NEW PYRAMID CASTING., Tri-state area. Options

[Jay Temple]

Does anyone have any confirmation whether the $1M prize will be given out as a tournament purse or a money ladder-ish progression? If it is a tournament, they should really consider doing a three-stage thing: have three tournaments within the year for $100K, with the three winners of each tournament qualifying for the grand final at the end of the season.

Wishful thinking, I know, and maybe a bit too complicated for a casual audience to grasp, but it's a thought.

The 3-stage thing regarding the tournaments sounds good in theory, but how far apart are you gonna do this? Probably 6-8 week cycles is the best possible time frame since most of the 80's tournaments usually lasted close to 2 weeks on average.

This is something I wanted to see on Clark's 100K, but in the second season. Bring back the winners of the first six or eight ToC's. Narrow that down to three or four who would play a normal tournament. For a network version, I'd do it like this:

• The first ($100K) ToC starts the Monday of November sweeps. The show would debut eight weeks prior.
• Two more tourneys have eight weeks +/- of actual qualifying time, but reruns pad the schedule.
• The third $100K ToC begins the first day of May sweeps. The winner joins the other two on the very next show for a $1,000,000 ToC that's played the same way.

If there's a second season, figure out which sweeps period benefits the most from the $1MT and schedule other $100KT's accordingly. (Future $1MT's could start with four, six or eight $100K winners and have elimination games.)

[SteveR]

Does anyone have any confirmation whether the $1M prize will be given out as a tournament purse or a money ladder-ish progression? If it is a tournament, they should really consider doing a three-stage thing: have three tournaments within the year for $100K, with the three winners of each tournament qualifying for the grand final at the end of the season.

Wishful thinking, I know, and maybe a bit too complicated for a casual audience to grasp, but it's a thought.

I was thinking along the very same lines. My first idea was to have eight qualify for the grand final. But I don't think there are enough weeks in a season to get that many (or the cycles would have to be ultra-short, like five weeks each).

I think you can make six work. Here's how. Each cycle would be seven weeks long. For the first six, you play the regular 10K/25K game. Most WC money stays on as champion. After six weeks, the top three MONEY WINNERS (including front-game bonuses) advance to the $100K tournament.

The top three play off in the usual way for the $100K (no bonuses here), with the top two getting first crack on Monday.

Now, at the end of 42 weeks, we have six $100K winners. The top two money winners (including WC money won in their 100K week) get a bye. The other four go into a very cut-throat quarterfinal on the Monday of $1M week. It's a one-GAME (not one-day) playoff. You have semifinals on Tuesday and Wednesday. (On these days, each WC is worth $10K) The final starts Thursday, with each WC being worth a possible million.

OK -- what if each semifinalist gets a $10K win? Do they come back for another day or do you use total front-game points as a tiebreaker?

But getting all six isn't enough to win the million. It's got to be under a certain time limit (35 seconds? 40?). If you win in longer than that limit, you get $250,000.

OK, I probably lost most of you in the second or third paragraph. You can probably just reply with a simple 'WTC' -- Way Too Complex -- and I'll know what you mean. ;)

[clemon79]

OK, I probably lost most of you in the second or third paragraph. You can probably just reply with a simple 'WTC' -- Way Too Complex -- and I'll know what you mean. ;)

Don't need to, because you already know.

1) A one-game playoff sucks. Just sucks. There's no reason not to make it a full day. The world will not come to a screeching halt if it takes four days to come down to two people, especially for a million bucks. (But I like the bye into the second round.) It's gonna start on an odd day anyhow, since there is no guarantee that the preliminary tournaments will be over in exactly one week. (Unless you hack the tournament period such that tournaments always start on a Monday. But even then, that last one is very likely going to throw off the schedule.

2) Changing the WC payouts during the Big Tournament to a flat $10K is an unnecessary complication.

3) "But getting all six isn't enough to win the million" is a crappy copout. Bad enough you're naming your show for a top prize you only give away once a year. You're also making a $250K win feel like a loss.

As for breaking ties, simple: If one person makes it to the top of the pyramid, that's how much time the other gets should they make it, just like a front-game tiebreak. If they both get two-four-fifty-five-six-seven-hundred-and-fifty-dollars, well, then, I dunno. Play a traditional tiebreaker back at the desk? Bring 'em both back tomorrow? Play a third game the next day and straddle? I dunno. But I don't think you want to refer back to a number (aggregate front-game score) that your viewers have already long since forgotten. (And plus, what if that's a tie? I suppose you could do the math on who got their points in the least amount of time and be reasonably certain that won't tie, but now you're getting WAAAAAAY too deep into numbers people don't care about.)

The basic problem, of course, is that ONE MEEEEELION DOLLARS is too big of a number to resolve with a simple coin toss. And I bet you the people banding that number about at Embassy Row aren't even thinking about that.

[rollercoaster87]

My only problem it that its 1 Million dollars. It's too much to give away every sweeps period, but then you have people wondering when they give away their top prize. If it's at the end of the season, then you have people who, after 6 weeks of watching, are only going to tune in sporadically until the Million Dollar Deathmatch © . Jeopardy! gives away $250,000 in their yearly ToC, but it's not called $250,000 Jeopardy!, so people aren't looking and waiting to see when the tourney jumps off.If you have to give away the $1 Million at the end of the season, just take your 12 fastest Pyramid times, (or money winners, whichever you prefer) and play single elimination until you get three, and then play Pyramid Tourney style.

IMHO, if you make the tournament more than two tiered (i.e. three $100K tourney winners come back to play for a mil) it makes the whole process seem drawn out- which reminds me of Jeopardy!'s Ultimate ToC- halfway through, I just stopped paying attention, and started counting down the days til the three day final.

If I had to give away seven figures, I'd do a ladder system and make them earn the money by beating the Winner's Circle 5-7 times (kinda like the 2001 computer game). Otherwise, I'd just name it The $100K/$250K Pyramid and play it normally, which then allows you to give out your top prize 4-6 times a year without contracting MO MONEY syndrome. It's Pyramid. As long as the game is executed correctly, I don't care if they give out $7.2 trillion or $392.67 at the end.

I tried to focus, but I fear I'm all over the place with this post. Sorry.

[MSTieScott]

I will be very surprised if the million dollars is a guaranteed-to-be-awarded prize. With the exception of Jeopardy!'s Ultimate Tournament of Champions and Oprah Winfrey's big car giveaway, I can't think of any instances in daytime/syndication where there was a guaranteed seven-digit payout. Especially with a "new" show, I can't imagine a way they'd be able to promise that much prize money. I predict it will be either a supplemental bonus round or (most likely) a money ladder.

[fostergray82]

This is the problem I have with the format. A money ladder turns this into Million Dollar Password. A tournament mode could get way too complicated. Honestly, why not just make it as simple as possible?...

REGULAR-SEASON GAMES: $10,000/25,000

Fastest three times come back for the round-robin tournament.

TOURMANENT: If they insist on making this a million-dollar top prize, have the contestant win both Winner's Circles (one of the only good ideas Donnymid had, except make it play out until someone wins). The first WC is worth $25,000, winning both is worth $1,000,000. However, you run into a bit of an anticlimactic flaw. That's one hell of a jump to make, however, increasing the amount of money won for winning "just" one Winner's Circle (say, $50,000) doesn't sit right with me either.

For this to be a daytime game show, I have no problem with $10,000/25,000 and a $100,000 tournament. But what's done is done now...

[Jay Temple]

How to make the million rare but always winnable, as it is on WWTBAM:

(Assume that we're still talking about two players for two games per day.) To win the million, you must win both WC's and have a perfect score in both main games, excluding tie-breaker rounds.