favor with at least one wedge/question remaining, the contestant is given the option to go double or nothing on the next question. In the case that the game is determined in AT’s favor, the money is split evenly among the Team.
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WHY THIS GAME IS FUN TO WATCH
America’s Team asks all the questions and, with the increasing value of wedges in the endgame, is almost always in the game until the very end. There is a lot of suspense as to whether the contestant or the Team will prevail. Given the ability of the average contestant, I would estimate that AT prevails around 50% of the time, maybe more, since it is under no pressure to answer their questions, while the remaining contestant has all the pressure.
Knight’s hosting, IMHO, was more than adequate. He actually does not have to do that much, since the members of America’s Team ask all the questions via video. His delivery was smooth on the day I taped. Without any disrespect to Mr. Knight, the host has so much less to do than other game show hosts that I think that almost anybody could host this show.
Game Show Pro
After, I saw the times for this show that I’ll won’t be watching after all so I wish the show the best of luck…
11 PM and 3 AM is where they will be airing here in Milwaukee…
I am still upset that Trivial Pursuit did not come to South Florida. WHyhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ? I’m P-O’ed that I won’t get to be seen on TV.
Trivia Pursuit comes on twice in Calumet City, IL. 3:00PM CDT and 3:30PM CDT
Hey Adam, you can also upload your questions to http://www.tpamericaplays.com. Sorry that they did not make it to South Florida. Perhaps more tours are planned, but it doesn’t mean you can’t be a part of the show.
I’m taping in October, so I’ll let you know how things go. When they described the game during the tryout, there was no mention of the sole possession of the following question (when I tried out, they had only taped 4 episodes or so).
I’m curious as to the question distribution: pop culture vs. history/literature/science and the like. I’m hoping the producers have filtered out the insanely-hard submissions while not turning it into a total buzzer-fest, but I suppose I’ll see that next week.
Incidentally, for those of you in LA, the tryout is not onerous at all. It is at KTLA studios on Sunset, 26 questions (read out loud twice, no TV screen), with a taped interview and mock game to follow.
Part of what I don’t get is why they couldn’t sort the questions into the six basic Trivial Pursuit categories. That just seems like a given to me, but oh well!
Also, unrelated side note – the Hasbro MG’s Crosswords board game is out, and it was actually pretty fun playing it! We only played it with the “head to head rules” but tomorrow night we’ll kick it up and play it the real way :) SPOILERS!
The show doesn’t feed until 12noon of the previous business day. The first episode is being sent to stations on Friday.
Regarding Chris as host- If you go to Hollywood Junket, they were at what appears to be a test taping, which means that Chris may very well have improved since then (as seems to be indicated by Game Show Pro). I’m just saying, maybe give him a chance…
GS Guy, I can never figure out why my webcam isn’t working.
If successful, can’t they do a Buzztime “Six” version of the program?
Buffalo – WNLO 23 – 2pm (after Millionaire) and 5:30pm (before an hr of Feud)…