I have been watching Stump the Schwab since it started last year, and looking at it, that is the hardest $5,000 to receive just to beat the Schwab. Has there been any other show to keep from getting $5,000.

I know Win Ben Stein's Money is also like that. But anything else.

Uh, right.

I'd suggest that the Question of Great Significance from Two Minute Drill was as difficult as any endgame in the genre.

Running around a supermarket to find three hidden items, and doing this while figuring out little riddles, doesn't seem easy to me.

While I agree that the QoGS from 2MD was freakishly hard, that came mainly from the fact that if it's sports that happened outside of Seattle, I probably don't remember it. It would be the same as saying that a $64,000 question about the Civil War would be hard. Recalling seven Generals by their home fort would be hard for ANYONE. 2MD players should KNOW their subject, that's why they picked it.

My vote for hardest five grand goes to the top hats from "Beat the Clock."

Sure. That said, I know hockey better than a lot of people. That said, I would be hard pressed to remember the score of the final game of the 1993 Stanley Cup finals, the teams who played, who was in goal for each team, and who scored the game winner. And that was the sort of thing the QoGS would ask. Except often more insane.

In its early years, trying to get 200 points with Fast Money on FF is hard enough let alone getting all #1 answers from each of the questions. That to me is why a $5K win was such a comodity back then. More recently, I'll go with WBSM with the $5K elusiveness category. However, if nobody beats the Schwab this year, that may be the ultimate $5K buget saver show there.

One of the hardest $5K bonus rounds to win was probably the Big Numbers during part of the 1978-80 version of HR. Wasn't the bonus round worth $5K for part of the run, or was it $5K and an econobox?

I wouldn't call a Buick Skylark an 'econobox', but your mileage may vary.